In memory of those who graduated before us...

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Comment by Tom Abbott on August 6, 2009 at 1:36am

Ah, Ricky. A gentle giant with a wonderful moral compass and a great sense of humor. He was also a very good football and baseball player. He played fullback and scored the tying touchdown one year against the Arkansas State Football champions with just seconds left in the game.

Leo Woodard broke around the left end on the previous play and ran the ball all the way down to the opponents two yard line.

The next play I called a handoff to Ricky right up the middle, but he was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, and we were a touchdown behind and the clock was running out, and Ricky said, "Give it to me again, I'll get it in." So I called the same play again, gave it to Ricky and he blasted a hole through that defensive line big enough to drive a truck through, (with the assistance of our offensive line, which included LeRoy Wise).

I had confidence in Ricky and he didn't let us down.

The next (and last) play of the game was an option roll out run (me) or pass to anyone open in the endzone for the extra point and the win.

The ball was hiked and our offensive line stuffed their defensive line, and as I rolled out to the right there wasn't a defender within five yards of me, and I looked in the endzone and there was Chuck Grant, the tight end, wide open beaming mental images to me to throw him the ball, and I did, and Chuck caught that ball and held on to it with all the strength that was in him (which was substantial), and we beat those Arkansas State champions in their own home stadium.

That was the only football game my Grandfather on my Father's side every saw me play (He lived in Fort Smith) and he and our fans got their money's worth that night.

It was a case of being down against a very good team with only seconds to play and a long way to go to turn the game around, and this group of Muskogee guys never gave up fighting and scrapping for every gain, and when we tied the game up, there was no denying us anymore.

We were going to win that game come hell or highwater, and I have never been so proud of a bunch of guys in all my life as I was in them that day.

They refused to bend or break or give up, even though the situation looked bleak and in the end they triumped.

Maybe not a huge deal in the scheme of things, but tell that to the losers who got their heads handed to them unexpectedly, because noone thought our team could compete with those guys, but they didn't know the caliber of people they were facing and it all came out during the game.

My claim to glory for this game was optioning to Leo Woodard around the left end. I got the ball from Tony Story, the center, and rolled down the line with Leo trailing outside to the left and behind me.

The opposing team had gotten wise to the fact that if they charged me, I was going to pitch the ball to the trailing back (we ran an early form of the triple option offense), so one linebacker made a beeline for me, while the outside linebacker tried to maintain a position about halfway between me and Leo so he could go after me if I tried to cut up the field and could cover Leo if I pitched instead.

I realized what the outside linebacker was doing so I changed the angle of my attack and started running directly at the outside linebacker trying to force him to make a play for me, and he bought it, and he and the inside linebacker converged on me from two sides and just before they got close enough to get their hands on me, I launched myself into a dive right between both of them, and as I passed between them they were able to grab my legs, but not my arms, and when I looked for Leo, he was right there where he should be with his eyes as big as saucers because he knew my hands were free and I was going to pitch the ball to him, and I did.

Leo was extremely fast, even though for some reason he ran flatfooted, and as I turned loose of the ball and crashed into the ground from the tackles of the two linebackers, I looked down the field and saw that Leo was open down the sid