Football: Awesome old-school pictures

Ok guys, brace yourselves.  The following pictures showed up in my inbox over the weekend, and holy moses....what a collection.  Turns out, they were sent by the "godfather" of Orrville Sports websites, John Stocker.  John ran an Orrville Football site back in the 90's, and did a great job with it too.  Game recaps, stats, pictures....it was really well done.  Here's the archived version of his site that I just found....some of the pics and links may be broken, but this is how I remember it.  I'll let his words illustrate some of these pics.

Let's get to the goodstuff.

First up, the 1974 team picture. 

Nothing too special here...some nice shoulder striped jerseys for sure. Take a good look at the 5th row, 3rd in from the right. None other that Coach D. Plenty of other familiar names in there too. Oh, and "Eat at Dravenstott's" (As always, click each picture for a super-sized version)......

Next up, another team picture, the 1949 squad. 


Several things in this picture. As noted before, no player wears a number less than 20...was this some kind of rule back then?

Second, check out that killer timeclock in the background....

Third, how about that top row of kids? They look like they're no more than 12 years old. Were we dressing the Jr. High kids back in '49? #21 especially.

I'll let John talk about some of the finer points of the photo....

"The coach on the left is the late HC Bill Coyer. The young man right next to him (his number is partially obscured forty-something) I am pretty sure is Dick Saurer. The coach on the right is the late Quay Norris who would of course become Orrville's Jr. High Principal.

Number 57 is my father, he played center and nose. The young man to his right #51 I am pretty sure is the late Bob "Louse" Buchanon who played quarterback.  Pretty interesting Orrville had a black qb in 1949.

Louse's son Bob "Blinky" Buchanon of course would also play QB for Mo Tipton on some great teams in the late 60's."

Very interesting indeed...a mere four years after Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in Major League Baseball, Orrville High School features an african-american QB.

Ok...now the good stuff...stay with me.

The last 4 pics are from the 1973 season.

A nice Orrville/Wooster shot.  This game was a 47-7 Wooster win, and ended a 1-9 season..so not a great game or season...but there's a few interesting things about this picture.  First off, we are wearing white jerseys at home, something that I guess was the norm back then.  Second, see the wording on the back of #32, that's our team name, RED RIDERS on the back of everyone's jersey.  And speaking of #32...can anyone tell me who that is?  I would have never guessed if I'd not have been told.  If you know, leave it in the comment section.

One last thing, look at #20, who I'm told is Kim Gochenaur.  Looks like a little schmutz on the right side of his helmet, no?  Would you believe it's a helmet logo?  Remember, we talked about a helmet logo from the 1988 season, and apparently we had one in the 70's also.

Behold.....

But what is it.....I think this next picture makes it clear.

The player in the pic is the late Jamie Ray...so not only a great picture, but some cool uniform details in there too.  The player he's tackling has the neat "one star" helmet.  Was that part of a helmet logo, or a pride sticker?  And dig the sock stripes.  But back to the helmet logo.  Here's one more closeup shot of the logo...

It's the jumping horse logo.  Very classy.  One more item about the helmets...only 3 stripes, one red and two white.  We have 5 now, two white stripes on either side of the red stripe.  As far as I can tell, this practice lasted no later than the 1974 season.  Here's a picture from the 1975 season and you can clearly see the divided white stripe.  With these pictures being in 1973, it was right at the end of the 3 stripe era.  Amazing that for 30+ years, our helmets are largely unchanged. 

And here's the story behind the helmet logo courtesy of Mr. Stocker.

"Our whole freshman class moved up to varsity that year after the 3rd game I believe, and there were about 30 of us. We never got logos though (which is why #32 in the picture above doesn't have a logo, he was a freshman...maybe that's a hint) that's probably why I was a little confused.....That year was the last we wore the logos. I am pretty sure we had them in '72 as well, not sure about '71. I guess after going 1-9 and only scoring 38 points all year made it seem like a bad idea."

Here's the last pic of the set....and the only one showing us in the red jerseys from this season.  It's also the neatest photo in the set.

Punter is Fred Wright...and it looks to not be going so well....those blockers aren't noticing the big guy flying over top of them to make the block.  Also, notice the "RED RIDERS" on the front of the red jerseys...they were on the back of the white jerseys and on the front of the red ones. Very unique.  I'd love to know who the opponent is in this picture.  It appears they only have helmet numbers, so no help there.  Anyone?

Good stuff...thanks so much John, and everyone else...enjoy.