Editor’s note: Daniel Jackson, president and CEO of Carroll Tomorrow and the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, served as the keynote speaker at the opening of the Smithsonian exhibit, “Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America” hosted by the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center. Below are Jackson’s reflections from his speech on how important sports are to local communities and how they impact and inspire us. After reading them, it is hoped you will be inspired to attend the closing event on Saturday Dec. 31, featuring a showing of highlight films from local football state championships. Learn more
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Daniel Jackson during his keynote speech at the opening of the Smithsonian’s Hometown Teams exhibit in Carrollton.
I love sports, so thank you for letting me share my story. I am one of those baby boomers born in 1952. I have almost 60 years of memories about sports. As I prepared my remarks, I felt a flood of emotions and remembrances. I quickly filled up a legal pad with thoughts and stories. Organizing those thoughts and telling the story in 20 minutes was the hard part.
My assignment was to talk about “The real value of sports from a hometown perspective.” As a chamber of commerce guy, perhaps you expected me to do a Power Point presentation on the economic impact of sports and I could do that because that number is huge. But the truth is, sports is about experiences and memories.
Some of us grew up with ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It aired from April 1961 to January 1998, mostly on Saturday afternoons. Do you remember how it started? Help me with the intro. :
“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport … the thrill of victory … the agony of defeat … the human drama of athletic competition … this is ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”
Perhaps the only other thing that evokes similar emotions to sports is music or being head-over-heels in love. Sports are a big part of our lives, our world, our spirit; it’s in our blood. We can’t miss it, avoid it, and ignore it. It is everywhere.
What’s it like around here in Carroll County? We are blessed with so many sports resources. Take your pick: We have backyard ball, rec ball, school ball, collegiate ball, and professional sports. We have six public high schools, private academies, industrial and church league teams, club sports, adult leagues and pick-up games.
We have UWG and WGTC in our own backyard with nationally ranked teams. And within a one-to-two-hour drive you can go watch your favorite SEC or ACC team plus the pro teams in Atlanta.
We have football, baseball, basketball, softball, volleyball, track and field, cross country, soccer, lacrosse, cheerleading, golf, wrestling, tennis, frisbee golf, 5Ks, 10Ks, special Ks all right here where we live. This community is blessed with plenty of fields, courts, stadiums, and sports complexes.
From my childhood days, I remember: There was no travel ball and limited rec ball. We played backyard ball. We organized ourselves, picked the teams, refereed the game, decided the rules, and laid out the field boundaries. If we got mad, we took our ball and went home. We drank from the water hose or spigot.
Our equipment was simple. We shared the balls, bats, and gloves. It was all patched and worn. We played ’til dark, then went home, hosed down, did our homework (unless we lied and said we had none), we ate supper or a snack and went to bed.
We bought baseball cards and fastened them on our bicycle tire spokes with mom’s clothespins to sound like motorcycles and we chewed that nasty pink bubble gum which lost its taste in 15 seconds. There is no telling how many valuable cards we tore up in those bike spokes!
We beat our plastic football helmets on the road to make us look tougher. We drank bottled colas and ate moon pies and we put salted peanuts in those bottled colas.
We discovered that outdoor clotheslines made good goal post. Our field boundaries were rocks, trees, shoes, fences … whatever we had.
When we got old enough for school sports it was very different. We had football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and track for boys, and for girls — basketball and cheerleading. At the time, it was thought that girls could not play full court basketball, so they played half court three-on-three; then one year girls played with a “rover” who crossed over to play both ends of the court. Finally, around 1972, girls started playing full-court basketball. We have certainly discovered with all the success of local girls’ teams, they can indeed play full court!
We had paid coaches, uniforms, real equipment, practices, trainers, fans in the bleachers and scoreboards. We learned teamwork, work ethic, sportsmanship, and that is where we learned that “life ain’t fair”.
I have many remembrances from those school ball days. In football, there were no water breaks except summer camp because there was no water at the practice field, but we did take salt tablets. We were never allowed to remove our helmets. There was coach abuse and summer camp abuse but that was just part of the game. We played both ways and we played hurt. We drank out of the same water bottle. A strange drink called Gatorade appeared my junior year.
Our coaches’ favorite drills were “bull in the ring” and the “machine gun drill”. The coaches told us, “they wanted to see some blood” and they did. We wore steel cleats. We used hard plastic mouth pieces that had to be boiled in water to soften so we could shape them to our mouth and teeth.
We loved those 6 oz. iced down, bottled Cokes at half time. And, if we could snag an extra, Denny Folsom would open it with his teeth in exchange for one big gulp.
According to a Berry College research class, the average weight of a high school player in 1970 in the 10 high schools in and around Rome, Ga., was 160 pounds. Out of the 340 players, only 18 weighed over 200 pounds. I was tied for the fourth largest player at Cedartown at a giant 185 pounds.
As a young adult I loved all sports, knew all the players, the teams, and the stats. We played church league everything. We went to many games and watched many sports.
Then we had kids and we transitioned from parents to coaches. Some of my fondest memories are watching and coaching our children. I coached basketball, football, and baseball as a certified youth coach. T-ball should be televised in my opinion! I remember the little coed teams with uniforms that swallowed them. In one of the first games, the little guy on second base was told to run home by the third base coach so after a hit, he crossed third and then ran to the dugout.
I tried to make our daughter an athlete, but she found her place in cheering and as a tall flag.
I remember those backyard fields with homemade pitching mounds, natural boundaries, and picnic tables as backstops. I remember rec ball and selecting the teams and the all-stars. After throwing batting practice to our son Russ one afternoon, as I rubbed my arm, I remember calculating that I had pitched about 78,000 balls.
I have many great local sports memories. There are the playoff and state champion games for several local teams that come to mind. I remember the UWG national championship games in basketball and football.
I remember sitting in sleet, snow and 100-degree weather and those hot, loud gyms.
I remember helping at the finish line at the state cross country meets and the Junior Nationals and seeing the smiles, hearing the gasping, seeing the crying, and kids collapsing.
Can you remember working in the concession stands while your kids were playing?
Remember the grandparents and other family coming to watch games? And how about that clothing with school logos? (Wearing the colors!) Remember the shakers, horns, bells, and cannons? What about those annoying traditions at other schools – yellow milk jugs, the Pepperell Dragon?
Moms, what about washing those uniforms at midnight at a hotel or scrubbing out those grass stains?
And we all have those memories of tailgating.
As we think about umpires and refs, I bet you can think of a really bad call right now.
Remember summer camps and half time shows or taking that child to 6:00 a.m. weightlifting. And, what about waiting in the parking lot at midnight for the team to get home?
Finally, because sports touch all the emotions, it gets personal and powerful as we remember (maybe close your eyes as I remind you of these moments):
The big wins and losses
The first game, and the season coming to an end
Can you see the coaches’ wives all huddled together praying the fans don’t complain?
Or the spouse and kids hugging the coach after the game?
What about the parents and fans anxiously watching an injured kid being treated and applauding as he or she is helped off the field?
Can you see and hear the laughter, tears, clapping, cheering, fussing, cussing, and texting the score to someone at home or work?
Can you feel that community spirit?
Can you see “old momentum” jumping from one side to the other?
What about the great coaches – everybody has their favorite.
And what about your favorite announcer!
Listen to the horns, bells, and shakers, the score table horn sounding, the starter gun firing, the bands playing, PA announcer
Hear the drums in cadence
Can you see the cheerleaders flying through the air and tossing little plastic balls into the stands to the crowd?
What about watching a kid’s only hit or goal, or crossing that finish line?
Remember the challenged kid getting a chance to play or even score?
What about the ball boys and trainers and photographers and the media – radio, newspaper, and TV?
Think about the coaches penciling in the lineups
And the college and pro scouts coming to watch
Taking a knee for prayer before or after the game or shaking the other team’s hands
How about the parents helping other kids with rides, money, and as mentors
Remember the trophies and sports banquets – the celebrations!
Analyzing the game at the barber shop, church, the coffee shop
This is the value of sports to the hometown:
It is who we are, where we have been, and why we keep on cheering, playing, watching and talking about it.
It’s about personal growth and development, teamwork, school spirit, community unity, and yes, a stronger economy.
Things have changed. “Sports” looks different … or does it?
As the memories fade but the sharing of stories continue (and are stretched a bit!), the All Area players are now All State and the All State players are now all Americans.
I love sports.
Let’s play ball!