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Untold Bobcat story
Until... Fast forward approximately 20 years to the early 1980s. I am at a meeting of city officials from across the state at the papermill's guest house in Cedar Springs. One of the people I meet is from Fort Valley, a Mr. Hardeman. He works with the city. As we introduce ourselves, I mention the 1961 title game. A few seconds later he swells up, tears almost running from his eyes, and suddenly walks off without saying another word. I am wondering what I could have said to offend him. Heck, they won the ballgame! Later he walks up to me and apologizes. "I had two sons on that team," he says. "My oldest son, Dave was the quarterback. My youngest son, Jodie, was a runningback. He scored the touchdown." At that point his eyes again begin to swell with tears. This time he doesn't try to hide them. "Dave went to Vietnam out of high school," he said. "He's a paraplegic now, at home in a wheel chair." His words are becoming more difficult to come by, and the tears are now streaming down his cheeks. I'm fighting back my own tears. "Jodie," he says, having difficulty getting another word out. Finally he says, "Jodie committed suicide, shot himself two years ago." Tears are now running down both my cheeks. And, I too, am having a hard time getting a word out. I put my hand on his shoulder, but before I can say anything, he turns and walks off. We never speak again.
Standing here wiping tears from my cheeks, I am suddenly glad they won that game. His memories of his sons on that football field winning the state championship that night are far more valuable, far outweigh any glory we would have gotten from bringing the trophy home that night in 1961.
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