What to wear on Saturdays, now that I’ve had to put away my No. 32 Rosepine Eagles jersey?

Every Saturday from the middle of September through mid-November my attire for the day – or at least through the late afternoon – was predetermined by our 12-year-old grandson, Nils.

For the last three years, Nils has played for the Eagles in the Youth Football League where he lives in Louisiana. And his Mimi and Pa (that’s me and my husband Frank), his Aunt PeeWee (Lanci) and his Aunt Laurie have tried to make it down to Louisiana at least once during football season to see him play. The rest of the time we rooted for him and the Eagles from here.

Nils was a safety on defense this year, and before the season started he gave me a royal purple Eagles shirt with his team number on it. He didn’t ask me to wear it every Saturday, but on the morning of the first game, I put the shirt on and hoped all afternoon for good news. As soon as the game was over, Nils called to say that Rosepine had crushed DeRidder 44 to 0!

Well, that did it.

Now I’ve never been superstitious, and I really don’t believe in luck. But…since my husband and I weren’t sure whether we’d be able to make it to LA to see Nils play this season, I figured the least I could do while cheering him from afar was wear his team shirt on game day. And so I did. Every single Saturday.

When the weather got cooler I had to wear a long sleeved top underneath the short-sleeved team shirt. But I tried to never change clothes until Nils or his dad had called to let us know the Eagles’ score.

The Eagles ended their season 5-2, giving up a total of only 26 points in regular play and the playoffs. That record earned the team a Super Bowl match-up with Merryville, the only team the Eagles lost to all season – twice, by the same score, 6-0.

The Bowl game promised to be a defensive battle and we were hoping to be in Louisiana for it. But none of our work schedules would permit the trip…until hurricane winds and rain blew through southwest Louisiana, postponing one game and moving all the rest ahead a week.

When the new Super Bowl date was announced, the timing worked out for two of us – Nils’ Aunt Laurie and me – to go! And the first thing I packed was my trusty, slightly musty, Eagles shirt. (“Don’t wash it, mom!” our son Schenk, Nils’ dad, had admonished me earlier in the season. Not that he was getting a wee bit superstitious about the luck of the shirt or anything.)

The weather was perfect for short sleeves on Super Bowl day in Louisiana. The Eagles offense scored early and the defense was able to shut down Merryville’s tall, lanky running back – a kid surely destined to be a track AND football star. Nils made some good plays and in a game that was a nail biter to the last four seconds, Rosepine finally beat Merryville 8-6.

Life was good. The Eagles had soared and we celebrated with pizza and gumbo at the team awards banquet in Rosepine. The next day we drove home and I gave my seasoned No. 32 shirt a good bath and put it away. But the next day, our son called with exciting news. The Eagles had been invited to play in an end of season tournament in South Beaureguard and Nils would be back on the field.

So, I put No. 32 back in service for the Thursday and Friday night games and again on Saturday, when Rosepine lost the final game to a team of bigger, older boys by the respectable score of 16-12.

Now the shirt is retired again and it’s doubtful Nils will have the same number when he starts junior high football at Rosepine next year. But, being the sentimental keeper of mementos that I am, I’ll probably never get rid of that shirt. Too bad I don’t still have an excuse to wear it every Saturday, though. It was nice for at least one day a week not to have to think twice about what to wear.

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

---

Copyright © 2001 eFortSmith Media.com, Incorporated, P.O. Box 1341, Fort Smith, AR 72902

efortsmith.com and Entertainment Fort Smith are registered trademarks. All rights reserved.

HOME