A Look at the Lions
If you look to your left, you’ll find a link to the Lafayette Lions Web site that details a bit of their history, which includes the starts, stops, and resurrection of the original Lafayette Generals—the semi-pro team who first took the field in 1972. It’s all news to this 40-year-old rookie.
Last Saturday, I spent a little time with team owner Frank Jordan. In fact, I bought him and a backup quarterback “Strawberry Tigers” from the Murky Waters coffee shop. The fruit smoothie gesture has neither increased my practice reps nor gotten me any passes in scrimmage. But I digress.
As a team owner, Frank seems to be a pretty good representative face of the Lions. As we drive from downtown Lafayette to West Lafayette to help set up tables and chairs for the “Taste of Tippecanoe” (a mandatory team function and a small moneymaker for the club), Frank tells me this is the first season in some 28 that he’s not playing football. But the 50-year-old still looks like a defensive end who would be a handful for any lineman. His own large son recently put a nail through his finger (accidentally, I’m told), and when Frank couldn’t get the nail dislodged from his bone with his own pliers, he walked into the hospital laughing about it. My stomach hurt just hearing it.
The team is full of tough guys. Three young men from North Montgomery, distinguished by their matching orange practice pants, seem straight off the farm strong—two on the defensive side of the ball and the other scampering quickly out of the backfield. We’ve got the handful of Purdue players—athletes who could probably play both ways. And a collection of young and aging men—from 19 through 50+ who still want to play football on Saturday nights.
As the season progresses, I hope to share more or their stories. This blog can’t be all about my hamstring bruises that rotate leg-to-leg. There are only two weeks and just three practices left until the team’s first pre-season game. Not long now until the roar of the crowd.
Let us know when your first games are. We should start a little fan section for ya!
Comment by Erin — June 26, 2006 @ 1:41 pm