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As a kid, I idolized Norman High football players as they strutted around Norman in their NHS letter jackets.
When I finally got mine in 1974, I wore it pretty much every minute of every day!
Sure, the wool collar rubbed my neck raw. And the body was a size too big. And the left sleeve kept falling down over my hook, even after I sewed it, which drove me nuts.
But I loved that jacket because I had put so much into earning it.
Hundreds of practices, including three horrible summers of two-a-days, plus countless full-contact scrimmages and games at Owen’s Stadium.
I played with reckless abandon, hurling my 5-4, 128 pound body all over the field to make up for my lack of size. It took a toll. I couldn’t count the number of sprains and separations, or all the times I had my bell rung (read “concussion”).
But it was all worth it because I felt like a “rompin’ stompin’ stud” when I was in a pack of other Tiger athletes wearing their letter jackets, like at basketball games. We sat in a section of the gym reserved for the "Grandstand Boozers", and we made it our business to be loud and obnoxious.
(To read the rest of the story, head over to the Forgotten Oklahoma Group on Facebook!)
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