Heroes

I have had lots of heroes over the years, but it hard to top my first ones.
I'm sure you recognize all of them:

Leland Helms

Richard Foard

Richard Tiddy

When I first saw them, I couldn't believe what "big shoulders" they had. Mr. Weller, who had taken Jimmy and me to our first ever football game explained that those big shoulders were really "shoulder pads" underneath their blue jerseys for protection, because football was a rough, contact sport.

The boys in the blue jerseys beat the boys in the green jerseys who limped back to Gastonia in defeat probably not even aware that they had just been a part of a game that at least one old man would still be writing about some 70 years later.

Thanks to the Internet I finally discovered these pictures from their Central High "Snips and Cuts" annual of 1947,  I must admit I was surprised at the way they looked in real life. I had imagined them all looking like a combination of Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun and General Patton.

But, darn it, they looked like......high school kids.

But that probably was due to those old fashioned cameras they were using back in 1946. And the printing presses weren't as good as more modern ones either, because I noticed a lot of errors. For example, that unbeatable team of magnificent warriors was only given credit for winning about half their games!

Harumphhhhh..........

But, I know how great they really were!

Because I was THERE!

-Ed

Dick Tiddy

Richard Foard