Mil's Place: "THE BOYS OF FALL"

CLOVIS WILDCATS

"FUN DAYS, NEVER TO BE RECAPTURED, BUT TO BE FOREVER REMEMBERED"

Bob Stebbins, CHS, '51

Football memories from Richard Drake, Bob Stebbins and Bobby Joe Snipes:

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Richard:

The weather in North Texas over the past two weeks has been unreal. It has been straight out of the 1950's from Clovis, New Mexico.

Temperature has been in the low ninety's and not a cloud in the sky. The color is so blue that it almost hurts your eyes because you can't stop looking at it.

Thinking back to Clovis High School, it would be time to start pre-season football practice - - a rough two weeks.

Coach Harman did not take it easy on anyone. Unlike today, there were no water breaks during practice.

One concession was one practice in the early morning and the second in late afternoon or early morning.

The first morning he had the team in shorts, T-shirts and helmets but that hardly lasted for the session. Everyone was eager so he said "Let's go put on the armor".

Everyone reported to the first workout in pretty decent condition after working all summer for Morris Stagner's dad's construction company feeding sand and gravel by hand into a concrete mixer.

Some team mates work on farms during the summer.

WE LOVED IT. IT WAS FOOTBALL.

The mind can take you back to your youth in all aspects. While remembering those good old days, I actually started to get "Butter flies" in my stomach. In adulthood that happened only when I had to make a formal presentation to a group of Two and Three Star Generals.

This past month Marcia and I turned 80 years old. I remember her and Betty in their short cheer leaders uniforms. A COUPLE OF BABES.

We do have a lot of good memories about our friends and the things we did.

The best of all was getting a rumbly stomach.

Bob and Morris, I am sure you can recall all of this.

Richard
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Bob Snipes:

Richard...a lot of memories from Wildcat Stadium and all the team. And, don't forget Brian Brock. Fun days, never to be recaptured, but to be forever remembered. Bob
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Richard: Bob, just remembered a funny one. Coach Harmon preached keeping your legs pumping when blocking an opponent He used a willow tree switch to go after our calves if he was not pleased with our efforts. One day he yelled "Stagner. Go get me a switch". there were no nearby trees so Morris came back with a short 2 x 4. The look on his face showed that he was really considering using it. I know because his wrath was aimed at me. Fortunately, he did not use it. Oh! The memory.

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Bobby Joe Snipes:

September and football just seem to signify that the fall of the year is here. The weather has been beautiful here for the last month. And the sky is truly blue with no haze, just a few white puffy clouds in the afternoon to provide some brief shade. A little cool front comes through but the next day or two we are back to the low 90s, but we are cooling down in the evenings to around 60. Yes, that is good ole eastern New Mexico. Perfect weather for Friday night football.

Most all of us guys stayed in pretty good shape because of the jobs we had. I remember the summer before our senior year, A. J. and I worked for Dad at his little ranch north of Broadview. We got up before sunup and left every morning around 6:00 and drove about 40 miles to the ranch. We spent the day ripping out a fence row. That included taking all of the barbed wires off of the fence post and rolling the wire in rolls which were about 4’ tall. And if you have never done it....you just can’t imagine how hard it is to keep the wire together. You learned to roll that wire in a back and forth motion so that it would stay together. A. J. and I wore out 2-3 pairs of leather gloves handling that barbed wire. Yea, that will sure put some strength in those arms and shoulders.

Then the post have to come out. Some of those posts had been there for 20, 30, 40 years. This fence line was over a quarter of a mile long and the dirt had piled up and accumulated from the sand storms of the dirty '30s. But Dad said to dig the post up because the could reuse them later. In those days you didn’t throw away anything. A. J. and I spent days digging post with a hand held post hole digger. Hard work.....yea, but it sure built strong arms and shoulders.

But it wasn’t all work. Our mothers packed our lunch and we were always glad when that sun stuck straight up in the sky....you see, we didn’t wear watches but we knew when it was time to eat. We would go to the wind mills, take off our shirt and throw water all over us. Oh how refreshing....cool....clear....water. We nearly always had a little breeze to turn the windmills that supplied the best drinking water known to man. Those wells were 300 feet deep and forever cool.

But there was always time for some extra curricular activity. We always seem to have a rattle snake to kill or chase the prairie dogs and try to dig them out of their holes. If it weren't that, we got the life scared out of us from a 6’ hissing bull snake. They were always in the weeds along the fence row.....we hated those things and relentlessly clubbed them to a merciless death.

Well, so much for getting in shape for football. I will never forget that morning practice on Labor day but no holiday for us. It was a typical practice, full pads, exercise, stretch those muscles, push ups....touch your nose to the grass...butts down and Coach Harmon walking up and down to see that everyone was working hard.

Then the coach said this is the last exercise before we work on plays. You get a partner and carry him on your back....20, 30 yards and then you change and he carries you back. Well.....the scramble was on! Everyone looking for a like size or some one lighter to make the tote as fair as possible. I happen to be standing by Wilbur Johnson. It seemed like instantly the matches were made and it was......just.....Wilbur and me. Now I weighed 145 pounds wringing wet and Wilbur weighed 225 (I think). He was the heaviest man on the team. Needless to say Wilbur had an easy go of it but that was the longest 30 yards I had ever run.....yes, we were the last team to cross the line and everyone cheered and laughed.

Yes, Richard, great days to never be forgotten. We had youth, energy, and knots in our gut and loved every minute of it. Couldn’t wait for that first game. Couldn’t wait to hit someone and we did what Coach Harmon said: “Drive and keep driving”.

Yeah, Richard, we are blessed to make it to that 80 mark. Now I drive down to Green Acres Park and slowly ease out of the car, grab my fishing pole and limp down to the waters edge.....I look across Main Street at the CHS football field where we made memories never to be forgotten. What a great life and I thank God for it. I stumble around the lake shore, catch a few blue gill and after about 30 minutes, its time to go home, eat a muffin and have another cup of coffee. Wow, that casting is sure hard on your shoulders so I sit in my easy chair, finish my coffee and find myself nodding off in preparation for a stroll to the back yard. God is good.

Bob