The Last Hurrah

The year is 1968. I’m 8. It’s almost August. My first baseball season has just come to an end and my friends are talking about going out for the football team. Up until that moment I had only played a little “pick up” football in the backyard with my brother or down the street at “Erskin’s Field”, an empty lot that flooded every time it rained (which was the reason a house had not been built on it) with some of the gang in the neighborhood.

Back then, school didn’t start until Labor Day, so we had a full month left in summer break. I was a rising fourth grader that was about four foot nothing and weighed less than 70 pounds. Sure, let’s play some football!

I knew nothing about football other than my dad seemed to dislike the Browns every weekend but strangely watched them every Sunday. I knew the Browns were “our team” and that’s who we wanted to win (thankfully, they did win regularly back in the 1960s). I did not know what they even called the positions. Couldn’t tell you what the difference was between offense and defense. I did not know how to line up. I did not know the rules. Probably did not even know how to keep the score or how the game was won or lost. I did not know that you had to go to practice every afternoon for several hours where these older men would yell at you and pick you up by your facemask (and dad let them get away with it!). They would run you around like crazy people and make you do a bunch of exercising. They seemed to really enjoy blowing these whistles and weren’t particularly happy when you made mistakes.

The other big mystery for this first timer was that you had to wear a lot of equipment that I had zero clues about what went where except for the helmet. Even I could figure that one out. However, the rest was a mystery.

First, we had shoulder pads. They obviously went on your shoulders, but which side was the front, and which was the back? Secondly, we had hip pads. These were placed in a weird looking pair of shorts/underwear that had pockets where you put two hip pads in and a tailbone pad. The trick was to put the right hip pad on the right side and the left hip pad on the left side and never put the tail pad in the front! You not only looked like a goof if you made this blunder, but it hurt your “sensitive special parts.” The upside is you only made that mistake ONCE.

Moving on down the body, you then had football pants that had pockets for thigh pads and knee pads that were curved to fit snuggly, but I can’t tell you how many of us had the curve facing outward a few times before we got with the program. For yours truly, I was so small that my thigh pads were covering my knees and my knee pads were covering my shins.

We also had to go to the sporting goods store and buy a mouthguard to protect our teeth. They were made from moldable plastic and to get this to fit properly you had to boil water and then stick it in it until it got soft and then stick it into your mouth and hold it for 30 seconds or so until it form fitted around your teeth and gums. While in the sporting goods store you also had to pick up some cleats that were designed just for football, some athletic socks and a jersey or two that would fit over the shoulder pads. After I put that on, I looked like I was being forced to enter the space program. How was I expected to be able to move around in all this stuff? The coaches gave us all a bag to carry the stuff around in and what do you know, I’m a football player!

In my opinion, football is a constant struggle to get better. We practiced for 5 days so that we could play one game. The games were GREAT, but practice, eh, not so much. You knew you had to do it, but for an eight-year-old stud linebacker (snicker) practice was tedious and challenging. You had to learn plays; you had to hit, block and tackle a lot. As I got older and looked back, I was amazed at what our coaches were able to pull off. I played every year from eight-years-old until I graduated from high school at seventeen. Pulling us all together each year was truly a miracle but especially when we first started because we knew zip about what we were doing.

I was cleaning out a closet in my home office recently and I came across a program for the Ellet Pee-Wee football program from 1968 and started going through it. I am sure glad I have kept that through all these years. It is a genuine gold mine of treasured memories. As August of 2025 approaches this week and the start of another football season approaches rapidly (thank God!) it got me thinking about how rewarding it was to have gone through all of that, and I was feeling blessed to have been able to do it.

I believe sports in general are good things to do and that there are many life lessons you gain by participating like working as a team, sticking stuff out in good and bad times, learning to win and lose, making goals and hitting them, practicing or putting in the work to get better at something, dealing with a dream dying, celebrating when dreams come true, etc. Overall, enduring a struggle, dealing with stress, looking at something dangerous right in the face. Adjusting when things didn’t turn out like you thought they were going to and learning to see that maybe the best part wasn’t the winning or losing but the benefits that come from taking the ride.

Much like all the equipment I/we had to put on to play football I learned throughout my life that I also needed to put on the Armor of God to be able to compete successfully in life. The following describes the Armor of God in Ephesians 6:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

This passage to me is not really about the different pieces of armor that was required for battle with the world but more about living in Godly character. I/we can get caught up in the different pieces of armor just like the various pieces of football equipment but what really is the goal is to be prepared for the fight and struggles ahead.

Today’s blog is about some good-looking guy’s Last Hurrah after ten years of playing football with a chance many years later to look back and see how that fit into his life. I appreciate your time to peek at this, and I hope you enjoy it. I promise this will not be a story of my Glory Days (cue Bruce Springsteen).

But First…A Joke:

A village blacksmith hired an apprentice. The blacksmith told the boy, “When I take the horseshoe out of the fire, I’ll lay it on this anvil. And when I nod my head, you hit it with this hammer.” The apprentice did just as he was told. And that’s how HE became the village blacksmith.

Bonus Dad Joke:

Q: What do you call a man with no shins?

A: Toe-knee

A Verse to Contemplate:

So then, we must pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another - Romans 14:19

Have I Told You This One?

Since that first year of playing football in 1968, I played every year until I graduated high school in 1978. I wanted to keep playing but that call from Woody Hayes at Ohio State never quite made it through somehow.

In my final season of playing, our team was a disappointing 1-6-1 going into the final game against Akron North at the Akron Rubber Bowl. I remember having some difficulty believing that the season was coming to an end as was my opportunity to do this anymore with all these guys. This was going to be the swan song for most of us. A few would get a shot to play some college ball but for most of us the dream was dying, and it was time to start thinking about what’s next.

I remember that Friday night to be very exciting. The team was really fired up, especially for a team with such a humble record as ours was. We were going out playing under the lights on an astroturf field in the biggest place we had ever played. I was one of the captains of the team and I felt good about the guys going into this finale. We were the second game of the doubleheader, and the first game ran long, and we were over ready to get going. When we finally got to play, we put the best game of our year together. It went down to the final play. In the final minutes we drove the ball down the field and scored with just a small amount of time to go. We were one point down and Coach calls time out and comes out to the huddle and asks us if we want to go for two and the win or if we want to kick the extra point and end in a tie. It took less than a second to decide that we were going for the win. The coach smiles and heads back to the sideline.

We ran plays in through the guards of which I was one on offense. A nod to Paul Brown who did the same thing at Ohio State and with the Cleveland Browns. So here it is, the last play I will ever play and what happens, Coach sends in a guard to replace ME with the play. He comes in, gives the play to our quarterback and tells me that I need to go to the sideline. I looked at him and tell him that I’m not going anywhere. This kid was a junior and had another year. This was it for me, so I suggested quite directly that he head on back. The Coach starts going nuts, but I do not care, I’m staying.

The play was a sweep to the right side (my side). We had the best backs in the city that year, so I thought this was going to work. All we had to do was to block down and our halfback would be one on one with their safety. who was a future college and pro player in his own right. Our best against their best. Just like in the movies!

We come up to the line, the quarterback barks out the signals, the ball is snapped, and everything goes exactly as planned but this safety makes an amazing play and goes low and trips up our running back and stops him inches short. Just like that it is over. All those hours of practice, all the training, running, sacrifice and we fall just short and lose by one. In the big scheme of life, it is not significant to many. But to us it was a tough blow.

Looking back at all these years later I think it taught me early on that life’s greatest blessings come BECAUSE of our struggles. If we are looking to avoid stress and struggle and believe that it will give us peace, we are aiming at the wrong target. As a Christian, I want my life to glorify Christ. When I look at His life, it was full of struggle, and He overcame it all. In fact, there are precious few times in anyone’s life that it is struggle free. So, how do I/we ever find peace? John 16:33 says the following:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

When I/we struggle to find peace, I/we seem to want to just fix it, but He requires discipline to His plan for our lives. He’s thinking eternally, I/we are thinking currently. Not too many enjoy being disciplined. Discipline is painful but it leads us to holiness. To rejoice in discipline means I recognize that I am His and agree that He has a plan for me.

Hebrews 12:1-13 reminds us that even though we think things are hard they do not compare to what He has been through to find peace, namely, we haven’t shed our own blood yet for our faith like He did.

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. 12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Let me close with this. I think you would agree with me that if I/we know how something is going to end I/we get there differently than when I/we don’t know how it’s going to end. Life is full of a lot of struggles, disappointments and a desire to find peace. I need the discipline to reach the goals I wanted to achieve. I have no idea how things are going to end up, but He does. I need to recognize that in the pain of life I am being shaped just how He wants me to be in the end. The struggles and discipline are His way. His ways are not my ways.

Thanks for your time and for going on a little journey back to the Last Hurrah. I want to be moving forward but once in a while it is good to look back to see where we’ve been and enjoy the blessing of this wonderful life we get to live out.

A Prayer:

Lord, grant me a heart at pure peace, anchored in your love and truth. Help me surrender my worries, fears and overthinking to you so that I can rest completely in your presence. May your peace guard my heart and mind and lead me on the path of total peace within myself and righteousness in your eyes. In you, I find true peace. Amen.

Book Recommendation:

Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller (2009)

Music Recommendation:

Dark Matter by IQ (2004)

Quote of the Day:

“Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.” - Bill Murray

Cool Place to Visit:

Albuquerque, New Mexico