As an old Gulf Breeze Dolphin it’s understandable that I would have a history with many of Baker School or Crestview High School’s opponents.
Milton, Pace, Jay, Niceville, Walton all get checked off as teams my Gulf Breeze teams played while I was in high school. You could also put a check next to Crestview and Baker as teams I was a member competed against both schools in track and Crestview in football as well.
I might even take half credit for having competed against Northview as the school merged the old Century High School and Ernest Ward High School. My senior year we beat Ernest Ward 48-0 for our home coming game.
I’m also familiar with one other team on the Crestview football team’s schedule that might surprise some people. That team is St. Martin from Miss., the opponent of the Bulldogs this week.
My memories of St. Martin go back to the eighth week of the 1974 Gulf Breeze football season when the Dolphins had the first winning football team in the school’s then five-year history.
As a third-teamer I didn’t see much action. In fact the only varsity action I saw that year was against the St. Martin Yellow Jackets.
It was late in the fourth quarter and the coaches felt we had a big enough lead where I really couldn’t screw things up too badly. Checking an old year book we only won 32-21, but it was my first opportunity to get in a real game.
I was sent into the game to play right defensive tackle, a position I practiced at every day. But practice and one’s first game are nothing alike.
When I got to the huddle the defensive captain called our basic “52” defense. In layman’s terms that means were going with five defensive linemen and two linebackers.
That first play I was so excited to be in the game I forgot where I was supposed to line up. Chuck Taylor, one of our linebackers, reminded me and a second or two later the ball was snapped and the play went off without a hitch.
Things seemed to be going well the second play. I knew where I was supposed to be and I was ready for the snap.
St. Martin ran a screen pass on the play and as I rushed the passer and the tackle released me to go downfield, he stepped on the heal of my shoe. I kept running towards the quarterback with my shoe half on and half off until the unthinkable happened.
Evidently I was pressuring the quarterback a little too much because the Yellow Jacket fullback came up to block me. In the process of making the block he steppe don the toe of my shoe that was coming off and completed the task.
The quarterback dumped the screen pass into the flat and for a second I picked up the shoe and started to follow the play downfield before deciding to drop it where I was. I pursued the play, which went 30 or 40 yards, in one shoe.
At the end of the play there was my size 12 sitting in the middle of the field with everyone in the stands wondering who belonged to the shoe. Believe me, going downfield to get your lost shoe is one of the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a player in his first game.
For several years after that some people would call me “No Shoes Dickson.” Forty-one years later I can laugh about my first varsity football game against the Yellow Jackets.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DICKSON: A Friday I won't forget