Blast From the Past

Someone uncovered film from my high school football team’s 1975 state championship season. You gotta be on Facebook to see it. An early-season game against Butler at old Porter Stadium in Macon. That’s me at the 8:40 mark kicking the extra point. Also at 14:00 and 17:25. 

Late in the game Johnny Crawford's punt gets a good roll, and you can see me (#21) on the sideline (20:20). This was one of the few games when I didn’t handle kickoffs. Too bad its so blurry. That year I spatted my black cleats, taping over the laces as well as the back of the heels. Not sure if I was wearing long white sleeves or taped forearms like Fred Biletnikoff (or both).

https://www.facebook.com/100000171156220/videos/4378563718825957/

Those days in high school and college would be fun to relive. My high school football team wore old helmets in practice, and newer air helmets in games. At one point my junior year a team manager found an old single bar suspension helmets in the back of the equipment room. Fit me perfectly. I wore it as my practice helmet after that. By then (1975) no one in high school wore single bars any more. Had I wore it in a game I’m sure an opponent would’ve taken a shot at my teeth. Loved that helmet. Should’ve kept it.

Busy Monday. Was stuck at the office from before 8 am past 5:50 pm. Then straight to small group, where I met with Rob and Ron. We finished early, then had a good discussion on racism from Ron’s viewpoint (he’s Chinese). Then home. After C went to bed I watched two Seinfeld episodes, including the one where 21 year old Denise Richards played NBC president Russell Dalrymple’s 15 year old daughter.

Twenty years ago when their kids were young, Ron and his wife had been going to a Chinese church over in Lawrenceville. They were at a service but due to the crowd hadn’t been able to sit together, After the sermon Ron was led by God to come down from his seat in the balcony to accept Christ. When he arrived at the front his wife was there doing the same thing. They both got baptized on their tenth wedding anniversary.

Ron’s story reminded me that I was baptized on an Easter Sunday, in 1975. While I had grown up attending church, the pastor at Northside Christian Church game to our house and shared the gospel, of our need to accept Jesus as Savior. I count that Easter as when I became a Christian, though it was at the GT BSU and SPdL where I really first grew in the Lord.

MEL OTT  [SABR Bio] was a one-time Detroit Tiger announcer. He is tied with Ty Cobb for the shortest combined first-and-last names of any HOFer. Ott became the first player-manager to be ejected from both ends of a doubleheader. From 1924 to 1946 in the NL and from 1907 to 1952 in the AL, if a player or manager was ejected from the first game of a double header, they were automatically ejected from the second as well.  After that rule was lifted in the NL, New York Giants player-manager Mel Ott got himself separately tossed twice on 9-June-1946(1) & 9-June-1946(2). Bill James once called him the best player since the Baseball Writers launched their MVP Award in 1931 who never won the award. Source: The New Bill James Historical Abstract (2001)

Upbeat Denison column today: author Glenn T. Stanton notes, church attendance is at an all-time high, both in raw numbers and as a percentage of the population. Sociologist Rodney Stark reports the percentage of Americans who attend a local church has grown from 17% in 1776 to 69% today. Scholar Byron Johnson adds “theologically conservative denominations (evangelical churches, Pentecostal churches, and especially non-denominational churches) are not in decline but are alive and well.”

https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/three-stories-of-good-news-for-the-church-in-the-culture-the-best-way-to-observe-silent-wednesday/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=118841635&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_MzaE5FxEoW-CdXKXbqx9-g5Phe5BWNsbEuybqFwqwg4pq2O-RCAUlSrA-6PJpRPg_Kwhs7G1397-rkJlpgwXxbvIUkw&utm_content=118841635&utm_source=hs_email

Tried to monitor email yesterday and last night, but this morning I had over 200 new emails. Down to about 20 right now. Last day of the month. Got a ton of work to do.

W&MC's Sequoia had a flat tire today, and the spare was flat. But still kicking after 354,000 miles.