MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1946 - Terril Years

Sports (continued)

Against my mother's wishes, I went out for football my Senior year. There were only 40 boys in high school and 30 of those went out for football. I was 6 feet tall and weighed in at 165 pounds. There were only a couple other kids on the team that were heavier and taller, Bill Schacherer and Don Lewis, both in my class; it was Bill's first year out also. I was assigned to play Left End. I wasn't particularly fast but I was tall and had good hands. However, I was near sighted, contact lenses were still 20 years in the future and I could not play with glasses on. I could see okay for the daytime practices but we played our games at night and I really couldn't see very well. I did catch a few short passes but not many. I remember one play where I managed to get away from the defender. I was 20 yards down field from anybody. A catch would be a walk-in touchdown. I saw the ball in the air and thinking it was going to be a little short so I stopped running to wait for it only to have the ball fly way over my head. Once on the bench the coach was now yelling at me, 'Why did you stop running?' I confessed that I couldn't see the ball without my glasses. I didn't play much after that.

Basketball the Senior year was about the same although I did play more. One game I scored all of 4 points, but I wasn't a good shooter, I was in, when I was in, primarily as a defender.