by Jim Andersen
CHAPTER 9
HOMECOMING
Coach Andrews paced his office in bewilderment. It was past the time for Monday’s practice to begin but only a few of the players were in the locker room. Mr. Miller sat in the office chair equally puzzled by the situation.
“What do you make of this, Russ?” asked the Coach. “Where can they be? All of the seniors are gone. Tony is gone. I don’t get it.”
“It beats me too,” chipped in Mr. Miller, “It looks almost like a strike. I never heard of football players not showing up for a practice like this.
The coaches again went to the locker room. Those who were there either didn’t know where the missing boys were; or if they did know, they weren’t telling. Mr. Andrews went back to the confines of his office to await further developments. He called the school office to see if some teacher had kept the whole gang after school. The office girl checked the rooms, but the boys were not there.
It was almost a half hour after the time when the boys should have been on the field before the mystery was solved. Cain and about twenty other players burst through the door to the coach’s office.
“This guy’s got somethin’ to tell ya, Coach,” said the team captain.
Coach Andrews heard Cain, but he was looking at the stranger in the group. Tony had him by one arm and Augie had him by the other. Various other teammates had a hold of his belt or shirt to make certain he wouldn’t get away.
“Out with it,” barked Tony at the reluctant witness. “Tell him who done it!”
The odd member of the group was well known in and around Foxville High School. He was Ben Jones, a senior. Ben had been out for sports as a freshman and sophomore. Instead of going out for football as a junior, he had chosen to seek his popularity in other ways. He had a car and money for gas as part of his allowance.
Mrs. Jones, one of the town’s top socialites, was quite happy when Ben gave up “those rough games.” Since then, Ben had friends and plenty of them. There were always fellows and girls who enjoyed riding around, smoking and drinking; pretending to be big shots. This was the extracurricular life of Ben Jones.
Ben was a fair student in Mr. Miller’s economics class.
“Listen, fellows,” Ben pleaded, “I can’t squeal on my friends.”
“What’s this all about?” asked Coach Andrews, finally.
“Guts didn’t do it, Coach,” blurted Tony. Then to the big boy next to him, Tony said, “Tell him, or I’ll bust ya one.”
Coach smiled at the fighting spirit of his halfback.
“That’s right, Mr. Andrews, Gutsburg didn’t start that fire last week. He wasn’t even there.” Ben said slowly.
“That’s interesting. Tell me more.”
“I did it. What more do I have to tell you?”
“You had better tell the whole story. We had to put Dean off the team because of that. Maybe it cost us that game last week and it may cost us the championship. I think these boys a better explanation.”
“I’m not a squealer. I did it. I’ll take the blame.”
“Coach, if you step outside for just a minute, we’ll get him to talk, won’t we gang?” Augie Bent was speaking in very tough, belligerent tone. He sounded as if he would enjoy landing a few blows on Ben’s nose while the others held him.
“Never mind Augie, I think he’ll talk without that,” said the coach. To Ben he said very sternly, “Ben, you’re in serious trouble. You can make it easier on yourself if you tell us about it.”
“O.K., I’ll talk, but you’ll hear from my dad. You’ll lose your job doing things like this.”
“Who was with you,” barked Cain, cutting him short.
“Jonny French,” Ben said naming a friend who was a graduate of Foxville and probably beyond the authority of school officials.
“Who else?” asked Tony. “There were four of you.”
Ben looked at Tony. “How did you know that? Did someone tell?”
“Who were they?” asked Augie, twisting Ben’s arm a little.
“Ouch! - - They were the Brown twins.”
“Are you certain you are telling the truth, Ben?” asked Coach Andrews.
“Yes.”
“All right fellows, you can let him go now.” At that command the boys let go of Ben and his clothing. Ben straightened his clothes while coach continued. “Ben, I want you and the Brown boys to report to Mr. Hammond’s office before you go to class in the morning. He’ll probably want to see your parents, too. Unless I miss my guess, you fellows are due for a vacation.”
Ben said, “Yes, sir!” and hurried out of the office, happy to be free again.
“Now, fellows you had better get ready for practice. I’m going to call Guts,” said Mr. Andrews, reaching for the phone.
“You don’t need to do that,” grinned Cain. “I think he’s in the locker room. At least I told him to stick around and watch practice tonight.”
“All right, tell him to get dressed. He’s on the team again. And you boys had better hurry up, too. We’ve already wasted half of our practice time.”
The team dressed in record time and was out on the field ready to go almost as quickly as the coaches could walk to the practice field. No one took time to question the detectives until after practice.
When the short practice had been completed and the coach gave the signal to “take it in” Guts walked beside Cain and begged to know how he had found out about Jones being guilty.
“Well, Guts, when ya got a real detective on your side, you got nothin’ to worry about,” Cain joked.
“How DID you find out, Wane?” asked the coach who was following them, “I’m curious, too.”
Cain stopped and began the story. Others of the team gathered around to hear the details. “Well, it was Tony who saved the day.”
“You mean my sister,” interrupted Tony.
“O.K.” said Cain and then he unwound the story.
Tony’s sister had gone to the game at Doorland with some friends of hers. While they were at the game, they had gone into the ladies’ room to get out of the rain. There they met an acquaintance from Doorland and began to talk the usual “girl talk”.
During the conversation one of the Doorland girls asked if the Foxville girls knew of a boy who had a grey convertible.
“No, why?”
“Last Wednesday night,” the girl explained, “four boys who said they were from Foxville tried to pick them up. They wouldn’t tell us who they were but they were tall and cute.”
Saturday evening, at the dinner table, Tony’s sister thought of the conversation. She asked Tony if he knew any Foxville boys who drove a grey convertible. Tony didn’t know who it could be, but asked why she wanted to know. She repeated the story for him and then it was dropped.
In church the next day, Tony reviewed the story, trying to think who might be the boy with the convertible. Then the idea struck him. Wednesday was the night of the fire. Maybe the boys who started the fire were the same ones in the convertible.
In school Monday morning Tony explained his idea to Cain. Wayne didn’t know who they would be either but he asked some of the other seniors. He also talked it over with Augie, Tiny and Ken Whisk. Tiny only knew of one grey convertible in town, the car belonging to Ben Jones’ mother.
“Ben would be just the kind of a guy to do a thing like that,” Cain said in his best Sherlock Holmes style. “So we decided to make him confess.”
“You didn’t have any more than that to go on?” asked Mr. Andrews.
“That was all, but it worked. I figured we would just scare him. Nothing lost if it didn’t work,” explained Cain.
“And boy was he scared,” put in Augie.
“We met him on the corner, down a couple of blocks,” Cain continued. “At first he wouldn’t talk, but – a little persuadin’ from us, and he admitted he was there, he had started the fire and Guts wasn’t there. So we brought him here,” he ended breathlessly.
“Right, Coach. You just watch us cut down that Lowrey team, now.”
Smitty had missed practice on Monday. Coach Andrews asked the boys where he was but no one knew. He had been with them when they brought Ben Jones to the office, but he had disappeared after that. It seemed odd that Smitty would miss practice because he really enjoyed playing football and had never missed practice before.
Tuesday morning Coach Andrews saw Smitty in the hall and asked him for an explanation.
“Sure I can explain, but you’ll probably laugh at me.”
“I’ll try to understand. What happened?”
“Well - - I didn’t come out ‘cause I can’t use my helmet.”
“Why not? Where is it?”
“I have it, it’s just that - - I dried it out.”
“That sounds like a good idea. It was probably wet after the game last Friday.”
“I thought so, too. I took it home and my mom washed the mud out of it.”
“But why can’t you use it?” asked the coach trying to get to the bottom of the story.
“Well - - I put it in the oven to dry. And I forgot it. It was in at least an hour,” Smitty painfully explained.
“What does it look like now?”
“Flat as a pancake.”
“Bring it in. I’ll give you another one tonight,” said Mr. Andrews. Leaving the player, the coach wondered if there were other Smittys out there. If not, he wasn’t surprised. “How could one player do all the foolish things he had done?” he thought to himself.
When Smitty brought the helmet into the office, both coaches burst out laughing. An expensive piece of equipment destroyed is really no laughing matter, but the odd shape of the headpiece was funny.
Smitty was given another helmet and told to get dressed for practice. Mr. Andrews held up the flattened plastic for a better look. One side was completely flat from lying on a pan. The other was slightly raised because of the leather inside.
Mr. Andrews took a felt marking pen and wrote on it one word: “Smitty”. Then he hung it on a nail where a trophy plaque had once hung. It still hangs on the hook as a reminder of the one and only Smitty. If you were to visit the office Mr. Andrews would probably explain “I have this as proof because no one would ever believe what he did.”
“Can we win the game Friday?” asked one of the fans at the booster club meeting.
“We certainly can. I don’t believe in playing a game we can’t win. I expect to win them all,” answered the coach. “Lowry is one of the big schools of the league. They have a solid team and a good coach, but I think we’ll win.
“Our defense is proving to be very good. Some of you probably don’t watch the defense much, but our defensive team is doing very fine work. If our backs get a chance to run, we should be in good shape.”
The Lowry High School team was the opposition for Foxville’s homecoming game. The game was a part of the celebration beginning with a parade on Thursday evening. The parade would end at the school where a pep rally around a bonfire would be held. A homecoming dance was planned for Friday night after the ball game.
“Don’t forget, fellows,” cautioned Mr. Andrews in his “sermon on the mound” Wednesday. “The ball game is the main part of Homecoming week. Sometimes players forget that and get themselves all tangled up with floats or decorating for the dance. Then, they end up losing the game.”
“There will be no relaxation of training rules. Go to the parade and bonfire if you wish but get home on time. Your job, in all of this, is to win that game.”
Coach could tell that his team was trying to concentrate, but he could also tell that the other things were taking some of their attention.
Much of the activity Thursday evening was around the school. Many of the students were busy piling wood for a fire in the field across the street from the practice field. This drew the attention of some of the boys.
Across the street in the other direction were many more students, including many girls, busily decorating trucks and wagons for the parade. “How can boys concentrate on football with all the sideshows?” asked Mr. Miller of the head coach.
At Thursday afternoon’s practice, the timing of the plays was poor and some of the boys lacked their usual polish; but under the circumstances, it was a fair practice. Mr. Andrews pronounced them “ready to go.”
In the parade the team rode on a truck decorated appropriately in the school colors of blue and white. Little children ran along the side of the truck calling to their heroes. All along the route, parents and friends called to their favorite players who were proudly waving back. Most of the calls along the way, however, seemed to be for one boy. “Yea, Tony,” was the cry of the fans.
The usual ceremonies were held at the bonfire. These included cheers, speeches by the principal and coaches, announcement of the winner of the queen contest and a speech by the team captain.
A little extra was added when the scheduled speeches were finished. After Captain Cain’s speech the crowd began chanting, “We want Tony - - we want Tony.”
Tony waved to the people, but they weren’t satisfied. They clamored, “Speech - - speech.”
Tony turned to Guts who was standing next to him. “I can’t make a speech,” he protested.
The crowd’s chant became louder, “We want Tony.” And “Speech - - speech.”
Guts put his hand on Tony’s shoulder and gave him a gentle push as he said, “Come on, Kid, ya gotta say something’”.
The cheers gave way to clapping as they saw him move forward.
“I don’t know what to say - - (more cheers) - - I think I’ll let Cain do the talking. I can’t make a speech,” Tony stated awkwardly, but the crowd loved it.
Soon, the last cheer had quieted and the tune of the last song floated away on the breeze. The fire burned down to red hot embers. The folks left the fire, some walking arm-in-arm, some in cars and some in small groups.
Guts walked home with Tony. When they had left the group, Tony confided in Guts, “Gee, I sure musta looked dumb out there tonight. I just couldn’t think of anything to say.”
“That’s all right, Kid. You’ll learn someday,” answered the older player.
“Could you make a speech like that?” Tony asked.
I’ve never been asked. I can do it in school, so I guess I could.”
“I wish I could talk like Mr. Andrews. He always knows what to say and how to say it,” Tony added.
“Well, if you went to college like he did, you could talk good too. And you’d use the right words, too.”
“Do you think I could go to college, Guts?”
“Sure, why not? Especially if you keep playin’ football like you do now. There’ll be lots of schools after you to go to their college.”
“I never gave it much thought,” mused the young player.
“Well, you better start thinking about it soon.”
The conversation ended when they arrived at Tony’s house. Guts continued on his way home alone. Guts lived about two miles from school and he usually walked alone or hitchhiked. This gave him lots of time to think about such matters. Tonight with the moon almost full, it was bright enough for Guts to cut across the fields and save some time.
“The cornfield is a lonely place at night,” thought Guts as he plodded over the stubble of newly cut corn stalks. “I wonder how the cows like it out here all the time?” he asked himself aloud, partly to hear some sound in the stillness of the night. Then his thoughts drifted back to himself and his new life.
He knew that his life had changed greatly over the last few months. He knew he had been heading for trouble before he came to the farm. He knew it, but he had kept on doing it anyway.
“Why?” he asked.
“Why did I keep doing what I knew I shouldn’t do?” The other guys did it, and he wanted to be like them. Was that the reason? Probably! Every fellow wants to be somebody important. Sometimes they satisfy that need in the easiest way - - being like the other guys, especially if it doesn’t take any hard work.
But now, Guts felt more grown-up. Now, he didn’t act like he did when he was a kid. Now, he knew what life really was all about and he enjoyed it much more.
Though he didn’t know how to put his thoughts into words, he had found a purpose in life. He enjoyed football and he felt as though he was really wanted. His coach and his teammates were depending on him and it made him feel better than any experience he had ever had before. He was learning to respect himself . . . and experiencing self-confidence
His school marks were much better than the previous year in Chicago. They ought to be improving considering the amount of time and effort he was putting into his studies this term. This too was part of the new Dean Gutsberg.
He was an important part of the happy family which had taken him in. Schoolmates talked pleasantly to him. Even though he hardly knew what to say to them, he enjoyed their friendliness. The church was becoming an important part of his new life and even more important than the church were the ideas he was learning in church.
After telling Tony he should think about going to college Guts thought about his own future. College had never been a part of his future plans before but lately he had started to think about going to college himself. He dreamed about someday being a doctor or a lawyer or a pastor. Or maybe a teacher because then he could be a football coach. He would really like to be a coach like Mr. Andrews.
It was hard to decide what he wanted to do after he graduated from high school, but he knew he wanted to get a college education and be somebody important.
“Somebody important,” he said aloud. “Not like one of the old gang. I wanna be somebody really important, like Mr. Andrews.”
When the Lowry “Green Gulls” took the field for the Homecoming game they were greeted by the largest crowd seen at a Foxville game in years. The weather was cool and clear, an ideal night for a football game. A big cheer went up from the visitor’s side of the field when the boys in the green uniforms appeared.
“Better cheer now,” called a loyal Foxville fan. “You won’t have much to cheer about after the game begins.”
Coach Andrews cornered his quarterback during the warm-up drills. “Joe,” he said, “remember, no one has seen our wide reverse yet. Let’s save it until the second half unless we need it and then I’ll tell you personally.”
“O.K., Coach, anything else?”
“No, call your own game. But use lots of wide stuff to keep the center loose. That’ll set them up for the reverse when we need it.
The visitors lost the call of the flip of the coin. The teams lined up, the ball was kicked and the game was underway.
Joe used right side plays in the first series, but they gained very little yardage. The “Foxes” were forced to punt.
The “Foxville defense held equally well on their first series and they were given the ball again by a punt.
“Try my side,” said Tiny Small, “I think I got a weakling.” Joe tried a left slant and Tiny took his opponent completely out of the play. Tony gained the first first down of the night.
“Nice job, Tiny. We can get short yardage there any time,” said Joe as they lined up again.
Neither team scored in the first quarter. Much of the first quarter was spent probing the opposition and trying various plays. The “Foxes” were near the goal line once but a fumble on a handoff lost the ball for them.
In the second quarter Lowry began using a variety of formations. One play was from a “T” formation, the next from a “single wing” formation, and then they tried a “short punt” formation and occasionally worked in some spread formation plays. This variety caused a lot of defensive adjustments, but the “Foxes” were up to it. The defense, through a valiant effort, kept the visitors from scoring.
Before the half ended the “Foxes” scored on a good sweep series. Fry carried the ball on a sweep to the right. From the 18 yard line Tony swept the left end carrying the ball to the 2 yard line. The team used the “flea flicker” formation on the next play and the defense looked to the halfback sweeping the end, only to have Joe walk into the end zone behind Guts for the first touchdown. The try for the extra point was good. At halftime the score was Foxville 7 – Lowry 0.
No sooner had the team seated themselves in the locker room than Tiny Small had a question to ask.
“What is it, Tiny?” asked the coach.
“Is it O.K. for me to pick up the blocker?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” began Tiny, “that guy over me, he gets in such a funny position I just grab his hips and lift him off the ground. His legs go kicking up in the air.”
“As long as the defensive man is going toward the ball carrier he can use his hands to help him, but you can’t hold him,” said the coach reviewing his instructions.
“Is lifting holding?”
“I don’t know, but if the referee warns you about it, you had better not do it again.”
Don Lake put in his opinion, “That guy looks so funny when Tiny picks him up, and he is mad! I bet he would kill you, Tiny, if he had a chance.”
“I hope he doesn’t do that,” said Tiny jokingly, “then they would take him out of the game.”
Serious talk filled the rest of the halftime. Plans had to be corrected to make more scoring possible. Joe was told to try some of the pass plays from the “flea flicker” and to try the wide reverse.
Soon after the intermission Foxville got possession of the ball after forcing the “Green Gulls” to punt. On the first play Fry took the ball on a “flea flicker”. He began his run around right end, but he stopped before he got to the line of scrimmage and tossed a lazy pass. Tony had blocked the end but only enough to make it look like a running play. Leaving his man, he ran down about ten yards and was open when Fry looped the pass to him.
With a head start on the defensive backs who had run up to tackle the runner, Tony was too fast for anyone to stop him. He easily out-ran the green shirted players. The “Mighty Mite” had scored a “quickie”, and the spectators were yelling their approval.
When the little fellow was replaced by Stan, who would try for the extra point, the fans gave him a standing ovation. Some in the crowd started a chant which was picked up by the rest of the fans, “Tony - - Tony - - Tony” (which sounded as if they were saying “Toe knee – toe knee”).
The next time the “Foxes” got their hands on the ball, they went back to the sweep series. Tony was in his “wing” position outside of the end. Gene Fry went in motion, Joe pitched the lateral pass to him and Fry ran around the right end.
Tony, however, hadn’t moved. He waited for the blockers and ball carrier to go past him. When Gene passed Tony, he slipped the ball to him just before he turned to run up field behind his blockers. Tony took the ball and held it out of the sight of the defenders as he ran parallel to the line of scrimmage but in the opposite direction. Guts made a quick block, then pulled out to block for Tony. He met and blocked a very surprised end leaving him flat on his back. Tony passed the big center and was out into the open. The fake had fooled the Lowry team so that not one green-shirted player gave chase. The only one who realized what had happened was the end, who was watching from a sitting position.
Sixty yards or a little more, was covered by Tony as his little legs peddled over the turf. The fans cheered as they saw him break away, and the cheer continued with increasing volume as he neared the end zone again.
Some who really understood the working of football plays laughed when they saw Tony all alone. It was actually humorous to see a good team of football players so completely fooled by a play.
“That’s the way it’s supposed to
work!” called Coach Andrews to his reserves on the bench. Obviously excited and pleased at the turn of events, he added, “Did you ever see a play work so well?”
The try for the extra point was again good and the “Foxes” held a 21 – 0 lead to the great satisfaction of the hometown fans.
Later in the same quarter, Fry scored on a sweep of the right end. The ball was near the right sideline. As Gene went in motion, the “Green Gulls” began calling to each other to “look out for the reverse”. The play was executed nicely, but the reverse never came. Fry rounded the end with two blockers leading the way and went 20 yards along the sideline to score another touchdown.
Again the extra point was added to the score which now was 28 – 0.
Tony added six more points to his total early in the last quarter. With the defense looking for plays outside of the end, Joe called for Tony to carry on a slant through Tiny Small’s left tackle position. Tony took the ball and stepped quickly through the place from which Tiny had moved his “weakling”.
Once through the line, Tony sidestepped the halfback and cut to the outside. Pumping his short legs at top speed, he raced over the 22 yards for his third touchdown of the night.
When Tiny moved his defensive man out of the play, the “Green Gull” tackle had had enough. He came up with both fists swinging. Since the officials were watching the runner, their duties carried them away from the fight. They missed seeing the first blows but when they did turn around they saw both teams slugging it out and the reserves pouring onto the playing field.
The officials ran into the melee blowing their whistles like cops in an old-time movie. Each official grabbed one of the players and held onto him. Soon the fight subsided and all that was left were players milling around the field. After the extra activity was over, the officials marched their captives to the sidelines and put them out of the game.
Guts was one of the “Foxes” who was ejected and Lake was the other. They both protested innocence but were put out anyway. The Lowry quarterback, who played linebacker on defense, was also banished from the game. The tackle that started the fracas was not detected and was permitted to remain in the game.
Captain Cain tried to talk to the officials protesting that the Foxville boys were not guilty. The officials would not listen to his arguments. After the extra point attempt, which was never kicked because of a poor snap from center, Cain again petitioned the referee.
“Are you sure Guts hit one of their guys?” he asked, then, quickly added, “Did you see him hit one of them?”
Angrily, the referee said, “Yes, he did, son. Don’t you believe me?”
“Well,” drawled Cain with his face as serious as he could be while he was laughing to himself, “He’s a big, tough kid and he’s from Chicago. Whenever he hits a guy, they go down. I didn’t see any one on the ground, so I don’t think he hit anyone.”
The referee wouldn’t accept Cain’s reasoning. He felt it was not proper for a player to jest over an official’s decision, so he took Cain by the arm and marched him to the bench also. To the coach, he said, “You had better keep this fellow out of the game, too. I don’t want to argue with him.”
When they finally resumed the game, the scoreboard showed the score was 33 – 0. The team had changed considerably because the coach had sent in a whole new team of reserves. The new players on both teams played out the game without changing the score.
After a big victory the hometown fans went happily to the Homecoming dance. Coach Andrews met the Lowry coach in the middle of the field and received congratulations.
“What’ll you take for that little halfback?” the visiting coach asked. “He wrecked us! We tried to scout you last week but didn’t see him. He was great!”
“We only use him every two weeks,” teased Mr. Andrews.
“But who wouldn’t look good behind your line?” the Lowry coach added, “They’re the best we’ve seen. They make your backs job easy.”
