Don Taft

In junior high I encountered many unique teachers but none was more unique than Don Taft. Mr. Taft was a social studies teacher and the junior high football coach. He was a short stocky man who seemed to be a very independent person.

More than once I heard conversations in the community about Mr. Taft using profanity in the classroom or on the football field. He did and I heard him use it in both places but most often on the football field. Many parents were upset about it but powerless to do anything. Most of the kids didn’t really care.

Mr. Taft had special punishments for each kind of misbehavior in his class. Chewing gum and getting caught was bad news. You had to stick the piece of gum on the black board and then stand with your nose on it until he allowed you to move. If someone did something really dumb he made him sit on a stool in the corner with a dunce cap on. Other punishments included sending students out to run laps around the building. While the student would run Mr. Taft would lean out the third story window and hurl taunts at the runner.

Today, any one of these things could result in the reprimand or termination of a teacher. Mr. Taft had a special status in the community. As a very successful junior high football coach no one wanted to challenge him. In a football community the coaches had a royal position and could do almost whatever they wanted. I really don’t think Mr. Taft abused his royalty position that much but I have heard of some who did.

I went out for football. We were a rag tag bunch with mismatched equipment. The too large helmets slid down over our eyes when we ran and we crashed into or fell over each other all of the time.

In seventh grade every kids dream is to be a ball carrier. The biggest adjustment is realizing that is not going to happen for you. That is when you learn what a team is. We practiced right there on the playground and played our games at McMillan Park.

In seventh grade we had 3 games and 5 or 6 in eighth grade. Dewayne Similar was Coach Taft’s assistant and worked with the seventh graders while Taft worked with the eighth graders. Coach Taft would let lose with a few expletives in almost every practice. It was usually after someone missed a tackle or messed up on a play. Whenever it happened we would all duck as if we were going to get hit. The hit was only with words but they probably hurt just as bad as a rap on the helmet.

Each fall near the end of the season the 7th and 8th graders were divided into two teams. Just how it was done I am not sure but in 7th grade I was on the Gold team. At this point in my football career I had played several different positions but had not really settled into one in particular. Most 7th grade boys want to be a running back simply because that is where all the glory is and I was no different.

We had a week of practice and then we were to play the Maroon team. Our team happened to have Terry Ross who was a ferocious guard at the time, Randy Welcher who was the starting 8th grade quarterback, and another kid who was the second team center for the 8th grade team.

The first day of practice Coach Taft was trying different offensive combinations using the 7th and 8th graders he had on his squad. I was relegated to playing defense with some of my lesser talented buddies. I lined up over that second team 8th grade center. For three plays in a row I tackled the quarterback and Coach Taft was furious! He had wanted to try out some plays and couldn’t even get them started. In frustration he told the center that if I did that again he would be standing on the sideline and I would be playing center. So, that’s how it happened. I played offensive center for the rest of my football career.