YEARS OF
FOOTBALL FRIDAY NIGHTS
was born on a Thursday morning
in the middle of football season.
My dad was a high school coach
in football-crazed Alabama. The
date of birth was a Thursday, that
coach’s game the next night against
his school’s biggest rival.. The entire
team signed a football and placed it in
my crib. I didn’t stand a chance. I was
destined for a life of unbridled passion
for Alabama high school football.
It used to be somewhat frustrating
to me to try to understand why
everybody doesn’t “feel” that certain
“something” in the air that I do on fall
Fridays. Many years later I have come
to realize that this intense interest in
all things high school football is a
unique gift that most folks just haven’t
been given. I love college football as
much as the next guy, but the feeling
in the air on a football Saturday is not
the same as a football Friday night. I
am not ashamed to admit that I really
don’t have any other hobbies besides
following high school football. I
don’t hunt, fish, play golf, run, bike,
collect or make things, or have any
other “normal” interests. Whether it
is Groundhog Day, Memorial Day, or
Christmas Day, I am thinking, reading,
or talking high school footbal l. I can
count the Friday nights in my life that
I have missed football on my hands,
and the last time was in the 1980s.
8 | 2015 Pigskin Roundup the Magazine
In 1991, I hosted my first high
school football scoreboard show on
WGAD radio in Gadsden. A young,
small town guy from rural Alabama
probably should have been nervous.
I never was. I knew instantly that night
(and really, deep down inside, always
knew) that this was one of the main
things God had designed me to do in
this life. 2015 will now mark my 25th
year of hosting high school football
scoreboard shows on radio and
television. In the previous 24 years,
I have broadcast 311 consecutive
shows, never missing a Friday night in
my career. My goal has always been
to shine the spotlight on the players,
coaches, schools, and communities
that make football Friday nights in
Alabama so special. There is nothing
about this sport that I don’t love. I
hope this passion comes across every
Friday night as our hard working and
dedicated Pigskin Roundup crew
helps you make your own Friday night
memories to last a lifetime.
Thank you so much for listening
and watching through the years.
Please join us each week this fall from
10:30 p.m-12:30 a.m. “as the Pigskin
Roundup rolls on, on a football Friday
night” on TV 24!
JON HOLDER