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12-12-2012, 07:46 PM
This past weekend i went to Harlan county for the bear hunt (I didn't see one at all). But I revisited a place that holds a large space of my high school football memory. After my hunt i decided to take 119 back up to Whitesburg where I passed the new Harlan County High School where I stopped to marvel at the new field which is a beautiful tribute to our coal miners and the county's rich history. So I drove on to Cumberland where i stopped for gas and decided that I would go see the old field where I played a game or two in high school. I approached the field with warm memories of large crowds of redskins in the bleachers with the blue and gold on the opposing side. I could hear families celebrating a tradition as old as the city itself. I was only a sophomore at this time when we came there and believe me I was nervous. It was a good game with us winning but that wasn't why I remember it. I remember it because that it was the best atmosphere for a football game that I have ever experienced. I have played at CAM stadium in Belfry, Papa Johns stadium and the old Hazard-Perry rivalry games just to name a few. This old school stadium just flat out had character to it though, if was given the choice of playing one more high school game anywhere it would be here, with black mountain in the background and the leaves in all colors, it was truely the fall football experience. It broke my heart though when I saw the field decrepit and wasting away as though time had forgotten it, I stood at the fence with my eyes closed and I could still feel the same energy I felt that night 5 years ago. I am so grateful that had the chance to play against Cumberland and make those memories. It was a heavy blow to my heart and strangely more so when i learned that they were going to be consolidating the schools in 2008, but Harlan County is doing a great job of making a new path of tradition. I just wish we could have kept the Redskins a little longer, so I could have played some more games there. This is coming from the mouth of a die hard Hazard fan to.
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12-13-2012, 05:39 AM
I also consider the opportunity to play at Cumberland and Evarts High Schools before they merged one of my most fond memories of high school football. Like stepping into a time machine, just having played on those fields made you feel like a part of history in the region. There's nothing like small town EKY in the Fall.
12-13-2012, 08:18 AM
These are such beautiful testiments to mountain football!! I remember much longer ago, when we used to play at Lynch. That, in my opinion, is the coldest place on earth on a winter Friday night!! This county holds so much heritage and tradition, I'm so glad that you can hold these memories in your heart and revisit them.
12-13-2012, 09:42 AM
Nice story mikehancho25. Thanks for sharing.
12-13-2012, 06:12 PM
Your welcome, I always enjoy it when I read old football story accounts on here so I decided to share one of my own. I have many more great memories and I may start posting them like a blog so people can read them and enjoy them like I do.
12-13-2012, 09:38 PM
I played on that field in the 80s. My kids played as opponents in 2 different periods in the last decade. I have a lot a great memories. Watching Cumberland beat Beechwood on that field was probably the highlight of its days. My highlight was pushing Martha Bullock across the field in a wheel chair our eighth grade year in home coming as she suffered from cancer in 1978.
No doubt it was a special place. I grew up having field days on that field, sneaking in for a game of touch now and then.....having a few ....um pops after hours....trying to kick 12 yard make believe game winning field goals and missing terribly....it was awsome. My mother taught in the second closest classroom to that field for nearly 30 years...
As awsome as it was....what I see in Harlan County now is what we always dreamed of as kids...but better. Shrout Memorial will always be special but Coal Miners' Stadium is the thing that brings all stars in alignment inHarlan County. No more fighting among ourselves. We are HC!
No doubt it was a special place. I grew up having field days on that field, sneaking in for a game of touch now and then.....having a few ....um pops after hours....trying to kick 12 yard make believe game winning field goals and missing terribly....it was awsome. My mother taught in the second closest classroom to that field for nearly 30 years...
As awsome as it was....what I see in Harlan County now is what we always dreamed of as kids...but better. Shrout Memorial will always be special but Coal Miners' Stadium is the thing that brings all stars in alignment inHarlan County. No more fighting among ourselves. We are HC!
12-14-2012, 11:14 AM
:Cheerlead Go Reds Go Go, Go Reds Go........I always hated that cheer
nicker:
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12-14-2012, 01:03 PM
footballfever Wrote::Cheerlead Go Reds Go Go, Go Reds Go........I always hated that cheer
Was more like :Cheerlead GOOO REEEEDS GOOOO GOOOOO, GOOOO REEEEDS GOOOOOO :Cheerlead
12-16-2012, 10:35 AM
My dad, uncle, and great uncle used play on that field in the 70's. I remember going over to Harold Shrout Memorial as a child with my Dad. There was definitely something special about that place. It'd be so crowded that we would either walk from the cloverlick area or park at a cousins and walk down from New York section.
I grew up in Corbin and there is no doubt more tradition and success here but despite all of that, nothing compared to Cumberland High on a Friday night. By the way, despite being a Redhound, I was always pulling for the Skins during my grade school days when the Hounds/Skins had their rivalry in the 90s.
I grew up in Corbin and there is no doubt more tradition and success here but despite all of that, nothing compared to Cumberland High on a Friday night. By the way, despite being a Redhound, I was always pulling for the Skins during my grade school days when the Hounds/Skins had their rivalry in the 90s.
12-16-2012, 07:28 PM
HAROLD Wrote:My dad, uncle, and great uncle used play on that field in the 70's. I remember going over to Harold Shrout Memorial as a child with my Dad. There was definitely something special about that place. It'd be so crowded that we would either walk from the cloverlick area or park at a cousins and walk down from New York section.
I grew up in Corbin and there is no doubt more tradition and success here but despite all of that, nothing compared to Cumberland High on a Friday night. By the way, despite being a Redhound, I was always pulling for the Skins during my grade school days when the Hounds/Skins had their rivalry in the 90s.
There's not many places where you could play football that close to New York.
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