by Jim Andersen
CHAPTER 12
“MOST VALUABLE”?
The end of the game signaled the beginning of the celebration. Car horns were heard all over the city. A snake dance spontaneously came into being composed of students headed to the business district to celebrate. The yelling, cheering young people wound their way to the center of town where the police broke up the chain of people.
Many adults took the game to their favorite drinking establishment where they toasted the victors and replayed the game from memory. Impromptu parties were held all over town celebrating the first football championship in the memory of most towns’ people.
It was, indeed, a very pleasant weekend in Foxville. Other news and gossip was much less important to the little community than was their football team. A lot of talk was heard from the fans about the most valuable player trophy to be awarded at the banquet. There was little doubt in the minds of the fans. They knew that one little boy was the most deserving.
On Monday, a special assembly was held in school to honor their team. Mr. Hammond, the principal, gave a talk honoring the team for their work. He mentioned the number of handicaps the team had to overcome, “We never expected these boys would win the title. Everyone thought we would have a good team until we had to drop our two best players from the squad. There was no one who thought we had a chance after that happened. Then we were surprised to have an addition to the team that no one expected. He scored most of the touchdowns and led the team to win after win.” Mr. Hammond continued his speech telling about the games the team won and ended by saying, “these boys have shown that they are the best. We’re proud of them.”
Coach Andrews was asked for a few words. He too praised his team. “I must take exception to Mr. Hammond’s speech however. He may have given up on our chance of winning, and I know many of the people in town gave up on us. But, the boys on the team never gave up, or we would not have won.” This statement was followed by laughter and cheering.
“This group of boys are real champions. They learned how to accept defeats and setbacks and come back to win. When things seemed the darkest, they worked the hardest. My hat is off to a team of real champions.” Again the students assembled responded with loud cheers and applause.
“I have been asked to introduce the boys to you again. I think you know them by now, so I don’t think I’ll introduce them.” Laughter interrupted him for the third time. He continued, “I’m going to ask Captain Cain to do that task for you. But, before he does that, I want to suggest that you pay close attention to the boys who played defense for us. You all cheered the efforts of the offense, but seldom did we hear cheers for the defense. I want to tell you that they were great. They only allowed four touchdowns all year and not a point in the last four games. Maybe we should give them a hand now.” He began applauding and the fans followed, and then stood in a standing ovation for the team’s defensive unit.
Captain Cain then took the platform amidst cheers. He introduced the seniors who came up one at a time to stand with him and receive their acclaim. After introducing the seniors, he called up the juniors one at a time, too. When all of them were on stage, he looked over the group and said humorously, “It seems like someone is missing.”
The audience knew, too, who was not there. They began chanting, “Tony - - Tony - - Tony.” The noise drowned out whatever Cain was trying to say. Wayne just motioned for Tony to come to the platform too. He ran up the aisle to join his mates to the accompaniment of more loud cheers from the students.
If an applause meter had been used, it would have shown that the young back had about as much noise made when he was introduced as did all of the rest of the team together. The crowd went wild and wouldn’t quit. There was no doubt about who was their favorite player.
After school the team met to decide a very important issue - - who would receive the “Most Valuable Player” trophy annually presented by the Booster Club. The procedure used in the selection was dictated by tradition. A secret ballot was to be taken by the team, sealed in an envelope without being counted, and then the envelope was to be opened at the banquet.
Coach Andrews tried to impress the team with the importance of the selection. “Most valuable should not necessarily be the most popular; it should be the one who did the most to help this team win. In this case it should be the one who did the most to help the team win the championship.
“Your choice this year is difficult because we have had many valuable players. The one who wins will remember this honor all of his life because this was a championship year.”
The boys thought very seriously before they marked their ballots. Mr. Andrews collected the ballots and placed them in an envelope. He sealed it and put it in his pocket, not to be opened until the time of the presentation. Secrecy played a big part in the buildup for the award.
When the boys left the meeting, they began to compare notes. Some thought a lineman should get the award because the line was the most important. Several felt that Cain should get the award because he was the captain. “We need points to win. Tony should get it,” said one of the backs.
Thus, the results were mixed and even the team members who did the voting couldn’t be certain who had been chosen.
Tony had missed the practice last Thursday when the pictures were taken. Monday, during his Physical Education period, Tony dressed for the photographers. They not only made a special trip to take his picture, but they took many more pictures of him in a variety of poses. They expected to use them when he was named as the team’s “most valuable.”
Tickets to the banquet were sold out on Monday. A hurried conference by the committee made some changes to the plans. They changed the location from a church basement to the school cafeteria, which was the largest dining hall in the town and could hold a lot more people.
Even with the extra tickets many who would have liked to attend were not able to get in because there just wasn’t enough space.
Those who could get tickets enjoyed a delicious meal before the program. After the dishes were cleared away the speeches began. Mr. Hammond gave the first talk. This time his tune had changed a little from what he had told the assembly. He dropped the line about not expecting the team to win and told the gathering that he had never given up faith in this team. He said, “I knew all the time that these boys were of championship caliber.”
Other speakers included the president of the School Board, the Mayor of Foxville, the previous coach – now retired, a player from the championship team of 15 years before and a man who was listed on the program as “a fan.” They all gave similar talks telling what they thought of the great team the school had this year. Some bragged of their small part in winning the championship.
The main speaker of the evening was one of the assistant coaches from the State University. He began his talk by relaying the best wishes of the University coach who was busy with his own team practice and couldn’t attend. “The University coaches have had their eyes on this team,” he reported, “There are two seniors on this team we want. We are not able to offer them a scholarship yet, but you’ll be hearing from us before the year is over. We want to give them a full scholarship to the University to play football.
A murmur went around the hall when the people tried to decide which two seniors would get the offers.
“Sportsmanship” was the theme of the talk the coach gave. He reviewed many of the same ideas which Coach Andrews had been preaching all year. The main idea seemed to be that the important thing in athletics is “Not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”
One of the stories he told made a deep impression on fans and players alike. The true story was about a play in a Rose Bowl game many years before. Few games are as important to a player as is the opportunity to play in the annual classic on New Year’s Day. In one close game an end streaked down the sideline for a pass. He caught the pass and ran the remaining five yards to the end zone. The
referee signaled a touchdown and the crowd began to cheer, but the boy who caught the ball walked out to the three-yard line and laid the ball down. Then he explained to the bewildered referee that he had stepped out of bounds at that spot.
“That,” said the storyteller “is real sportsmanship. He would rather do what was correct than to be a hero.” The results were also good, he reported. The team scored the touchdown and won.
After the main speech Coach Andrews was introduced to present football letters to the members of the team. In his remarks he again pointed out the team effort which won for the “Foxes.” He emphasized, again, how important the defense had been.
Then, he permitted himself a moment of review. “I think you fellows will always remember this year. I know I’ll remember it as the year of the reverse.
“We had plenty of reverses this year. Each time we were down, we found some way to reverse the trend. But, the reverse I’ll remember most was the play you fellows worked so magically. I have never seen any team work the reverse as well as you fellows did this year. I’ll never forget how silly it looked to see Tony running away from the defense on those reverses. Even when we didn’t use it, the threat of the reverse worked for us, because it paved the way for the other plays.”
Presenting letters took several minutes because Coach Andrews had a few words about each boy when he presented them with their award.
It was now time for the presentation of the “Most Valuable Player” trophy. The president of the Booster Club asked Coach Andrews for the envelope; which he in turn gave to a committee to count. While the counting was being done, the president spoke. He read a prepared speech about the award, the reason for presenting it and read a list of past winners.
Before he finished his speech, the committee had completed the count, but something seemed to be wrong. They were in a heated, whispering discussion. When the club president ended his talk the formal program halted while he entered the discussion. Everyone present wondered what the trouble was, but they could only guess.
“Mr. Andrews,” called the President, “will you come here please?"
“Yes!” said Mr. Andrews when he arrived at the table.
The committee chairman whispered to the coach, “Can this be correct?”
“Tony didn’t win! How can that be? Why everyone knows he was your best player.”
“Certainly, it is correct,” answered the coach indignantly. He did not know who his team had selected, but he would have been surprised if they had selected Tony. “I carried out the selection process just as you asked me to do. Those votes are the team’s choice.”
Again the committee and president put their heads together and buzzed for a few minutes while Coach Andrews stood nearby and the rest of the audience impatiently talked to themselves. Finally, the club president handed the coach a slip of paper and said, “Here it is, Coach. I guess you’ll have to make the presentation because I can’t think of anything to say about him. I was sure there would be no question about Tony winning it.”
This act seemed like another insult, but Coach Andrews had an idea. “Tony, Tony Roanowski, will you come up here, please.”
Tony hurried to the little platform obediently. The crowd applauded their approval but was unprepared for what was to follow.
“Tony,” said the coach, “how would you like to present this trophy? Here is the winner,” he said showing him the slip with the name.
“What should I say?”
“Just tell them why you think he should win it.”
“O.K.,” said Tony, “I’ll try.”
Coach Andrews addressed the assembly, “Most of you have your own ideas of who should win this trophy. I think Tony has some ideas, too. I have asked him to tell you why he thinks this boy (waving the slip) should win.”
A wave of whispering swept over the group when they realized that their choice was not the same as the choice made by the team. Tony was obviously not going to get the award.
Tony began his little, unprepared speech slowly, almost afraid to hear his own voice come out on the public address system. “I told you once before that I couldn’t make a speech. It’s good they didn’t tell me I had to do this ahead of time or I would not have come.
“Coach told me to tell you why I think Guts should get this trophy.” When he said this much, everyone knew who the nominee was. This set off a very mild applause led by the team and followed, politely, by the others.
“Guts is the hardest tackler on our team. I know ‘cause he practices on me in practice sometimes. When you watch a game, you don’t see nobody getting past him. Most of the guys think he’s the main reason our defense is so good.
“He don’t only play defense either, he plays offense too. I know he’s a real good blocker, ‘cause he blocks for me on the reverse. When he blocks ‘em, they stay blocked. We won the championship ‘cause we scored more points than the other teams. The reason we did was ‘cause our line was so good. Backs can’t do nothin’ without havin’ the line open holes - - I found that out the hard way. And, Guts is the best in our line.”
Having said this much, Tony turned to the coach and asked, “Is that O.K.?”
“Yes,” said Coach Andrews, “That’s fine.”
Then, Tony had an afterthought. He moved to the microphone again and said, “Besides that, we all think Guts is a real swell guy.”
Coach then called to Guts to come to the front. Presenting him with the trophy, Mr. Andrews said, “Guts, I can’t say any more than Tony has said. You deserve this. Congratulations!”
Applause broke out in earnest when Guts took the trophy. “Speech - - speech,” called some of the team members.
“Gee, I never expected this to happen to me. Why didn’t you guys choose Cain or Small? They’re better than I am.”
“Well, all I can say is thanks,” then he paused and couldn’t continue so he took his seat while the assemblage cheered and clapped.
The president of the Booster Club took to the platform to close the program, “This has been a real good way to end a real good season,” he began, “Tonight we have tried to honor the champions. I think Tony has shown us that there is more to this business of winning a championship than just running with the ball. Whatever it takes to win, our team had it.”