R. B. Worthy High School...Saltville, Virginia...November 1966
A little history concerning one of our longtime favorite spots in town...
Following the 1966 football season, the playing surface at the Shaker Stadium football field was leveled. The east end of the field was about three feet higher than the west end.
Since the distance stretched for 120 yards, it wasn't that noticeable.
Nevertheless, fans always considered a team with the ball headed for the west goal as being "going downhill."
The field with a grandstand for baseball and bleachers for football had been built in 1920.
Roger A. Allison, retired longtime sports editor of the Saltville Progress, through research, thinks this is the oldest high school football playing surface in the state, since being established as such, still in use.
Three local high schools...Saltville High, R. B. Worthy High and Northwood High have played home games on this spot since 1920.
Many years ago, two other high schools played home games occasionally on this field...Rich Valley High School and Douglass High School of Bristol. Virginia.
Before integration of Virginia schools in 1965, the Black Douglass High School in Bristol, Virginia had some pretty good football players from the Smokey Row section of Saltville. Being in Washington County, those kids went to high school in Bristol.
One standout player from Smokey Row who was a star at Douglass High was Odell Clark.
Course, the white kids living on Smokey Row played sandlot ball with the black kids because they were friends, but not until 1965 could they go to school together because of state law.
There has always been a friendly connection between Saltville and Bristol because of the Douglass connection and later, the Virginia High Bearcats with some of their ballplayers with parents and grandparents with Saltville roots.
This just completed 2022 football season of the Northwood Panthers marked consecutive year No. 103 that football has been played here at this location.
May it continue....
Don Smith
A little history concerning one of our longtime favorite spots in town...
Following the 1966 football season, the playing surface at the Shaker Stadium football field was leveled. The east end of the field was about three feet higher than the west end.
Since the distance stretched for 120 yards, it wasn't that noticeable.
Nevertheless, fans always considered a team with the ball headed for the west goal as being "going downhill."
The field with a grandstand for baseball and bleachers for football had been built in 1920.
Roger A. Allison, retired longtime sports editor of the Saltville Progress, through research, thinks this is the oldest high school football playing surface in the state, since being established as such, still in use.
Three local high schools...Saltville High, R. B. Worthy High and Northwood High have played home games on this spot since 1920.
Many years ago, two other high schools played home games occasionally on this field...Rich Valley High School and Douglass High School of Bristol. Virginia.
Before integration of Virginia schools in 1965, the Black Douglass High School in Bristol, Virginia had some pretty good football players from the Smokey Row section of Saltville. Being in Washington County, those kids went to high school in Bristol.
One standout player from Smokey Row who was a star at Douglass High was Odell Clark.
Course, the white kids living on Smokey Row played sandlot ball with the black kids because they were friends, but not until 1965 could they go to school together because of state law.
There has always been a friendly connection between Saltville and Bristol because of the Douglass connection and later, the Virginia High Bearcats with some of their ballplayers with parents and grandparents with Saltville roots.
This just completed 2022 football season of the Northwood Panthers marked consecutive year No. 103 that football has been played here at this location.
May it continue....
Don Smith
