Football Camps (the old days)

[Old Dog]

How many of you guys got to experience the old fashioned football camps where you stayed in gym or other school facility for the entire two week period prior to school starting? I'm not sure when the UIL outlawed the practice, but most all schools here in central Texas did it.

As I recall, you moved into the gym on a Sunday afternoon and all hell began sooon thereafter. We were awaked at the crack of dawn for breakfast at the old lunchrooom, out to the morning practice for 2-3 hrs (no water and lots of salt tablets back then), chalk board until noon lunch, rest for one hour and more chalk talk). back to the practice field for more FUN, return to the lunchroom to evening meal, more chalk board, and crash into your good old army cot for a sweaty nights sleep (remember no one had a/c back then either). Then the Seniors would exact their hazing (hell) on the poor freshman. This went on for two full weeks except for Sunday (we were off until dark that day). As the old saying goes, after 2-3 days we were "so sore you couldn't touch yourself with a powder puff" (for it would hurt too much).

Those football camps were tougher than any military basic training I ever went thru! I'm not saying the training was any tougher than nowdays, but having to stay so long was much like serving a short jail term.

[Ingleside Fan]

Originally posted by Old Dog
How many of you guys got to experience the old fashioned football camps where you stayed in gym or other school facility for the entire two week period prior to school starting? I'm not sure when the UIL outlawed the practice, but most all schools here in central Texas did it.

As I recall, you moved into the gym on a Sunday afternoon and all hell began sooon thereafter. We were awaked at the crack of dawn for breakfast at the old lunchrooom, out to the morning practice for 2-3 hrs (no water and lots of salt tablets back then), chalk board until noon lunch, rest for one hour and more chalk talk). back to the practice field for more FUN, return to the lunchroom to evening meal, more chalk board, and crash into your good old army cot for a sweaty nights sleep (remember no one had a/c back then either). Then the Seniors would exact their hazing (hell) on the poor freshman. This went on for two full weeks except for Sunday (we were off until dark that day). As the old saying goes, after 2-3 days we were "so sore you couldn't touch yourself with a powder puff" (for it would hurt too much).

Those football camps were tougher than any military basic training I ever went thru! I'm not saying the training was any tougher than nowdays, but having to stay so long was much like serving a short jail term.

I guess everyone has blocked those hazing days of summers passed from their memories?:thinking:

[CenTexSports]

I played football from the age of six until I graduated from high school (all 12 years). In all that time, I never went to a football camp or lifted weights in the summer. In fact, I was never asked to go to a camp or to lift weights in the summer. Of course, from the day school let out until 2 a days in high school, we hauled hay and worked around the farm.

I must have pre-dated all of the fun stuff.

[charlesrixey]

Originally posted by Old Dog
How many of you guys got to experience the old fashioned football camps where you stayed in gym or other school facility for the entire two week period prior to school starting? I'm not sure when the UIL outlawed the practice, but most all schools here in central Texas did it.

As I recall, you moved into the gym on a Sunday afternoon and all hell began sooon thereafter. We were awaked at the crack of dawn for breakfast at the old lunchrooom, out to the morning practice for 2-3 hrs (no water and lots of salt tablets back then), chalk board until noon lunch, rest for one hour and more chalk talk). back to the practice field for more FUN, return to the lunchroom to evening meal, more chalk board, and crash into your good old army cot for a sweaty nights sleep (remember no one had a/c back then either). Then the Seniors would exact their hazing (hell) on the poor freshman. This went on for two full weeks except for Sunday (we were off until dark that day). As the old saying goes, after 2-3 days we were "so sore you couldn't touch yourself with a powder puff" (for it would hurt too much).

Those football camps were tougher than any military basic training I ever went thru! I'm not saying the training was any tougher than nowdays, but having to stay so long was much like serving a short jail term.

that depends--which basic training did you go through?

:p

[Old Dog]

My military was just the plain old US Army basic during the Nam thing. Military Police training was much harder, but I'm sure they were nothing compared to some of the specialized units!

Most likely, I couldn't have carried the "water bucket" for most high school programs now a days.