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On Sunday, Oct. 24, 1974, at Vets Field in Altoona, a very funny thing happened to a 9-year-old boy named Scotty Franco ... he played in an Altoona Parochial League football game in which his team lost, 62-0.
I know this to be true because for one thing, I remember the game. There are not a lot of specific things I can recall from being 9 years old, but getting crushed in a game like that sticks with a youngster. I also know it to be true because it appeared in the Mirror's "Yesteryear" spot in our sports section recently.
I played for Mount Carmel. OK ... let's just say I was on the team. Back in those days, you had 10 teams in the league in which boys from grades 4-8 were on the same team.
You had Mount Carmel and McNelis, the team that lambasted us, along with Saint Mary's, Saint Mark's, Our Lady of Lourdes, Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Patrick's, Sacred Heart, Saint Therese's and Hollidaysburg Catholic.
And one thing to point out back then ... yes, there were teams with fourth grade boys playing on a team with eighth grade boys. Imagine that today. No parent in their right mind would let their 9-year-old kid play on a team with boys that were 14, but that is what John and Jeanie Franco did.
And by the way, I am still alive, so they weren't too crazy.
My coach was my next-door neighbor, Frank DeLeo, who also happened to be my uncle.
He looked out for us, but he also was also trying to make us tough.
To make things as fair as possible, he would have his starting 11 on offense, mostly seventh and eighth grade boys with a sixth grade kid here and there, go up against something like 15 kids on defense.
He would mix in his fourth graders like me, Mike Ciambotti and Pat Conners. His theory, he once told me, was "If you can learn to block 15 kids during the week, blocking 11 on Sunday will be easy."
Makes sense. Maybe the Steelers should try that sometime with pass blocking on their offensive line.
But I digress.
We lost 62-0 to McNelis. I remember having Mike Kasun on their team, who today if you met him, you would never believe he was ever considered menacing because he is one of the nicest guys in the world. Still a big guy, too.
To a 9-year-old, Mike Kasun was menacing. My cousin, Rich DeLeo, was on our Mount Carmel team and Rich was good, but none of us were good enough for McNelis that day.
And you know what happened to us on the Monday practice, the next day, after losing 62-0 to McNelis ... Uncle Frank and the coaching staff made us do 62 of everything to remind us to never lose like that again.
Imagine a parent today finding out about that. First, they would call CNN to complain and ask that a story be done on the coaches. Of course, they would also want an apology from the coaching staff, a suspension of the coaching staff, and they would also have to purchase a lot of tissue boxes because of the way some parents react to their kids who have tough coaches.
None of that happened on Oct. 25, 1974.
We ran 62 laps around the baseball field where we practiced, which, thank God, was not the size of a football field.
There was a concession stand that we thought we could walk around once out of the eyesight of our coaches, but not Frank DeLeo.
He sent one of our assistant coaches, John Robertson, to run with us. John is still around today. He plays in the Lakemont Park Summer League, and all I know is that he is way older than me still, and in way better shape than my 59-year-old self.
We did 62 jumping jacks, 62 up-downs, 62 sit-ups, 62 pushups. I don't know if a 9-year-old can have six-pack abs, but maybe I did have those "Little Juice Jugs" abs the next day at school. Who knows? Ask one of the girls from my third grade class, maybe Lori (DiNardo) Miller or Dana (Mignogna) Thompson can confirm my story, with which my wife believes I have already taken way too many liberties in its retelling.
We did this one exercise called "6 inches." You laid on your back, put your hands under your butt and raised your legs six inches off the ground. We had to do several repetitions of it for 1:02, or 62 seconds. Occasionally, some of the other assistant coaches, like Rod Bohner or John Carnicella, would come over and step on your stomach to toughen you up. They didn't do that to fourth graders, but if you check with Rich DeLeo, who is now known as
"Referee Rich" on WRTA, I bet he'll remember them stepping on a few eighth grade football players.
Nowadays, parents would call the police.
Back in the day, the police were already there. Coach Bohner and coach Carnicella were Altoona patrolmen, but they were great coaches and great guys, whom I loved bumping into as I got older in life.
I don't remember if we did any actual football practicing that day, but I know we didn't lose 62-0 ever again.
I also remember complaining to Uncle Frank, asking why I had to do all of those exercises when I didn't get in until late in the fourth quarter when the game was already decided.
He told me "you are part of the team. You win together. You lose together. You get punished together."
Several years ago, I can remember sharing this story with a friend who commented on my story being an awful memory.
I disagreed with the guy immediately, and I did it in less than 62 seconds.