Mr. Robert Bonar was my High School Principal for my freshman through senior year, as well as I recall. I spoke with a class mate yesterday at The Fall Fest on the Wayne Underwood Field, and together we agreed that Mr. Bonar was one of those people that you never wanted to disappoint. (Though I’m sure we did). He was the kindest of souls. Too kind to be a principal of such heathens. His love of history was well known. Don’t tell him, but I did not care for history. Or really any subject that did not capture my Attention Deficit Disordered mind. But yesterday was a different story, Mr. Bonar absolutely captured my attention with his rendition of 100 years of Calhoun Football. perhaps it’s the fact that I’m 60 and more easily entertained, but I don’t think so. So I’ll share with you, as best I can his version of the story.
100 Years of Red Devil Football. Written in the narrative form for which Mr. Bonar gave a list of notable facts regarding our history:
Isn’t it amazing what’s happened in Calhoun? When Russ Ferrell wanted to get us back on track he’d always say “Speaking of Football…
Football was popular and it was important.
The Band Booster Hotdogs. VoAg popcorn. Fans standing 4-5 deep in the end zone around to the goal post. Pickup trucks backed in on the far side of the field with lawn chairs in the back. Big crowds. The parking was awful. They parked clear up Philips Run, over to the city pool, the Hope Gas lot and over in town.
Football was so important that during the depression the secretary’s were ask to take a pay cut to pay for football team uniforms, and the did! The School had only two busses. They were for the purpose of hauling the team.
Calhoun’s first season of football was 1923. From 1923 to 1960 other schools didn’t want to play us, we were a powerhouse. For 38 years, 1932 to 1960 there were no losing seasons. In 1924 Calhoun was not only undefeated, they were never scored upon. At that time Gilmer county had 5 High Schools and Ritchie County had 4 High schools.
Calhoun wanted to play football so badly that in the 1920’s when the roads had gotten so bad they couldn’t travel to the game, the school put the team on a barge on the Little Kanawha River and boated the kids to the Elizabeth.
In 1933, Calhoun’s own Romeo McDonald was the first player to make the college team of West Virginia university. There was another famous college player from Calhoun, Brian Stump was linebacker for the Marshall Thundering Herd in the 1990’s.
Front Row center with no name written was Robert Mollohan. He was the representative for West Virginia’s 1st congressional district and was a Democrat. He served from 1969 to 1982.
He was previously the representative for West Virginia’s 1st congressional district as a Democrat from 1953 to 1956.
In 1940 we played Parkersburg Big Reds and got killed. There were 9000 fans at Stadium field and it was the first time for a radio broadcast.
In 1942 Calhoun was undefeated again with Coach Lloyd Vaughn. Only 1 touch down was scored against Calhoun that season.
From 1947 to 1954 it was known as the Golden Age of Calhoun Football. There were 68 winds, 8 losses and 1 tie game. In 1948 Calhoun had 63 players and a 10-0 record. In 1950 Calhoun’s field was used for a college game between Glenville State College and Fairmont University.
In the 1960’s Calhoun had 6 winning seasons,
1970’s 3 winning seasons and the first time Calhoun went 0-10. It was the very first West Virginia overtime game when Calhoun played Ripley with an ending score of 0-0, calling for an overtime game.
In the 1980’s there were 5 winning seasons, in the 1990’s only 2 winning seasons and another 0-10 season.
In 2006 Calhoun hosted the play off game and 2009 was our last winning season.
Calhoun used to play Braxton county for their last game of the season. Both the home and opposing bands would dress in Halloween costumes and have a great time together, and Calhoun won many of those games.
Calhoun has had a variety of team colors. Their colors began in the 1920’s as blue and gold but were later changed to red and white. In 1988 the color black was added. There was even a time in the 1930’s when Calhoun was the “Red Raiders, but it officially became the Red Devils in 1946.
Calhoun played their first homecoming game in 1941.
The school song became Illinois loyalty, although nobody knows who wrote the lyrics. The tune likely came from the fact that the two coaches at the time were from Illinois.
The Wayne Underwood field was originally the Ball family farm from the 1830’s. The family’s log cabin was located where the front steps of the High School are now. The Field was a cornfield and brick yard. It was sloped toward the little Kanawha River on the practice field end and load after load of fill dirt was hauled to even the field up as well as a 10 foot stone wall being built.There were no bleachers, and no grass. Players soon learned to be careful of falls due to the rocks. It was known for many years that the field was not the regulation size of 120 yards because of the rounded corners of the end zone.
In 1925 the field had grass and bleachers, and in 1928 the visitors bleachers were built and used for the baseball field as well, being drug back forth for each season. In 1941 the local Women’s club donated the first score board. The lights were donated by the Lions Club.
Pete Stalnaker and Don McCartney sold tickets or many years when the ticket costs were .75 cents for adults and .35 cent for students. The math was no problem for mathematician Pete Stalnaker, but when others help with ticket sales, Pete made a chart with the totals of how much it cost for each number of tickets sold.
Calhoun has been spoiled with many good announcers over the years, Attorney Stan D’Orazio being the first.
The location of the locker rooms varied as well, but the most known was the Drivers Education Building at the end of the field. It had previously been the Coal Fork School Building and was moved to town by the Board of Education.
In 1960 Calhoun got their first electronic score board
In 1970 the Field was named the Wayne Underwood field
In 1974 the Press Box was concreted in so that it didn’t sway when people were in it.
In 1982 the Lights were installed on the field.
The last home game was played on the Wayne Underwood field in 2001.
