Teachers that made a difference: Bud Theodocion - Update Oct 2016 | Eastern NC Now
A revisit to the old practice field illustrates how our memory will exaggerate our history.
We had to cross Euclid Avenue to get the practice field. Next to the practice field was the Recreation Center on top of a hill. If a player screwed up during practice, he was sent to the hill to run laps up and down the hill. The same punishment was true if we were practicing in the gym except the punishment was to hit the steps up and down inside the gym. My memory of that dreaded hill was that it was long and steep. The current view from the field level looking a the Rec Center does not look as intimidating as it did in 1959. To reassure my self I took a few pictures from the Rec Center looking down at the hill. It did satisfy my memory about the steep part, but I was still confused about how long the hill was. If I apply the "AGE-ADJUSTMENT" factor to the hill it pretty much is as I remember it. Don't forget that a 14 year old has much better stamina than a 71 year old. After taking that in to consideration I decided that I will continue to tell the story in verbal recollections as being long and steep. But in the written word where you can't waffle about the facts I felt the need to update and correct the story.
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Stan, that injury may have been one of those God Winks that I have written about. But I will be willing to bet you that there are a few people in Beaufort County that swear you played without a helmet or face mask, but that would just be a guess.
beaufortcountynow.com |
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That is close to my helmet, or, maybe, that is my helmet Junior Year, before a badly torn ACL ended my once-promising hopes and dreams.
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I am not surprised that a former football player would notice the face-masks. If you look closely, the last row second from left is Benny Cox who had a broken nose as result of no face mask. You can barely see the band-aid on his nose. Below is a blow up of that picture and the cage mask that with a vertical bar he wore for the balance of his high school career. He was a great running back sadly passed away in 2010. He was quite the celebrity with his "boxer's nose" during his senior year.
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No face-mast for so many players. When I played 9 years later, I not only had a double horizontal bar, but a vertical bar too.
They gave me the extra vertical bar since I had to double up as middle linebacker on defense. No platooning for about 6 of us on our team. I was on the field on every play except kickoffs (defending) and punts (both defending and receiving). |
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In the interest of complete disclosure, here is a picture of the Varsity Squad from the yearbook. I was on the "B" and am not in the picture. Of course for every tall tale there is the other side of the story. The "HILL" is behind this team shot showing that it in actuality just a steep hill and not the ½ mile that I alluded to in the article. I may have to update the print version of this article, but the bar room version will remained unchanged.
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First, I love this series and the way you present it.
Second, even if Georgia is many hundreds of miles away from eastern NC, I got a huge wave of nostalgia for my high school football days. |
I probably had two concussions from football. We led with our helmets in those days on many tackles. It was rough back then. The crack-back blocks were murderous on my knees.
The only "God Wink" could be that I started smoking a bunch of pot my Senior Year, and continued down that terrible path, which grew much worse, until I was about 20 years old, and then I made an abrupt turn around, and got a whole lot less stupid real fast.
Now, I despise narcotics, and believe that even pot can be inherently evil. Regardless, it can make users incredibly stupid, and measurably so.
I don't drink much either, and have never smoked cigarettes.
My greatest bad habit is that I refuse to sleep enough. I feel like I might miss out on something, I reckon.
If I live long enough, I hope to make God proud. Often, I try really hard.