Crestview banker and former Crestview High School athlete Dale Rice Jr. and I share one or two memories — just from a different perspective.
Dale graduated from Crestview in 1977; I graduated from Gulf Breeze in 1976.
We competed with, and against many, of the same athletes. I can say the same thing about Crestview High Principal Dexter Day, a 1978 CHS grad.
Dale recently shared a story with me about a night he will never forget. It’s also a night I won’t forget. When Crestview’s football team travels to Gulf Breeze on Friday to play the Dolphins, it will mark that night's 40th anniversary.
That long-ago November night in 1975 was the final game of the season for the Dolphins and Bulldogs. Back then, only the district champion made the playoffs.
I don’t know what the Bulldogs were playing for, as far as pride, but I do know my Gulf Breeze teammates and I wanted to win badly so we could finish the season with a 5-5 record.
Dale remembers the game well. He told me Gulf Breeze was driving for what would have been the winning touchdown late in the game when he intercepted a pass that sealed Crestview's victory.
I still get an empty feeling in my stomach when I think about that night. The feeling of losing one’s last high school game sticks with you. It has stuck with me 40 years, and will stay with me the rest of my life.
The feeling I have about losing that game might never leave, but my feeling about the Crestview community and Crestview High School has.
I no longer see the Bulldogs as my enemy. I have great respect for many of the coaches, athletes and former athletes I’ve gotten to know the past several years.
I realize that Dale and the other Bulldog players that night were giving their all for Crestview, just as my Dolphin teammates and I were giving our all for the blue and gold.
I won’t be wearing Crestview’s red and black, or Gulf Breeze's blue and gold, on Friday. For a few hours, I’ll set aside my ties to my old school and just be a newspaper man.
But forgive me if I get a little teary eyed when I hear my Gulf Breeze fight song or alma mater as I’m reminded of my days as a Dolphin.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DICKSON: Memories shared between old Crestview Bulldogs, Gulf Breeze Dolphins