The Port Arthur Package

Introduction • Chapter 1 • Chapter 1-Page 2 • Chapter 1-Page 3 • Chapter 2 • Chapter 2-Page 2 • Chapter 2- Page 3 • Junior Year • Junior Year-Page 2 • Junior Year-Page 3 • Junior Year-Page 4 • Head Hunters • Black Friday • We Beat Beaumont • Sweethearts • Wrapper Page 1 • Wrapper Page 2

Junior Year

A Yellow Jacket at Last

Since I was old enough to talk, I knew about my family's addiction to the Port Arthur Football mystic, and the nearly god-like way the players of old were spoken of. There was a reverence and pride for these players and their previous glory. I knew that no other player in the world could throw a more perfect spiral than Gail Mills, and that when Frank Eidom faked to the left, even the goal post leaned left as a result. I also learned that the whole town of Port Arthur felt pretty much the same way. My grandpa and my Uncle G.P. were big-time Jacket rooters and always had season tickets. My parents had season tickets all my life.

I had always been caught up in it too. I loved the old stories my Uncle G.P. told and never got enough of them. No one else in my family had every really gotten to the point of actually being a starter of a Yellow Jacket football squad. My father was beside himself. My Mom was just proud, and couldn't wait to see me play. She truly loved going to the games. I, on the other hand, was captivated by the whole thing. I was no longer a sophomore grunt to be used as a blocking dummy. I was a junior student with the potential to play for, even start as a Yellow Jacket.

One of the things that never occurred to me before was that being a Yellow Jacket was not going to be the only thing I had to deal with. There were also studies, social life and normal family matters to be considered. Life was much more complicated than I had imagined it would be. Coping with the whole thing wasn't going to be easy. My child hood vision seen through rose colored lenses was nearly forgotten in the magnetic field of high school life.