In my "Football Fun" post Angie mentioned throwing the shoe on the bus and Jacqui asked for more information on incident. This is for Jacqui.
Well it goes back to my High School football days. Yes, I did play high school football. When my kids were younger I always told them I wore a tutu when I played.
That would always make them laugh (the image of me in a tutu isn't pretty - try to get that out of your mind now). In reality I wore 22 - not a tutu.
The story is quite timely because the Prime Minister of Canada just called an election. In our area last election, the Liberal Candidate was a Ted Haney. I went to High School with Ted Haney and we played football together.
We also played Jr. High Basketball together as the following picture proves.
So during that last election, every time I saw a VOTE for Ted Haney poster I would mention the "Shoe on the Bus" incident to whatever family members were with me at the time. Unfortunately Ted Haney isn't running for office this election but driving this morning look what I saw.
This supporter must have kept it from last election. It reminded me of the shoe story so I have to tell it again.
I played both ways (running back on offense and linebacker on defence) in high school - not necessarily because I was that good but because we had a small school and we didn't have lots of players. I was also the place kicker. He's the guy that kicks the football on kickoffs and also kicks converts after touchdowns and occasionally tries field goals. I played back in the day when kickers kicked with their toes - often referred to as straight on kickers. Now they kick soccer style with the side of their foot. I even had a square-toe kicking shoe.
I would play with my regular football shoes, but when I had to kick and I was already on the field someone would throw my kicking shoe onto the field and I would make the switch. In southern Alberta during football season you could have any weather. Often we would play when it was well below freezing. On one of these cold windy days it was decided that they would bring 2 school buses and have them running behind the 2 player's benches. That way if the players got too cold they could get in the bus to warm up. Not a bad idea. That was the first time and the last time I've seen that done.
I can't remember what the play was - it was either a convert or a
field goal attempt. I needed my kicking shoe and it was Ted Haney who was grabbed it to throw it out to me. Now picture in your mind - Ted is facing the football field - a very big target. He winds up to throw the shoe out underhand. With all his force he heaves the shoe. It flies through the air.....over his head... and right on top of the school bus - that was behind him.
Try this. Grab a shoe and try to throw it as far as you can underhand. My guess that even little kids can do it. See how many times the shoe ends up behind you. Now find a target behind you. Try to hit that target with the shoe - remember the target is behind you - you are looking the opposite way of the target. How many times did you hit the target? My guess is not too many bulls eyes.
After this experiment you can appreciate how much skill it took to throw a shoe and have it land on top of a bus that is behind you.
I played back in the day when they did have video cameras but they were huge things that you couldn't carry. They videotaped our games from a second story window in the school. You can see the windows in the school in the picture below.
That's me in the circle -
from this picture it looks like I played in the 50's.
As we watched the video the next week in our team meetings, the coach kept playing back the flying shoe and the next part where you see an unidentified player running across the top of the bus (in cleats), grabbing the shoe and throwing it onto the field. I wish I had that video today.
Picture Butte High School Elks 1974
In this picture I was in Grade 9 (Freshman for you Americans).
That year I actually wore 24 and not 22.
The next three years I wore tutu. I wanted to post some of the old newspaper clippings from the Lethbridge Herald but I'm not sure where those are. My favorite was the one with the headline "Takahashi Sharp - Elks Win" on the front page of the Sports section.
Those were my glory days. Its better to be a "has been" than a "never was".
(Mormon Trivia - There were 4 LDS players on the 1974 Elks. Can you guess who they are in the picture? With the exception of the first game of the season the 4 LDS players were the starting offensive backfield - They gave us the original and creative name of "The Mormon Backfield". 3 of us are currently serving as Bishops. One of the coaches is LDS and he has served as a Bishop. Can you pick him out?)
He was the charismatic young college professor who chronicled his battle with pancreatic cancer in a remarkable speech widely-known as the "Last Lecture." Unfortunately he died on July 25th at the age of 47. But that only gives his "Last Lecture" even more meaning. Check out the Diane Sawyer interview on the first link in this paragraph if you have the time.
