Welcome, Homecomers

Welcome to our 51st homecoming issue at the Iowa Park Leader, and welcome back each and every one of you IPHS alumni, either coming to town for the weekend, or still around these parts.

With each year, the tradition and legacy of Iowa Park High School grows, and flourishes.

I’ve seen a great number of you through the years. I’m horrible with names, though. I can recognize many, and scratch my head with embarrasment just what your names are.

Call it old age. It does the trick more times than not.

I was partial to Iowa Park and Hawk football from an early age. As a fifth grader, I walked the sidelines with my Dad, on the field that is located on the north side of the junior high campus, which at this very moment is being transformed into something new and different.

I would help Dad keep stats by watching what yardline a receiver touched the ball on a kickoff or a punt. He would calculate from where the ball was now placed, keeping immaculate stats in shorthand on his Steno pad.

I actually mimicked Dad when I covered Holliday in the 80s, scribbling stats on a Steno pad while taking pictures with a Yaschika box camera and Honeywell strobe.

I was fairly accurate. He was better. Today, I don’t even bother, relying on stats from the team, and focusing on taking pictures with a digital Nikon camera while trying to keep from being run down by swarms of tacklers on the sideline.

The sidelines as a youth at the old Hawk Stadium were fascinating, and awe-inspiring. I was up close and personal with a Hawk team that would eventually go 15-0 and win a state championship.

The town at that time was in a fever pitch of excitement themselves. The stands were way too small to hold everyone, so many stood along the fence line, sometimes two and three deep.

I had the privilege of following those Hawks so closely not only that year, but each year until I myself put on a varsity uniform.

My good friend Robert Wilcox was the announcer when I came to town, and still is to this day. He doesn’t rib me about those two years of varsity when we went 1-19. Actually, his tone of voice never changed from that ‘69 year, even when we had different results.

Which says something about the man.

I also watched as the new high school and stadium was built from the ground in the early 70s. I walked those halls for four years and learned a few things.

I now go back to that same high school, and, despite some cosmetic changes, it is still the same place I cut my teeth.

Like many of you.

Hawk Stadium has changed dramatically, of course. But it is still in the bowl that was dredged in 1970. It is a beautiful place now, and ready for more memories.

That’s what it is all about, folks. Through the years, so much can change, but then stay the same. We are still rabid fans of the Fighting Hawks, the Mean Green. The players change through the years, but the story remains the same, adding layers of witness.