67-0
so the williams college psychology department experiment on the mt greylock rhs football team backfield's first 2 strings and all 3 strings of the quarterback position took place in the fall of 1978, when i was a sophomore
the mt greylock j v football team played a very weird game against monument mountain high school (in stockbridge or great barrington) that season
it was my first game as starting j v qb
and that season it was also my last game as starting j v qb
we lost 67 to 0
i started as j v quarterback because david, the second string qb, got sick the night before the game, and pete, the other second string qb, had broken his leg
monument mountain's starting lineup document said their starting team for this j v game were all juniors and seniors
our starting lineup were all sophomores and freshmen
it was bitter cold and snowing with freezing rain that afternoon and by the third play on offense i couldn't feel my hands
by the 3rd quarter my mind was constantly trying to figure out how to get the game over with as quickly as possible
i must have fumbled a dozen times that game
i asked the referee what was the quickest way to end the game and he said for us to forfeit, which honestly hadn't occurred to me - i was thinking like is it better to run out the clock each down then try to get a first down on 4th down ? etc...
i was pretty certain the team didn't want to forfeit
i asked the offensive team how many of them thought it was pointless to go on (like i did) when the score was over 50 to 0 and they all raised their hands except jimmy and scott so i said we had to keep playing because jimmy and scott wouldn't quit
eventually the game ended, and we - shiveringly wrapped in those huge football team ponchos - freezingly soaked to the bone - teeth clatteringly hobbled our way to the image in our minds of the warm, beckoning steam oasis of the visiting locker room like crack babies searching for their mother's breastmilk
my friend dorothy once asked me a great question when she was very sick and was about to go to the nursing home
it was the best question i have ever heard anyone ask:
'what was the happiest time of your life ?'
that hour long hot shower in the monument mountain highschool visiting locker room was one of my top five happiest memories up there with not feeling my feet touch the ground one night walking home after talking to lynne - and the 30 seconds i had won $500 dollars by being the 10th caller to wten tampa bay's 10 before (*lesson alert:) dorothy grabbed her phone away and claimed it for herself because i had started jumping, whooping and yelling instead of remaining calm
the next two winters i would practice putting my hand in the snow until it was numb then throw a football at a tire to prepare for that ever happening again because it was a very helpless feeling for a quarterback to not be able to feel his hands
i could only get the ball to hit the tire from about 7-10 yards and it would almost tumble end over end, as if someone with a shotgun had just yelled 'pull!'
curiously, it did happen again our senior year, another bitterly cold, and snowy and freezing rainy afternoon against none other than monument mountain, after monument mountain called coach allen to ask us if we wanted to cancel the game
but we had already faced our trial by frozen fire and were eagerly awaiting our kosier league championship by beating this second best team in the league so we could get some toasty warm championship awarded letter jackets
also curiously, for some reason coach allen called a pass play that game, and it was completed, a 7 yard pass over the middle to the right side tight end, jeff (#80), that looked like the ball tumbled end over end
many of you didn't know bret's (our kicker, back up qb and safety) dad, coach thompson, who coached our championship youth football team (with bret as qb), was steve grogan's back up at kansas state, and also bret's mom had told me she had dated steve grogan, who was my hero at the time, also at kansas state
from the bleachers after that senior year football game against monument mountain, coach thompson asked me if i meant to throw the pass to jeff or was i trying to throw the pass farther down field and jeff just happened to catch it
but no, it was not serendipity
i practiced over and over to be able to complete that short pass, and knew i would not be able to throw a completion any farther downfield during that game
and now i would like to know, since the rockefeller family materlinearly originates from great barrington and stockbridge, was that j v game part of the williams college psychology department's experiment ?
'mike' was our backup kicker and outside linebacker
songs in the key of lynne
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