Backyard Football and a Chrysler

Image by jonny.hunter via Flickr

To say I had an active childhood is an understatement. I was a boy full of…. well…. I liken it to enthusiasm. When you’re a kid and you’re active then you must also be prepared for the consequences of those actions. My adventures always (almost always) started out innocent enough. Unfortunately, at times they led me to mischievousness, misadventures and a few accidents. Hey, when you’re a child life is trial and error. That’s how we learn.

When I was a child there was only one (1) and then two (2) televison channels. Personal computers didn’t exist in those “Dark Ages”, nor were there video games, cell phones, IPods or a host of anyother gadgets that keep children in the house today. We were fortunate enough to have transistor radios, but of course, they only played in mono. Not too often would we complain about being bored. Are you kidding me? We found friends, made friends and we played outside in the sun, wind, rain, sleet and snow. Nothing kept us locked up in the house, except our parents as a form of punishment.

The air was crisp on this fall day in 1967. At opposite ends of the backyard there were muddy circles where the football had been teed up countless of times. Ben Schwartzwalder was the coach of Syracuse University’s football team from 1949 until 1973 and he was idolized in our part of the country. What little boy wouldn’t want to play on Coach Ben’s team? After all, he had coached Ernie Davis, the first African American to have won the Heisman Trophy and Jim Brown and Floyd Little. I’ll tell you, as a boy you wanted to play just like these larger than life figures. 

It seemed as though it took forever to assemble enough of us to have even sided teams for our championship backyard football game. You see, every game we played was a championship. We were a tough crew of little imps. As a badge of honor we would gleefully put on our ripped, torn and soiled clothes for the big game. We looked mean to our opposing foes. Okay, the sides were picked and the ball was kicked. Let the game begin! If anybody played touch football in our neighborhood, we didn’t know them and we certainly would not have wanted any part of it. We were knock down, tackle hard, dirt in the face players. We were friends and buddies all.

It was a heck of a game with points scored and the fans going wild. At least in our immature minds that is what was happening. I do remember my side was losing by one touchdown. We needed a win! There was a pass and I went deep. “Yes, I’m a superstar and I’m going to catch that ball and score”, I said to myself. I was running across the yard at full speed. I jumped high in the air for the catch. I got it, I really did catch the football as I bounded for the touchdown with my head low and ball tightly snuggled in my arm and hand. Then it happened. I didn’t see it coming. There was a thunderous bang as I crashed and went down, falling into unconsciousness. I made the touchdown, but it was a late hit.

Our neighbor’s house had a garage at the rear of their property. They were an elderly couple and he had retired from Chrysler Corporation which meant he was given deep employee discounts on new cars. Apparently, Mr. Eckert had just picked up his brand new 1967 Chrysler New Yorker, four door sedan and was proudly driving down the driveway to his garage in the back. How was I to know our timing was off as I crossed the goal line? I severely damaged both the driver and rear driver’s side doors on our neighbor’s brand new car. I was unconscious as the neighbors frantically called my parents.

My parents and grandmaother were awash in nervous anticipation of what the doctors would find while they were examining me at the hospital. They poked me with pins and needles and that infamous little hammer to check reflexes. “Can you feel this”, the doctor would ask? “Yes”, was my reply. After their tests, the star football player was found to be okay, except for the large bump on the left side of my forehead, which remains there to this very day.

As they wheeled me out to my anxious family, the frowns and worried expressions turned to all smiles when I loudly exclaimed, “Well I guess that’s using your head”!