The Twelfth Man by Bob Kaufman

Portola Tigers JV Football, 1956-1957
Bill Rees #34, top left
Joe Kaufman, #39, bottom left

Every boy who has ever struggled to put on the pads of a football uniform has had visions of making the big play. In another story about Don Joy’s size 16 shoes, I told of my vision of an 80-yard touchdown run in the Loyalton game sometime in 60’s – a short-lived vision that ended with my getting a mouthful of Loyalton grass after a whopping gain of 18 inches. For most of us, those visions just drift away like a puff of smoke from the score keeper's final gun on a breezy mountain afternoon.

Sometime in the fall of 1956, I was on the west sideline of the old football field doing whatever an eight-year old might do on a sunny fall Saturday afternoon. I was watching the JV football game while sitting on my bicycle as close to the sideline as I could get without getting into trouble. My brother Joe was on the team or else I probably would have been riding my bike in the woods checking chipmunk traps and just kicking up dust. I remember how he would sit on the porch at our old house and polish his cleats and clean his helmet on game day. I’m sure I wanted to go to the game to see if he would get them dirty again.

The Old Football Field and THE HILL
1964 Before the "New" Gym and Science Wing were built
Photo by Carrie Neely

That day, Portola was defending the north goal, facing south with a clear view of Beckwourth Peak, and THE HILL, frequently used in practice on Monday as "incentive" meant to encourage good performance on Saturday ...but that's another story.

Dan Olsen told me recently that the Tigers were playing the Grizzly's from Loyalton. I would never contradict Dan, a Hall of Fame QB from yesteryear who was the Varsity signal-caller that same day, but who missed the play because he was in the locker room getting dressed at the time.

The line of scrimmage was near our opponents 30 yard line.  The teddy bears ran a sweep play around their left end, right in front of a bench full of Tigers. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Big Bill Rees, all 300 pounds of him came off the sideline and flattened the runner, who only seconds before had visions of a 70-yard touchdown run.

For over 60 years, I have had that memory in mind, although like a faded photograph from the good old days, so blurry you cannot recognize any of the faces. I don’t remember anything else about it. Surely, we were penalized for too many men on the field and Bill was ejected from the game for his infraction – definitely a personal foul for unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct!

Well, at the Alumni Picnic last month (July 2018), I had opportunity to tell Bill about that memory, and he just laughed and laughed. Then he told me the rest of the story and filled in a little of the detail in that long-since faded photo.

Bill and Kim Rees (Kimberley Lowerison)
PHS Alumni Picnic 2018

Bill said he was playing defensive tackle (where else?) and it seems he thought Coach Rowden had sent in a substitute for him. So, he was hustling to the sidelines, as fast as his 300 pounds could move, trying to get off the field before the Grizzly's center snapped the ball, in order to avoid the penalty. Then he said he must have been mistaken, because the coaches and everybody on the sideline were yelling and waving frantically at him to stay on the field. As fortune would have it, Bill got the message in the nick of time and dug in his heels, creating a trench in the turf somewhat resembling the Marianas. The enemy running back had his vision of a 70-yard touchdown run dashed in an instant. Suddenly, Bill turned, took aim on the bear cub, and mashed him to bits!

Personally, I think it is a better story the way I remembered it. Bill was a legend in my own mind. But, instead of being a hero, the likes of Jesse James, or maybe The Incredible Hulk, I guess he was just plain lucky. Either that, or Coach Rowden had just invented a new and very effective defensive play.

On second thought, I think I am going to have a senior moment and forget our conversation at the picnic.

Here’s to Bill Rees, Portola JV’s Twelfth Man!