When I was a small boy growing up in Beaver City, Nebraska during the late 1940's one of the big weekly events during the fall was the Beaver City Bearcats football games.

These high school games were generally on Friday afternoons although some were later played at night. The home field was the outfield of the town baseball field so there were lights along one sideline after the ball field got lights.

There were also sand burrs. These were small, slightly larger than peas, and covered with small pointed spikes. They grew on plants that each spread out over a six inches or so in area. And each plant had many, many sand burrs. Playing football in an area covered with such plants meant sand burrs sticking to all parts of the uniform and dug into the bare legs and the palm of the hands. The Beaver City Cheerleaders even had a cheer that talked about "Roll them in the Sand Burrs . . ."

There was no grandstand to sit in out in the outfield so people would park their cars 20 feet or so away from the field along each sideline and sit in their cars to watch the game. This was somewhat complicated by the crowd of people who surged along the sideline at the line of scrimmage to watch the game from the best advantage point.

My older brother Jerry Fleming played on this team in 1946. I remember the power play that his team used to score. It was Jerry Warner carrying the ball on a sweep over my brother and a boy named Wentling into the end zone.