When Cindy and I were in high school, going to the football and basketball games was ‘the thing’ to do on a Friday and Saturday night. On fall Friday nights, the Inman Field bleachers at Lincoln High School were filled with football fans, and those who couldn’t find a seat were standing at the fence surrounding the field. As winter approached and basketball season started, Adams Coliseum, with more than 4000 seats, was often packed to the rafters with parents and fans rooting for their kids, grandkids, brothers, cousins and the neighborhood boys they had watched growing up. Some terrific athletes and competitors came through our high school in the years we attended. In ’68 and ’69 the boys’ basketball team made it to the state finals. The football teams were some of the best in the area and our friends and classmates from our graduating team of ’72 finished ranked #9 in the state. It was pretty easy to pack the stands and cheer on our team when we had great athletes playing in great games. The excitement was heart pounding at times.
My how times have changed.
The team we root for these days is where our girls and oldest granddaughter have graduated and our grandson now attends...Lafayette Jefferson High School. The football team has lost 1 game in the last 3 regular seasons with many of the players going on to attend college on football scholarships. Their football stadium is a state-of-the-art facility that draws a good crowd, but not a sellout like we were used to. The basketball team, that our grandson is a member, has won the county holiday tournament the last four years, have been the conference champions the last 2 years, has been ranked in the top 10 in the state, and again have had multiple seniors awarded scholarships to play at the college level.
The basketball arena has a capacity to seat over 7000 fans and is the 9th largest high school arena in the world. Let me say that again…in the world. But fan attendance at basketball games is different from our day. In the years that Cindy and I have attended games, rarely do 1000 fans show up to support the athletes there. Of course this year, with the pandemic and the limitations it has placed on the school, (they are allowing only 2 tickets per athlete, coach, and cheerleader), there’s maybe 100-150 in attendance. In a 7000 seat arena, the ‘lack’ of crowd noise is what is deafening.
In our days at Adams Coliseum, it was so loud at times, you could hardly talk to the person sitting next to you. Now, I could yell at someone on the other side of the arena and hear what they had to say back to me. Maybe todays’ students and adults have too many other options to choose from to take a few hours to cheer on their fellow students, family and neighbor kids. Ticket prices to a football or basketball game is less than a ticket to a movie. The monthly household TV bill will be the same at the end of the month whether watching a movie that’s been seen before, can be recorded for viewing at another time...or going to a basketball game.
Why not take a couple of hours and go support the local high school kids? And now days, it’s not just the boys playing the sports…the girls have fantastic teams too. Grab some friends and go. Don’t have any friends...go to the game and find some.
But that’s not what happens.
I’m sad by that…sad that our grandson and his teammates can’t hear the ROAR of a packed crowd cheering for them and feel the adrenalin in their system come alive as they revel in the support.
Everyone is losing in ‘this game’. The fan
support for High School sports has changed…and not for the better.
REMEMBER:
The 8 rules George Washington Carver lived by:
1. Be clean both inside and out.
2. Neither look up to the rich nor down to the poor.
3. Lose, if need be, without squealing.
4. Win without bragging.
5. Always be considerate of women, children and older people.
6. Be too brave to lie.
7. Be too generous to cheat.
8. Take your share of the world and let others take
theirs.
Be talkin’ to ya.
Dan
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