A Reunion

The 1995 Fort Madison Bloodhound football team's first win of the season came in dramatic fashion, a 7-6 win over Fairfield in the last game of the year. So for the entire season, the team was winless. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for coaches to keep HS kids focused and motivated during such a difficult season. To their credit, however, they were able to do so.

At one point in the season, our head coach who had been the QB of a NAIA national championship team, tried cheering us up by offering some perspective, "Years from now, you're not going to remember your record or the score of the games, but you will remember the great times you all had together." While it's easy to remember the 1-8 record, I don't remember many scores (though we lost our homecoming game 20-12), we all still have vivid memories of fun and crazy stuff that happened that year.

A couple weeks ago, 15 years after that 1995 season, we got together to catch up on our lives and re-tell some of those stories. We were all in agreement, the best story was of Heath Mueller, our tailback asking why their were cows on the field. He had received quite the blow to the head. Coming in a close second were stories of running from teammates parents or the police with rolls of toilet paper still in our hands, though most had been draped in the surrounding trees.

During HS, I had the privilege of leading one of my teammates to Christ. After HS, I watched his faith really take root and mature. I also had the privilege of performing the wedding of that tailback who had seen cows.

At Erin's grandpa's funeral, there were a few items laid out among the collection of pictures. One of these items was his HS football team's picture from a 1940's Shawnee newspaper. Right then, I decided if Erin's grandpa still remembered "the glory days" 60 years later, I was going to keep celebrating them indefinitely, too. And with this being the second reunion I'd planned, I'm sticking with that commitment.