There have been times in my life where I had the passing thought that I had walked into a real-life Twilight Zone episode.
Most of you are familiar with the TV show of the 1960s that presented weekly tales of the strange, the macabre, the truly ironic and occasionally horroric.
I thought the bad kid who could turn you into a jack in the box was pretty horrible.
This doesn’t quite fall into a Twilight Zone moment, but the Bay City-Sweeny football game Friday night comes close in the bizarre category.
Previously, the longest high school football game that I covered for the paper was a game in Wharton.
The length of that game was determined by school officials following the “lightning protocol” where everyone waits after a visible lightning strike for at least 30 minutes.
If lightning occurs within the 30 minute waiting period, the 30-minute count starts over.
That game was long.
I call the Bay City score into Jessica Shepard at the end of each quarter and the game’s finale.
Friday night, I gave the third-quarter score to Jessica at 10 p.m.
The game was supposed to start at 7 p.m., but Sweeny officials had some ceremony going on that pushed a late start on us, without knowing what the event was.
What really slowed things down was the frequent referees’ conferences.
I mean those guys were chewing the fat on a lot of stuff.
Oh, did I mention that the Blackcats had 83 yards in penalties and Sweeny had 20.
Game clocks can usually be very influential in a game.
Not so much in this one, since Bay City usually had a three-touchdown lead going on.
But the head referee had to be reminded to rewind the play clock.
The BCISD Superindent Dr. Dwight McHazlett once shouted that it was time to rewind the clock and they did.
I have never wanted to referee a game.
It’s physically demanding and stressful.
That said, it can be stressful for the visitors side if they’re wondering if they make it home by midnight.
I’m sure that wasn’t the case since Bay City is a short 20 miles from Sweeny.
After all, Bay City won the game and most folks will write off the evening’s odd occurrences as a strange version of Friday Night Lights.
By the way, Friday night’s game was over at 10:30 p.m.
