For Love of the game

I was a proud member of a six man Football team, at Turnersville High located in central Texas, during 1943 to 1944. Our opponents were Pearl, Olglesby, Copperscove and Cranfills-Gap. We were calle

  I was a proud member of a six man Football team, at Turnersville High located in central Texas, during 1943 to 1944. Our opponents were Pearl, Olglesby, Copperscove and Cranfills-Gap. We were called the War Team.   We had few spectators due to gas rationing and scarcity of tires and in those days there were few black top roads.   Our coach Mr. Virgil Jones was also our superintendent and he truly loved the game.He was gentle good man but once his football team got on the field and the whistle was blown he turned into a tiger. He ran along the sideline shouting and leading his team. During the war years  the school buses were not used  for sport purposes much. Our coach used his car and usually found another car or two get us to our games and he would sometimes get someone to carry a few members of the pep squad. Once we got on the field we did not care if we had one or a thousand spectators. Out minds and bodies were only interested in winning the game. We had so few players we had to play offense and defense. There were no Friday night lights because we had none all our games were played Friday afternoon and the whole school was let out for our home games.  I played center and anyone was allowed to tackle. I got more pleasure out of tackling football carrier and I never missed them. We won all our games in 1944.              A few memories from so long ago.      R.S. Bates

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