Friday night, I’ll take the trip west on Highway 4 to cover Baker School’s Kickoff Classic at Jay.
It won't be my first time covering a football game between the visiting Gators and the home standing Royals; I’ve covered three or four games between these small schools that share rural roots and country values.
And long before I became familiar with the Baker-Jay rivalry, I was acquainted with both schools for different reasons.
As a Gulf Breeze High School athlete, my teams competed against both Baker and Jay.
A TALENTED RUNNING BACK TANDEM
In 1971, I was an eighth-grader in Jay's stands when the Dolphins, in the school’s second year, beat the Royals for their first football win in school history.
Three years later, I was a member of Gulf Breeze's team that beat Jay in the second game of the season on the way to the first winning football season in Gulf Breeze history.
My memories of Baker's football team have more to do with watching game films when the Gators played Gulf Breeze’s upcoming opponent. Watching brothers George and Houston McTear, I was glad we didn’t have to try to stop the talented running back tandem.
George, a 220-pound fullback, could run 100 yards in 9.7 seconds. Houston was the fastest high school sprinter in United States history.
My Gulf Breeze teammates and I would marvel as the Gators ran Houston on a sweep, with George serving as the lead blocker. If George did his job of blocking the defensive end or outside linebacker, Houston would turn the corner, kick it into high gear and wave at the helpless defenders unable to match his world-class speed.
On those rare occasions when George missed his block, Houston was still too fast for most defenses.
SHARED FOOTBALL MEMORIES
Several years ago, while working at the Northwest Florida Daily News, I wrote a story involving Baker quarterback Warren Griffith.
Warren’s father, Donald, was one of Baker's original football players. Warren’s sons, Drew and Ben, were Gator standouts in the early- to mid-2000s. Baker’s Doug Griffith Memorial Stadium is named after Donald Griffith’s brother, a former Baker School principal.
In my conversations with Warren — who, like me, graduated in 1976 — I found we shared similar, if not common memories of football played 40 years ago here in Northwest Florida.
Time marches on and, Friday night, as I head to Jay, I’ll return to a place that is home to some of my football roots.
If I listen closely, I might be lucky enough to hear a whisper from the past as I pay homage to my football career and look to the start of the 2015 season.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DICKSON: A trip down memory lane