I began covering high school football games in the fall of 1973, when I was a beginning reporter for the Kerrville Daily Times.
I’ve have covered those contests in several towns across Texas.
Why am I tripping down this particular memory lane?
Because last Friday I experienced incredibly bad and uncalled for treatment when I went to Beeville to cover the Blackcats game with the AJ Jones Trojans.
When I arrived at the stadium, the Beeville ISD communications director pleasantly introduced himself while I was reading a book before the game and asked if I had any questions.
Thanks to Simon DeSoto with Happy Radio, who called ahead to the district’s athletic department, I was on the approved media list as a photographer for the game.
He told me that I couldn’t go on the field, so I agreed.
I don’t go on the field, which over the past 51 years has meant the playing field, not the sidelines.
Once the game starts I start photographing the plays and there are four other people on the Bay City sideline taking photographs.
Shortly before halftime, the Beeville guy approaches me with a large law enforcement officer – think 6-5 and 250 pounds – and tells me I must leave the stadium because I was on the field, contrary to what we agreed.
I didn’t get the chance to argue the point that the sideline isn’t considered the field, or that other people were on the sideline taking photos.
He began lecturing me about safety, which was incredible to me and I started to state my case.
At that the officer shut it down, saying the district’s guy had tried to be nice – in ejecting me from the stadium – and he was going to escort me from the premises.
He never said where I was supposed to shoot from - presumably the track, where very few photographers position themselves.
It would have been better had he approached me by himself. But he needed an officer to be tough with the oldtimer.
There was no further discussion and I was escorted off the sidelines and perp-walked in front of the Bay City fans.
That was a humiliating juncture in my life that never had occurred before.
As people started noticing, we walked toward BCISD Superintendent Dwight MacHazlett and BCHS Principal Mary Lynn Mosier Flores.
They asked what was going on and I told I was being ejected for photographing from the sideline.
I didn’t get to hear if they asked the Beeville bosses what was up, because the officer wanted me out of the stadium and off Beeville ISD property.
I told him that I rode to the game with the radio guys and asked if I could just sit in the stands, which he reluctantly agreed to.
So I began my exile from sidelines (AKA the field) – a 74-year-old enjoying the privileges of being a news and sports photographer at Beeville ISD.
A Bay City cheerleader shortly came up and gave me a Blackcat T-shirt they were throwing to the fans.
A little later, an Aristocat carried over a box of snacks to share with me.
Both gestures meant a lot to me.
There were a few BCISD officials who noticed me, but didn’t say anything.
There was one cheering thing – Bay City beat Beeville 50-6.
