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Strange/Unusual Things at/near your stadium.......

NNDman

VaPreps All District
May 29, 2001
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There was a funeral home located across the highway from where old Tappahannock High and Essex High (until 1976) played.
Wasn't there a sewage lagoon just beyond the end zone where Northumberland used to play?
The scoreboard at Lancaster was once lit by red and green bulbs.
In the unusual category, there is a church located in front of Washington & Lee High. Its parking lot is frequently used
King and Queen used to have a tiny scoreboard that had only the score and time on it. A wire ran down from the scoreboard to the console that was operated by a person sitting in a school room desk.
 
I can't think of too many current things that are that strange but from wayyy back in my memory, I am pretty sure I remember these two..............

Cumberland having NO bleachers for the visiting fans. You were just expected to stand behind the team.

Craig County (probably still New Castle at the time) having no press box to speak of and someone filming a game from the top of a school bus.

Now before anybody comes on and defends either or both, remember I said those were distant memories.

As for things I have read on here more recently, isn't there something about a cliff or something that is right up against the field at Hurley? I could never quite picture what that must look like but it sounds interesting.
 
In the unusual category, up until about a decade ago Lancaster had no restrooms; just porta potties. King and Queen continues to have no restrooms; just porta potties. They also have no actual concession stand. They have a good sized pavilion where grilling is done nearby.
 
It disoriented me for a quarter but Amelia plays football on their baseball field or is it playing baseball on their football field?
 
I believe it's a combo field. Not many of them in our area. Washington & Lee plays on one but this year is likely their last one there as a new school is coming.
 
There was a funeral home located across the highway from where old Tappahannock High and Essex High (until 1976) played.
Wasn't there a sewage lagoon just beyond the end zone where Northumberland used to play?
The scoreboard at Lancaster was once lit by red and green bulbs.
In the unusual category, there is a church located in front of Washington & Lee High. Its parking lot is frequently used
King and Queen used to have a tiny scoreboard that had only the score and time on it. A wire ran down from the scoreboard to the console that was operated by a person sitting in a school room desk.
I remember the King & Queen scoreboard. The keeper sat under it in the pouring rain. I was worried about that guy! The pitchers mound with plate included sat in the middle of the field!
 
As for things I have read on here more recently, isn't there something about a cliff or something that is right up against the field at Hurley? I could never quite picture what that must look like but it sounds interesting.
From their Facebook page -

They (Hurley) have the far sidelines... visiting team has the bleachers/pressbox/holler-road side.
 
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It disoriented me for a quarter but Amelia plays football on their baseball field or is it playing baseball on their football field?
How bout the corner of the endZone in Amelia that is actually gravel from the line for the concession stand? Better keep your head on a swivel if it’s a long line for your nachos
 
Mitchell Stadium, Bluefield, WV which is home to Graham of Bluefield, VA's GMen, (yep, a Virginia school with it's home field in another state) and AA powerhouse Bluefield High, WV Beavers. The stadium holds 12,000 people, and once hosted Marshall vs Virginia Tech back in the 1950's, and the strange thing, it's right on the boarder and the state line from WV/VA runs through the field if I'm not mistaken. Or maybe, it's the parking lot of which is mostly located in Virginia and the field itself located in West VA. Just weird all around.

What's also weird. In 1989, Graham won the state championship over Southampton in Div 3, and that game, that state championship was played in the state of West Virginia (Bluefield, WV, Mitchell Stadium). It's the only time in Virginia High School Football History that a state title game was played outside of the state of Virginia.
 
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The state line is a few hundred feet behind the press box - it runs thru the tennis courts between Mitchell & the Appy League's Bowen Field.

 
I can't think of too many current things that are that strange but from wayyy back in my memory, I am pretty sure I remember these two..............

Cumberland having NO bleachers for the visiting fans. You were just expected to stand behind the team.

Craig County (probably still New Castle at the time) having no press box to speak of and someone filming a game from the top of a school bus.

Now before anybody comes on and defends either or both, remember I said those were distant memories.

As for things I have read on here more recently, isn't there something about a cliff or something that is right up against the field at Hurley? I could never quite picture what that must look like but it sounds interesting.

I can't believe you forgot one, and one that you see every other year.

It may not be unique, but is unusual.

Buffalo Gap has their press box on the Visitors side and has split bleachers for visitors as well.
 
I can't believe you forgot one, and one that you see every other year.

It may not be unique, but is unusual.

Buffalo Gap has their press box on the Visitors side and has split bleachers for visitors as well.
I remember it was that way when KW played them in the state semifinals in 2000. All those years later and it seems that they still haven't fixed it
 
You know what? I was gonna write something about Buffalo Gap in my original post, but I could exactly recall that peculiarity I just recalled that their football and baseball fields were back-to-back IIRC. And obviously the press box is used for both sports?
 
I can't believe you forgot one, and one that you see every other year.

It may not be unique, but is unusual.

Buffalo Gap has their press box on the Visitors side and has split bleachers for visitors as well.

Highland Springs had that same scenario before they rebuilt two years ago.
 
It has always been kind of an annoyance to have the guest fans separated as they do at the Gap. I am sure the cheerleaders love it! But to somewhat counter-balance that, the home fans have an area behind the bleachers where they can stand and have a more elevated view. I am sure more than one visiting fan has sneaked over there as well.....
 
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How bout the corner of the endZone in Amelia that is actually gravel from the line for the concession stand? Better keep your head on a swivel if it’s a long line for your nachos
Bluestone
Parkview South Hill
Amelia
Randolph Henry
Prince Edward

All have baseball/football field combos. If memory serves me, RH has a corner of an end zone that is actually part gravel road.
 
And wasn't (and possibly still is) a dog kennel located near the K&Q football field? I recall being at more than one game there when those dogs would be howling like it was a full moon out!!!
 
Bluestone
Parkview South Hill
Amelia
Randolph Henry
Prince Edward

All have baseball/football field combos. If memory serves me, RH has a corner of an end zone that is actually part gravel road.
last year for PV and Bluestone. Their populations are being combined to go to the brand new Mecklenburg County MS/HS
 
I can't think of too many current things that are that strange but from wayyy back in my memory, I am pretty sure I remember these two..............


As for things I have read on here more recently, isn't there something about a cliff or something that is right up against the field at Hurley? I could never quite picture what that must look like but it sounds interesting.

New photos from the press box taken last week...




 
I had forgotten about this...

 
The old Fries high-school had a river running right behind the visiting stands and a grave yard 20 feet from the end zone. It got crazy cold toward the end of the season with air coming off that water.

I was coaching against Pocahontas one night and to get to the stadium you had one road in and out that ran under a verl low train tressell. The bus barely made it under it on the way in, but on the ride home alot of the kids road home with their parents and the bus was riding higher than on the way in. And needless to say we didn't make it under the tressell on the way out. Had to let most of air out of the tires to get under.

And at one time didn't Grundy have a rock in the middle of their field?
 
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I don't rem... it's possible.
I know Hurley had a prob. about 10 years ago when they brought in fill dirt one Summer that had small rocks & glass in it.
They opened up by hosting Ervinton at Grundy on a Sat. night.
 
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You had me worried for a while. That would have given a whole new meaning to the term "wide side of the field!"
 
Rich Valley HS (now Northwood Middle School) in Smyth County, the North Fork of the Holston River runs behind the home bleachers. Geez it would get cold there at night.
 
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This has been a really fun thread. I love hearing the stories that make the sport that we all love so much, real and fun.
 
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The old Fries high-school had a river running right behind the visiting stands and a grave yard 20 feet from the end zone. It got crazy cold toward the end of the season with air coming off that water.

I was coaching against Pocahontas one night and to get to the stadium you had one road in and out that ran under a verl low train tressell. The bus barely made it under it on the way in, but on the ride home alot of the kids road home with their parents and the bus was riding higher than on the way in. And needless to say we didn't make it under the tressell on the way out. Had to let most of air out of the tires to get under.

And at one time didn't Grundy have a rock in the middle of their field?
That old train trussel/bridge was actually in the Bluefield, VA/Falls Mills, VA area (Graham) on the way to Pocahontas. It is still there,but there has been a bypass put in place for many years now that avoids that low lying trussel that has got a many of vehicles over the last 50 years. My wife graduated at Pocahontas High.
 
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I remember at Peterstown High, Peterstown, WV, now part of James Monroe High in WV, celebratory gunfire. When I was kid in the 70s and brought up in the Giles school district long before moving to Radford, Giles had played Peterstown on and off dating back from the 60s, and when they didn't play in Reg season, they often scrimmaged. In the 70s, it was very common for Peterstown to fire pistols, literally, live gunfire from the end zone, not the stands, after a score or win. You had to be a gentlemen though, you couldn't fire from the bleachers, only in the designated area at the fence outside the end zone. Oh yes, the country sheriff's deputy, in on it as well. He would participate.
 
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I can't think of too many current things that are that strange but from wayyy back in my memory, I am pretty sure I remember these two..............

Cumberland having NO bleachers for the visiting fans. You were just expected to stand behind the team.

Craig County (probably still New Castle at the time) having no press box to speak of and someone filming a game from the top of a school bus.

Now before anybody comes on and defends either or both, remember I said those were distant memories.

As for things I have read on here more recently, isn't there something about a cliff or something that is right up against the field at Hurley? I could never quite picture what that must look like but it sounds interesting.
Carroll County's press box was so small they made the Radford "press box" coaches stand over to the side of the home bleachers about on the goalline on a concrete pad in the pouring rain. The radio broadcasters had to sit in their car that was parked on the track in the corner of the endzone.
 
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