School Story
I enjoyed playing for the Redbugs very much, even though I really did not have many football skills. One of them was, however, recognizing reverses when I was playing defensive tackle. I would always just wait for the ball carrier to come around while everyone else was going in the other direction (as intended by the offensive). This happened in practice fairly often, but not often in games. One game I remember especially was a B Team game against Hampton. They were on about the 50 yard line and ran a reverse. Sure enough there I was, alone on the line of scrimmage, looking around to see what was happening, and here comes the runner on his reverse pattern. My tackling skills being what they were, the next thing that followed was a miracle of sorts. I managed to get the runner by one foot with my arms wrapped around it. He tried to get loose but could not. I was heavy enough that his only forward progress was about a foot every time he tried to jerk free. I can still hear the coach shouting at me to "hold on Choo-Choo," and shouting at the other team players to turn around and help. Help finally arrived and the guy was tackled. As most lineman well know, our personal play memories are not usually touchdowns, or long caught passes, but, instead, individual little victories over the guy, who is usually bigger than you, looking right in your face when the ball is snapped.
