Interesting things that happened on the football field?

Yappi

Yappi

Go Buckeyes
I know we have alot of former players and current parents. Post some stories about something interesting that happened on the football field outside of the regular plays we normally discuss.
 
 
I'll start with one from back in the mid 80s. Tallmadge was playing at Ravenna. The game was lopsided in Ravenna's favor and the officiating seemed to be favoring the home team. Tallmadge had been called for a few penalties in a short period of time. After another offensive penalty, the Blue Devils RB saw the officials huddling and decided he would make it harder for at least one official to throw any more flags. He bent over to pick up the flag, turned around to see that the officials weren't looking, and then stuffed it into his pants. The officials were genuinely bewildered on where the flag had gone.

I talked to the RB a few years ago and he still had the flag as a memento from his playing days.
 
From the early 60’s,the teams will go unnamed. The captain of team A had a girlfriend break up over the summer. The captain of team B starts calling her and soon they are dating and this of course makes many players on team A unhappy and of course the two teams meet in the first game of the season and there will be many chances for the two players to go head. Early 2 Quarter the guys from team A get their chance a double team team play is called and they wipe the guy from team B out. The play is illegal now but they took him out for the season. The game was a lot meaner and tougher fifty years ago.
 


https://twitter.com/x/status/1740147264025440669

Game was delayed as the helicopter was delivering the game ball. A previous time, a game was delayed so a MedEVAC could pick up a fan in the stands to be airlifted to a hospital. And what's weird about THAT was that it was the SECOND TIME the MedEVAC delayed the SAME GAME.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1386031013860712448

Though, to be fair, those helicopters landed on a grass field just beyond the endzone of the stadium and not on the field itself.


Possibly the best National Anthem colors presentation:






And the best halftime show I've seen:



Canton's famous Attack Dogs (in Kansas).
 
No pictures but back in the late 60's early 70's, Mogadore played Pennisula Woodridge in the " blimp bowl"!. You'd think the football would have been dropped by Goodyear blimp, but no it was dropped by helicopter!! Somewhere there's probably a football but schools no longer play. Mogadore dominated the series so the football may have been another casualty of the Mogadore Fieldhouse house.
 
Back in mid 80's, I was visiting my cousin in Harrisburg PA. We went to watch his younger brother play on a Friday night. Soon after the second half kickoff, a deer ran onto the field. The deer was hobbling around on a very mangled front leg and collapsed around midfield. After tending to the deer a few minutes, the teams huddled around it to block the spectators view and a policeman at the game shot the deer to put it out of its misery. A cart came out and removed the deer and the game continued. The stadium went from near capacity to half full. Just a bizarre scene.
 
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Gbulldog said:
Back in mid 80's, I was visiting my cousin in Harrisburg PA. We went to watch his younger brother play on a Friday night. Soon after the second half kickoff, a deer ran onto the field. The deer was hobbling around on a very mangled front leg and collapsed around midfield. After tending to the deer a few minutes, the teams huddled around it to block the spectators few and a policeman at the game shot the deer to put it out of its misery. A cart came out and removed the deer and the game continued. The stadium went from near capacity to half full. Just a bizarre scene.
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You win.
 
Gbulldog said:
Back in mid 80's, I was visiting my cousin in Harrisburg PA. We went to watch his younger brother play on a Friday night. Soon after the second half kickoff, a deer ran onto the field. The deer was hobbling around on a very mangled front leg and collapsed around midfield. After tending to the deer a few minutes, the teams huddled around it to block the spectators view and a policeman at the game shot the deer to put it out of its misery. A cart came out and removed the deer and the game continued. The stadium went from near capacity to half full. Just a bizarre scene.
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I was going to say I've never seen a deer on the field. Only on the other side of the fence from the field. And when walking out the gate from a game this year there were a small herd that were in the fence surrounding the school but separated from the parking lot and access driveway to the road.
 
I'm not sure if they still do it but in Pittsburgh, PA wpxi had Friday Night Skylights where they'd fly a helicopter around to all the games to get an aerial shot and then use it for the segue between games during the highlight show in the news broadcast. Was always a big deal if your game was one of the ones that got the fly over.

Any Ohio stations do something like this as a regular thing? Youngstown obviously didn't but never got any major city TV channels in Ohio growing up to know. Curious.
 
Sykotyk said:
I'm not sure if they still do it but in Pittsburgh, PA wpxi had Friday Night Skylights where they'd fly a helicopter around to all the games to get an aerial shot and then use it for the segue between games during the highlight show in the news broadcast. Was always a big deal if your game was one of the ones that got the fly over.

Any Ohio stations do something like this as a regular thing? Youngstown obviously didn't but never got any major city TV channels in Ohio growing up to know. Curious.
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I was at a Cardinal Mooney-Cleveland Benedictine game at Bedford HS when a Cleveland TV station did it. They also landed the copter outside the visitors stands right behind us.
 
It was one of the years we played at Eaton, at their old field that was more in town, we were walking in on the north side of the field passing a couple locals backyards who were tailgating. We were offered as much food and beer as we wanted to go back there instead of playing. I think the exact quote was "I know how much you Mercer County boys like your beer, we have plenty just come on back and forget about the game." It was a tempting offer, if I recall correct the high that day was in the upper 90's and was still near 90 after sundown, the keg was on ice and in the shade. Eatons old field didn't have locker rooms either so were posted up out in right field of the baseball diamond.
 
Sykotyk said:
I'm not sure if they still do it but in Pittsburgh, PA wpxi had Friday Night Skylights where they'd fly a helicopter around to all the games to get an aerial shot and then use it for the segue between games during the highlight show in the news broadcast. Was always a big deal if your game was one of the ones that got the fly over.

Any Ohio stations do something like this as a regular thing? Youngstown obviously didn't but never got any major city TV channels in Ohio growing up to know. Curious.
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WJW SkyFox has been doing it since 1997. I've probably said this before, but it would have been nice to hover in on places like Ashtabula County.
 
Sykotyk said:
I'm not sure if they still do it but in Pittsburgh, PA wpxi had Friday Night Skylights where they'd fly a helicopter around to all the games to get an aerial shot and then use it for the segue between games during the highlight show in the news broadcast. Was always a big deal if your game was one of the ones that got the fly over.

Any Ohio stations do something like this as a regular thing? Youngstown obviously didn't but never got any major city TV channels in Ohio growing up to know. Curious.
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As mentioned, WJW/Fox 8 Cleveland does this. When I was at St. Edward/Massillon in ‘22, the helicopter was there and from the home side it had a fantastic approach to witness. 🤌
 
I was coaching at Fort Knox High school in KY around 2008-2010. There are two Army installations in the state in Ft Knox and Ft Campbell. They both have on-base school systems for those families that live there. Ft Knox, at the time, was the calvary training post(Tanks and Armored personnel carriers) and Ft Campbell is the home of the 101st Airborne. We played every year in what was called the Army Bowl and was shown on Army bases all over the world. One of the coolest parts of the game was how the game ball was delivered depending on what base we played at. When at Ft Know they would ride an APC out to mid field and when at Ft Campbell the 101st Screamin' Eagles would parachute in with the game ball to mid-field. Wish I had pictures of it but that was before cell phones with cameras being everywhere.
Here is a team pic of the kids on a tank and a link to a Youtube video of our 1st round playoff game in 2010 when we had a news station do a story on two of our players dad who was being deployed to Afghanistan the Saturday after the game. Spoiler alert we upset the 1 seed Glasgow that night. Only a 5 min video)
Fort Knox photo.png


 
Suthin' Ahia, circa mid 1970's. One of my teammates was bitten on the calf by an opposing player while they were tangled up at the bottom of a massive goal-line pile.

For the rest of our high school years, the other team was referred to as the "Biting Tigers". Name withheld to protect the guilty (it wasn't Ironton, before the Lawrence County contingent gets up in arms. 🙃
 
BigPSH said:
It was one of the years we played at Eaton, at their old field that was more in town, we were walking in on the north side of the field passing a couple locals backyards who were tailgating. We were offered as much food and beer as we wanted to go back there instead of playing. I think the exact quote was "I know how much you Mercer County boys like your beer, we have plenty just come on back and forget about the game." It was a tempting offer, if I recall correct the high that day was in the upper 90's and was still near 90 after sundown, the keg was on ice and in the shade. Eatons old field didn't have locker rooms either so were posted up out in right field of the baseball diamond.
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Park Ave field in Eaton was the worst place to play. The visitors side was ridiculously tight, like 6 feet from out-of-bounds line to stands, and all your Water jugs, etc... on the first row of stands. Literally car head lights shined into your sideline and honk horns as the road was inches behind the visitor stands. There were no locker rooms. So glad when they built the new stadium in 2013.
This is what the field looked like in May 2009.
Eaton Park Ave Field 2009.png
 
In the 90's I was at a game late in the season where it was dark during warm ups. The lights went off and spooked the mascot horse, which got away from the handlers and made it's all the way down the middle of the field and back before handlers got it back.
 
In the early 70’s I was officiating usually in the umpires position but I did not have a regular crew,just a fill-in for guys that were out. One Friday we were at a small school when the lights on one side went out. The AD got some working and then we just had the cars and trucks on that side of the field turn on their lights. It was better lit than the original light system.
 
Gbulldog said:
Back in mid 80's, I was visiting my cousin in Harrisburg PA. We went to watch his younger brother play on a Friday night. Soon after the second half kickoff, a deer ran onto the field. The deer was hobbling around on a very mangled front leg and collapsed around midfield. After tending to the deer a few minutes, the teams huddled around it to block the spectators view and a policeman at the game shot the deer to put it out of its misery. A cart came out and removed the deer and the game continued. The stadium went from near capacity to half full. Just a bizarre scene.
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I was waiting for

"...and after the game there was a BBQ."
 
I went to a scrimmage in 1997/1998 where the home team (I won't say who) had a set of woods that ended 10-15 feet behind their endzone, but had tree branches dangling out over the field higher up. The visiting team (I can't remember who they were) threw a pass into the back corner of that endzone that hit some of those branches, fell through them, and landed in the receiver's hands. The officials looked at each other, probably reminded themselves it was a scrimmage, and signaled "touchdown".

Those branches were subsequently trimmed back for the first game of the season, lol.
 
thePITman said:
The referees made a call that a player reached the line to gain on 4th down. The coach for the team on defense grabbed an iPad, went onto the field, and showed the referees video, and they changed their call.
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I'm pretty sure that should get the coach thrown out of the game now
 
Somewhere around 1918-1920, Bellevue and Lorain were playing at Bellevue, around 4,000 in attendance. Lorain was the perennial power in the Little Big League and Bellevue was always an underdog due to their size. The game is incredibly close and a total dog fight. Bellevue ends up breaking a huge run down the sidelines so the Lorain fans run out onto the field and tackle him so he can't score. Incensed by the situation, Bellevue contacts Walter Camp after the game, the founder of modern football. Camp declares that the play should be a touchdown given due to the interference from the fans and Bellevue is now the winner. This gives Bellevue their first big win over Lorain and allows Fremont Ross to win their first Little Big League title.

Bill Oddo's book has many oddity's that occurred on the football field for Bellevue Redmen games. If I find a copy I'll post more on here. One that I remember is that in a game during the 1950's a player was on their way out of pounds and ended up going through the center of a large bass drum like in the movies.
 
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