I know that our last edition of the East Tennessean said that the football program had come to an end – the final game of the final season.
Is it really over? Seriously?
No more football at ETSU? This is East Tennessee, right?
Is this not the home of Touchdown Friday Night, where in every community, football is held as sacred as God, fishing and cars, not in that particular order?
I am not going to judge ETSU President Paul Stanton’s decision or debate whether or not it was the community’s fault or that damn ugly building with the leaking roof’s fault that the program is gone.
I prefer to stay in a state of denial.
But what I will say about the last year of the football program is how lucky we are as a university to have such a great coach and group of players to end the program’s history.
Head Coach Paul Hamilton not only had to replace his entire coaching staff for one season, but he also had to hold a team together through something most teams never go through – the end of a program’s era.
And what about the team? While most players tucked in their tails and ran to the nearest available position for next season, these guys stuck it out and gave us a glorious ending.
While some local press decided mid-season that the Buccaneers were without hope and not even worth the ever-so-antagonizing sports analytical discussions, these Bucs fought hard every single game and gave us an end-of-the-season victory that will definitely be remembered by myself and others forever.
How do you measure a teams successes and failures anyway? By the box scores?
If anyone knows football, they know that it isn’t what the statistics say on paper at the end of the game.
It is how well the game was played.
This team has played the game well, not as defensive backs or offensive linemen or quarterbacks, but as men who love the game of football, have a sense of brotherhood and understand what it means to support a program.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a place in the box scores for how much heart and determination a team possesses.
Whatever you guys do and wherever you go in life, always remember that you were a Buccaneer and a part of something special that spanned 80 years.
And to Hamilton, this university has never been so lucky as to have a gentleman like you take this program into its final countdown and come out victorious.
I know I will put my ET press pass in a special place where I put all of the items that have been been important in my life.
I will remember my senior year, when I covered the last football team in ETSU’s history, but I will remember these Bucs more as one of the greatest football teams I ever had the opportunity to see play.
They should be an example to everyone on how to overcome the odds and come out with your head held high.

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