You can count on longtime supporter of the Colquitt County Packers and Touchdown Club member Bull Durham to be in the stands, with his wife Mary Jo, for the Homecoming Game.
The touchdown is an event because the cheers of the crowd, the sound of the band playing our fight song, which is sung by the cheerleaders and students in the stands, is an entity until itself— a magical moment of unity and celebration.
I’ ve spent many nights up in the press box enjoying a bird’ s-eye view of the games. The Friday night magic is not lost up there, either. People in the press box feel it the same as the fans and then work to share it with the fans who couldn’ t be at the game.
Jerry Croft, who has been calling the game for the Packers since time out of mind, told me one time,“ You turn the lights on and people come. It’ s been like that in South Georgia forever. What else are you going to have that draws 10,000 people in a community together at one time.”
That same night“ The Voice of the Packers,” Durwood Dominy, told me before he went live on the radio,“ It’ s a rallying point … On Friday nights people can come together and put aside differences. It’ s a common cause people can get behind.”
Wayne Grandy, retired sports editor for The Moultrie Observer( not really retired), told me when I asked him about his experience on Friday
nights under the lights,“ I have always enjoyed getting to a game early and being a part of the transformation of the quiet and near empty stadium into one filled with the sights and sounds and the aromas of the game.”
After, a winning game, where the victory was uncertain until the last few minutes of the game, I was walking across the field to leave the stadium. I took a moment to look back at the emptying stands on the Home side and I remember thinking,“ The fans worked hard for their team tonight— cheering them on as they took the ball down the field and booing their disappointment when calls didn’ t go their way— and in return, their team worked hard for them.”
I think the real magic of the“ Friday Night Lights” is young or old, rich or poor, and black, white, Hispanic, or any other race, the fans in the stands have a very real connection with each other in those moments … a connection that expands out to the players and gives them the energy to keep pushing forward. This unifying connection of one purpose, one drive and one goal makes unbelievable things happen out on the field. Things that seem to defy logic and sometimes even physics. I’ ve seen it happen and it is magic.
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