“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
The Magic of the Early Home Game
A perspective from Phil Hawkins
When I was a student at Phillips Jr. High – circa mid-sixties – home football game Saturdays were special. My buddies and I would get up early and get down to Kenan by 8am when the soft drink vendor would choose his workers for that game. He simply pushed a gate pass through the fence and told us were to go. We were thrilled! We got our aprons, our change and waited for time to start selling. Around 8:30am or so, we would go down to the field, steal a ball from the sideline rack and throw to each other on the field! We pretended to run pass plays and engage in general tomfoolery. We thought we were so cool!
We sold until middle of the 3rd quarter, and after that we found a place to sit and watch the rest of the game. After the game ended we’d run down on the field and beg the players for souvenir helmet chin straps; they always gave us one.
Then, it was off to the stands to rummage through the stuff people left behind. Souvenir miniature footballs were prized the most. Then, it was off to Fraternity Row parties-in-progress where drunk students would give us $5 for a football! Sell 3 or 4 at different fraternities and you were RICH! Combine that with the $15 or so we made selling drinks and it was riches seldom seen! We could come away with $50 CASH! Pockets bulging!
Then, in the 9th grade we moved to selling programs, which was harder work but we made more.
Those days are, of course, gone forever, but the best part was that every home game Saturday was the same; you spent all morning getting ready, the game ALWAYS started at 1pm and ended around 4 or 4:30pm. After the game the line at the Rat threaded out the back of Amber Alley, as was the case at the Pines Restaurant, the Zoom-Zoom, and most every other decent restaurant in town. What an atmosphere that permeated the entire town; Jim Heavner on WCHL giving us the updates on games in other parts of the country, it was just the best. In those days, the students dressed to the nines, coat-and-tie, women were in heels, suits, perfume, perfect hair, makeup, the whole nine yards.
And then there was the “Intercept Man”, forever unidentified, a fan from the stands in the upper deck that had the uncanny ability to scream “Intercept, Intercept, Intercept” predicting more often than not the exact result of the play! No one ever knew who he was, but you could hear him all over that home side of Kenan every home game.
Just once I’d like to see a game start at 1pm like in the old days. Today, TV contracts dictate starting times, people selling drinks are employees, taxes deducted, paperwork, etc. You can’t run onto the field with reckless abandon like back in the day… But in the name of tradition i think the Carolina football Gods should schedule at least ONE Saturday home game with a 1pm start. You’d then see how cool a Saturday afternoon home game really was. And could be again.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
