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| Milton Hooper #48 |
Okay, my headline up there is a bit deceiving.
In the years of football past, I thought I would be a football player. It's funny looking back at the teen version of myself.
The biggest stat of my entire football career was one rushing attempt for three yards.
That's it. My only personal high school football highlight reel.
This personal historic event occurred in the fall of 1979 with the B-team for the Villa Rica Wildcats. After standing on the sidelines for the first half of our season, I finally got my chance to play in a game at Bremen High School when we were playing the Bremen Blue Devils.
"Where's Hooper?" came the call from the coach.
I immediately ran to the coach.
Our offense had gotten the football inside the Bremen 10-yard-line.
"Hooper, you're going to score a touchdown," the coach told me. He went over the play and as I was getting ready to go in -- then our offense scored.
I was deflated.
On the next offensive series, the coach did finally put me in. The play was a counter where the quarterback would fake a handoff one way and then hand the ball to me going in the other direction. On the snap, the quarterback faked to the other back and then jabbed the ball into my stomach. I ran toward the slight opening by the offensive line and then I was crushed by a mass of Bremen defenders.
The pile uncovered and I was called to the sidelines. When I checked all of my body parts to make sure they all made it back with me, I saw that I had gained three yards on the play.
We would later win the game 22-12.
That would be my last time I would ever run the football in a real game.
The next spring, I practiced with the team and played in the spring game against Carrollton. I was put in as a defensive back late in the game for a couple of plays.
That was it. End of my playing career. No college recruits offered me a scholarship and there was no future career in the National Football League.
Somehow, I ignored the fact that my 5'5" and 120 lb. body couldn't possibly have a future in playing football. In my mind I thought I could do it. Needless to say, my body took a beating. I would come home every day after practice with bruises all over my body. Somehow that didn't stop me.
My body tried to relay it to my brain, but I was in denial. I had as much sense as a tackling dummy. The coaches always urged us to volunteer on the practice field. One day when they asked for someone to return punts, my hand shot up in the air while my body cringed. I was put in to return the punt. As I was watching the ball descend into my arms, the moment I caught the ball, I was crushed. I don't know where the ball went. My helmet to turned to the side as I was looking out of the ear hole on my helmet as I laid on the ground.
Another time on defense in a scrimmage in practice, the running back broke loose around the end and I managed to grab the back of his jersey. I did not slow him down and was flying in the air behind him while holding onto his jersey. When I let go I rolled into the fence on the sidelines.
In the summer before my junior year, my parents moved to Savannah, Georgia. Dad informed me that I would not be playing football at the new high school, but I had already decided I wasn't going to try.
If my older self could have visited my younger self, I would have told him to get involved in keeping stats for the team or writing game stories for the local newspaper. I might have even had a future being a play-by-play announcer. I had no clue about doing any of that then. I just wanted to play and be on the football team.
I returned to Villa Rica High School in 1986 to watch the team win the state championship over Worth County.
