Doug Dennison (1951-), Running Back for the Dallas Cowboys (1974-78), High School Teammate of Kibbee Nayee

[Kibbee Nayee]

By the way, I would *love it* if people here would start threads about stars at their high schools, regardless of sport. What a cool way to acknowledge them - they'll find the thread on Google within a year, I promise you. They don't need to be famous - this forum will be indexed one day, so it won't be like searching through a library without the Dewey Decimal System. Go ahead! Brag about your hometown sports heroes! Why not?

 

My high school was McCaskey High School in Lancaster, PA, where an upperclassman took me under his wing when I showed up for football practice in the early '70s as a rough sophomore ... and he showed me how to lift weights properly so I didn't hurt myself ... Doug went on to play for the Cowboys.

This was also a time of racial tensions in America, and when our school was experiencing some race riots, "Dougie" made sure I was protected. As the African Americans were barreling out of their assembly area and heading for the school hallways to raise hell, he spotted me walking by, pointed to a side door, and said told me to get out of there before the chaos erupted.

[Kibbee Nayee]

My high school was McCaskey High School in Lancaster, PA, where an upperclassman took me under his wing when I showed up for football practice in the early '70s as a rough sophomore ... and he showed me how to lift weights properly so I didn't hurt myself ... Doug went on to play for the Cowboys.

This was also a time of racial tensions in America, and when our school was experiencing some race riots, "Dougie" made sure I was protected. As the African Americans were barreling out of their assembly area and heading for the school hallways to raise hell, he spotted me walking by, pointed to a side door, and said told me to get out of there before the chaos erupted.

Almost nobody knows, and even fewer people care, that the McCaskey team that Doug Dennison graduated from in 1970 lost to Coatesville 52-0, then lost to Steelton 62-0, and then lost to Harrisburg 81-0....they turned it around after that, going 4-6-1 in the tough Central Penn Conference, and sent Doug Dennison to Kutztown State, Terry Dixon to New Mexico State, Joe Ganse to Southern Mississippi, and Joe Wysock to Miami. Ganse played on the Taxi Squad for the Saints and Wysock had some bench time with the Jets.

[DonRocks]

Almost nobody knows, and even fewer people care ...

Almost nobody knows, and not many people care, about 99% of what's housed in the National Archives and Library of Congress. I don't know, but I'm interested in knowing, and I care.

[DaveO]

lost to Coatesville 52-0, then lost to Steelton 62-0, and then lost to Harrisburg 81-0....they turned it around after that, going 4-6-1

Ooooh.   I like that!!!   But here is my perspective.  Over a 4 year stretch starting the year before I entered high school to the first game of my senior year the team lost 32 straight football games!!!!!!!  The low light was a 75-0 loss followed by a forfeit.

Its a bit disconcerting to know there were similar levels of dismalness.  OTOH:   I wouldn't describe the league as "tough" as you did.  Probably sort of average.  OTOH of the team in my senior year they had a winning record and I think they followed that with 2 stellar seasons after that.  I'm not sure of all the players but of players on that team in my senior year, a senior went to Tennessee to play, a Jr. ultimately to Alabama, and a Soph to Tennessee.  One of the Tennessee players became an All American football player.

Even in the most dismal of sports circumstances there could be light at the end of the tunnel, unless its a pro football team owned by Snyder.