The Worst Football Team Ever

By David Dexter

This is about the football-playing members of the two schools who, although playing in the same game, turned out entirely different from each other and from the supposed mission of high school sports. The coaches of the two squads were severe, but one of the coaches of the losers found some humor in this grab bag of players he had inherited.

The book traces the happenings on the gridiron of a small school football team that cannot win a game. Their winless situation is created by lack of size, leadership, and talent. There is a rough side to the treatment parceled out by the two coaches methods, and at least in one case, there is some humor involved.

The quarterback of the losing team was the books author, who had an insiders look at the game as his dad was the teams former coach. The author spices up the story by exploring sensitive topics, including interracial dating, teen smoking and drinking, and premarital sex, not to mention the woman beating, which led to a campus murder.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984548610

David Dexter

The author grew up in a small -town, rural setting in the 1940s and fifties. The family hailed from an athletic background. His dad was a coach as was his uncle. The author, himself, participated in basketball, football and baseball. He did not set himself apart from his peers in any of these. He was a teacher by profession, primarily science at all levels. His interests included working in a hands-on setting with primary and middle school students. The author taught for nearly a half century, with stops in five states including an Ivy League School and a school for Native Americans. He enjoyed them all. So much so, that he penned two other books on humor and sports in the classroom..

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Copyright © 2018 by David Dexter.

Library of Congress Control Number:         2018910004

ISBN:               Hardcover                978-1-9845-4863-4

                          Softcover                  978-1-9845-4862-7

                          eBook                        978-1-9845-4861-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 09/05/2018

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Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 History

Chapter 2 A Practice Game

Chapter 3 Game Day

Chapter 4 Conference Season Begins

Chapter 5 Our First Class A Score

Chapter 6 Road Games

Chapter 7 Mud Bowl—A Game In The Rain

Chapter 8 Revenge And Trick Plays

Chapter 9 An Injury And Character Building

Chapter 10 Murder And Social Action

Chapter 11 Plays That Often Worked

Chapter 12 Plays That Almost Never Worked

Chapter 13 Perfect Season In Jeopardy?

Chapter 14 Almost But Not Quite

Chapter 15 End-Of-Season Bash

Chapter 16 We’ll Get ’Em Next Year

Chapter 17 Snuggling

Chapter 18 Summary And More About

The University Murder

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

PREFACE

Why Me?

Why should I be the one to point out the deficiencies of a high school football team that played sixty years ago? After all, the school is hardly a dot on a large piece of newsprint. Besides, the book will anger some folks. I wasn’t the most popular of personalities at the school; I was sort of an outsider looking in. My dad was a junior high school administrator and former coach. The principal’s office was a frequent target of both student and parent ire. Here, then, is my answer to that question.

I do have a small bit of writing background, much of which was garnered in my experience as a professor and administrator where I was charged with the responsibility of preparing annual reports, preparing numerous grants, and editing frequent editions of newsletters. More recently, I have authored two books, neither of which came anywhere close to winning any awards but were published, nevertheless. Being the quarterback on this pitiful team gave me an insider’s look at the team, and the various intricacies that occurred between the personalities of the boys also gave me more communication opportunities with the coach than some of the other boys who played other positions. So the authorship position was mine. No big deal.

INTRODUCTION

The absolute worst eleven-man football team that I ever saw, or even heard about, was the Hot Dog High School Fighting Hush Puppies of 1956. The school enrolls approximately 350 students, grades 9–12, slightly less than half of whom are of Native American ancestry. Some of the male natives play football. A higher percentage of these young men play basketball rather than football; some play both sports. Like their white counterparts at the school, the young Indian boys have had greater success in basketball than in football. Many Native American and white kids enrolled in high school come from homes that make their living ranching or farming. In some instances, the high school–aged boys are not allowed to participate in after-school sports so that they can help the family with its agricultural responsibilities.

Some of the school’s students are neither Native American nor living in farms but rather live in town—the so-called city slickers. They made up the majority of the students that tried out for the football team in 1956.

I am not trying to make excuses here for the team; I am only being realistic in terms of low player turnout at the start of fall practice. Other schools may have similar problems and other issues that affect football enrollment—for example, injuries that crop up during the season, students facing some disciplinary action or sickness, or students transferring in or out of the school.

CHAPTER 1

History

I do not distinguish between the terms Indian and Native American. The latter term was not in vogue in 1956, and many members of the area tribes agree that neither term is historically correct. The book is based on fact; however, to avoid embarrassment for persons still living, or for their relatives, I have modified or changed all the names in the story, but I stand as the person who made the change. This is my story, and I am sticking to it. I know as much about this team and its misfortunes as anyone, for I was the quarterback of that ignominious group of young men. I was, in a way, their leader—such as it was.

To some folks who are still alive and/or have very long memories, the title of the book may be a bit confusing in that it implies that our team did not win a single game. There is a small fly in the ointment here. The team did win its very first game and even managed to score three touchdowns. The problem is that the game was a nonconference affair against a school that was playing its very first game of eleven-man football, ever. The game, although sanctioned by the State Board of Control, had to be stopped on several occasions to explain a rule or to show a player where to stand. The game did not count as a conference game for either team.

The no-win moniker of the 1956 football team refers exclusively to the team’s games with class A Little Ten opponents. With that small contradiction out of the way, let’s swing right into the 1956 edition of the Hot Dog High School Fighting Hush Puppies football season.

Change came fast for Hot Dog High School. Slightly more than a year previously, the school classification was changed from class B to class A. This change had several ramifications, one of which meant a whole new litany of athletic opponents. The school had been class B for as long as anyone could remember. Their teams had won several state division football championships in the 1940s and early 1950s, plus they captured two state titles in basketball and played for a third. Now this.

We would be the smallest class A school in the state. We would have to travel over three hundred miles for some of our games. Not only that, both the football and basketball teams were coming off mediocre years won-lostwise. In other words, many of the better players had graduated. A bit of respect did come in the 1955–56 seasons as the football team managed a win and the basketball team also won a couple of games.

The trials and tribulations of the 1956–57 basketball team is recounted in a previous book and takes place on an Indian reservation and carries the reader through the team’s basketball season and state tournament. The author also makes the case that the team’s hero, Leonard Pretty Bird, helped unite the two cultures (Indian and white). An increase in Native American students at the high school, the election of several Indians to county offices, and the movement of Native Americans into the city itself