On a walk late yesterday afternoon, the slight autumn chill in the air, the light, and the changing leaves brought back memories of fall touch football games. Sometimes, we’d just play in the street, but often I would join my friends at Borts Field, two blocks from where I lived. In the fall, there were amateur leagues that played on the weekends and so we even had yard lines marked out.
We’d usually play for an hour or so after school, until it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. And even though it was “touch,” that didn’t mean you didn’t have to clean up, particularly if the field was muddy, which often meant you might slip when you were trying to “cut.”
With touch football, all you needed was a football. The person running or receiving the football was “down” when someone touched them. We usually played “two hand” which was a bit tougher. You could get a bit banged up if two people collided going for a ball, or maybe turn an ankle. But I never remember anyone really getting hurt.
Usually our teams were five or six to a side. On offense, everyone except the quarterback was a receiver. On defense, everyone covered receivers except for one player who “rushed the passer.” There was usually a “count to five” rule before the rusher could touch the quarterback. You could approach, try to block the pass, but they had a “five count” to get the pass off before you went after them. On defense, because I was not the fastest, I usually was the designated rusher.
Offense was more fun. Mostly I blocked for another receiver–hands but no holding–or sometimes got a lateral when someone was about to be touched.
Occasionally we kicked the ball off or punted when someone could do that well, but more often, I recall the kick really being a pass that the other team received. Usually you punted only if three attempts to move the ball from scrimmage failed. In my recall, that didn’t happen very often. If you didn’t score, it usually was the result of a lost fumble or an interception.
We didn’t do penalties. There were no officials. If a play was disputed, we’d usually declare a do-over–no loss of down. Most of the time, most of us wanted to play rather than stand around and argue.
Usually we finished when the first kids had to leave for dinner. By then we’d all worked off that energy that was bottled up while sitting in classes all day. And on those cool autumn days after an hour or so of touch football, we were hungry and dinner always smelled good and tasted better.
Good memories!
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.” Enjoy!
Thanks for another rush of fun memories. Our experience with touch football at Bort’s was in the summer. After playing baseball at Bort’s in the morning we’d go home, eat and rush back to Bort’s around noon to spend the afternoon swimming. The pool opened at 1:00, so it was common to kill the time with a pick up game just as you described.
Thank you for the Youngstown posts. I enjoy them all. I remember many touch football games at Borts, Park and Recreation baseball on the diamond there, pick up basketball and even “free “morning swimming at Borts pool.
After 1 pm, admission to the pool was ten cents. And of course we stopped at Zitello’s,on the way home, to purchase penny candy. In the early years, coach Ches McPhee, managed the pool. I can still “smell” the chlorine in the air.
I can, as well, as I read your recollections.
Ah, yes. That glorious summer combination of Bort’s chlorine and sun tan lotion.
Yes!
Don’t forget the mercurochrome!
So many great memories !! Tennis courts ,crafts, freezing tennis courts in winter for ice skating !!
Thanks Bob. I love your posts and the memories you tease out. I grew up on North Hazelwood, near West Elementary/Jr High, where we would play our larger two-hand and some tackle matchups, not far from Borts.
Most often, we had smaller scale in-the-street games, usually two or three a side with an all-sides “steady” QB. The curbs would serve as the sideline boundaries, and combinations of either driveways, fire hydrants, or telephone poles would mark the end zones. Parked cars in the street would just serve as obstacles to navigate or could be used as end zone boundaries. Our rules were just as you described, with the pass rusher counting out loud, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, etc…. We mostly played in the evenings or weekends when traffic lightened up, but when it did come, the first person seeing oncoming traffic would yell, “car!” so players could safely go to the “sidelines” to let the traffic pass. Since we had streetlights, night games were very popular. We even had contests between streets, with kids on our street visiting or hosting kids from Rhoda, Glenellen, Manchester, Hartford or Brockway. Participants included some familiar Westside names, including Olsavsky and Zordich. Fun times.
Sounds like the games we played on our street as well!
We played tackle FB in the fields up behind the JCC up until about 8th grade. about that time it started to get more serious and people started bringing equipment that if you didn’t have, could get people hurt. Our summer activity was the North Side pool. The cement was rough and the center was rather deep for kids but you could dive off the center pillar. After, it was across the street to the DQ for a 5 cent cone.