Football in the family
Posted by Leah Hemenway on Sep 28th, 2007
Is there a football gene? I look at my sons and think about it. It started over 20 years ago. Zack and Arna both loved the game “knock down” from the time they were about one. This game involved larger and stronger people as the targets. I was the first target and the game was to knock me over from a running start. Later I retired and Bob became the target. Occasionally one of our babysitters would play the game. It wasn’t just knock down. Zack and Arna wrestled with each other and friends. They tackled and chased other guys and spent many hours knocking each other down. I spent many hours catching and throwing footballs until Zack and Arna threw too hard for me. We went through many, many sizes, styles, and materials. We had indoor and outdoor footballs of all kinds..
Maybe it is because we have always lived near or on a university campus. You hear the band and you wake up on crisp, fall day and you can just smell football. In Kentucky we lived so close to the football practice field that you could hear the coach talking to his players. We looked forward to Saturdays and the walk to the stadium. We had a system when Zack and Arna were little. They went to football games at Kentucky and Oklahoma as soon as they could walk. They stayed as long as they wanted, usually at least until halftime when we either did a hand-off at the gate or just walked our young fan home. By three, Zack and Arna did not want to leave the game until it was over.
Football games meant several things. Both Zack and Arna ate through everything the stands offered. They ate hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, dots ice cream, candy bars, and popcorn. For three hours they ate and learned the game. My husband Bob patiently explained every play. This was my way of learning the game too. The football programs usually landed on the toy shelf at home where the preschoolers turned to the ref signs and studied them. The programs became part of our nightly reading.
I can remember Zack looking up from his cereal in the morning.
“Dad, read the sports page. How did the other teams in the SEC/Great 8 do?”
As years went on, Zack and then Arna looked forward to the spring game and media day, the first day the players and the coach have a press conference. We always went to the open practice. Then there were constant discussions of potential quarterbacks, recruits, kickers, and various players. The boys were constantly learning every aspect of the game.
Zack would study the media guide, the newspaper, and the programs. He did not know how to read, but he could read stats. He learned the stats on the Oklahoma players. The highlight of his kindergarten career was a field trip to the football locker room. Barry Switzer asked, “Does anybody know why I’m wearing a sling?”
“One of the players ran into you on the side line at last week’s game,” Zack piped up.
Then in the locker room Zack walked up to players, “Hey you’re 19 Bob Smith and you weigh 330 pounds … You’re the biggest guy on the team.”
Would other interests take over? Would Zack who played soccer ever forget his early interest in football?
Meanwhile Arna followed in the same path, and in fourth grade he joined a football team. He was in heaven. Every day except Friday we’d go to the practice field and Arna would rush over and tackle the first kid he saw. The first year he sat on the bench and watched his team beat many other teams. By the end of the season Arna said, “Mom, I want to find another team that needs me.”
For the next three years Arna played on another team where everybody played and only sat on the bench to rest. Arna never missed practice or a game. We had a pile of wool sweaters, socks, hats, and gloves. He’d look outside and say, “Hey great. Cold and muddy… I can’t wait to get them”
You might be thinking that Arna was a big kid. Nope, he just liked to tackle and bring them down. He loved his coaches and I admired them. I saw these six men come out there day after day. They took a group of 50 boys, divided them up, and took them through all the skills they needed. The coaches were fathers, uncles, sons of coaches, and just interested men. It was a labor of love and the boys responded to it.
Every Sunday we went out to the field to watch Arna’s games for three years. We never saw any kid get hurt. It was a great time. I continued to learn about football. Some years we were better than others, but it was always fun.
Meanwhile, Bob could relax and watch Kansas football with all of us. We knew the game. If our team was away, we’d watch them on TV. At halftime the yard would fill up with kids playing football. After the game, they played some more.
Somehow the football gene had taken hold. Bob who played football in elementary, high school and one year of college, had somehow gently nurtured this gene. We all talked about our players, read the sports pages, followed former teams, and focused on the Kansas Jayhawks, our team for the last twelve years.
Somehow our family life became entwined with Kansas football. We don’t just have great memories of bowl games in Hawaii, Florida, and Texas. We have some absolutely irreplaceable memories right here at home. When KU beat Nebraska, when KU beat KState, when KU beat Missouri…which is the most exciting? It’s hard to say. I looked down at the field and watched Zack and hundreds of students take down those goalposts. I prayed that they wouldn’t get hurt, but it was thrilling. Everybody was yelling and screaming. The players were jumping up and down. For years we hope and dream that our team will be special. We have our days of glory.
A friend of mine told me the other day, “We’ve lived in Lawrence for 40 years and we went to our first football game.”
“What did you think?”
“I’m not sure why everybody gets so excited about it.”
“It might be hard to explain. I think it’s knocking down, throwing the ball, knowing the ref’s signals, watching the players get better … Winning after lots of years…”
She just shook her head.
Three generations of our family take their seats at the KU game: Bob’s dad Myrle, Bob, Zack and Arna. They are surrounded by their family and friends. I think of the simple pleasure of sharing three hours or so. We watch for the perfect throws, the long returns, the efficient take-downs, the blocks, the goals Will our guys reach their full potential? Will we? It’s fall and we’re here together honoring this sport, our past and the future. Football. It’s us.
at 1:17 p.m.
Can you change your DNA midstream and become a football fan?
The way you describe football makes it sound like a lot of family fun--the simple pleasure of sharing three hours.
Bravo for anything that engenders family fun!