Savoring the Moment: An Oxford teacher reflects on the Oxford High School state football championship game
A
Among the 15,000 of us Oxford fans who attended Oxford High’s football state championship game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn on December 6th, I wonder how many brought with them the sweet memory of any of the previous championships of 1988, 1989, or 1993. Those of us who did had the special pleasure of mingling the “new wine” of Oxford’s 14-13 victory over Spanish Fort with the “old wine” of those previous title games. As I stood on Auburn University’s football field under the Friday night lights a few weeks ago, I could not help but remember standing on Lamar Field the night of the state championship game against Greenville in 1993. At that time, I was a reporter for a weekly newspaper that my friend and mentor, John Childs, had started in Oxford just one year before. “Cover the churches and the schools and you will do well here,” then-mayor Leon Smith had suggested to Mr. Childs just before we’d cut the ribbon on Choccolocco Street signaling the launch of the new community newspaper, which we called The Oxford Independent, which emphasized that we had no connection with any other newspaper in the area. And cover the community we did. In that first year, when we arrived at church suppers and family reunions, band camps, and beauty pageants—snapping away with our cameras—people did not know what to think. But before long, we were an accepted—and expected—participant in Oxford community life. So there was no question that I would be standing on the sidelines of every Yellow Jacket football game during the 1993 season, taking notes of the plays, interviewing coaches and players after each game, and writing up the story each week. It was our first year to cover an entire football season, and it turned out to be a state championship season. I can still remember the names of many of the players from that year, many of whom I still hear are in the community today, even on the roster of names of the 2019 state championship team…
By Mark Fuller 46
oxfordalabama.org
