Friends, I apologize for my long period of silence. I have been busy finishing the long-delayed and hopefully-anticipated book version of ‘Lawrence County History Trivia.’

But I am pleased to announce that, after a few final edits, I will be sending the final draft to the publisher this week! I will announce online when and where it is available for purchase.

In the meantime, since we are well into football season, please enjoy this photo from the 1912 season of one of Lawrence County High School’s earliest football teams.

LCHS’s first football team was formed in the summer of 1910, and the game was played continuously at LCHS for the next 12 years. At that time, football was controversial and extremely dangerous. The Lawrence ‘Democrat’ in 1912 published a quotation which said that football was “rougher than prize-fighting.”

Players were protected by flimsy pads and helmets in those days, and the rules of the game forbade substitutions, forcing injured players to continue playing. Among the host of dangerous maneuvers which were legal in those days was ‘spearing,’ the act of stopping an opposing player by ‘spearing’ him headfirst.

The LCHS football program was discontinued for a decade following a 1922 matchup with Centerville in which the opposing quarterback suffered a broken neck and died. It was reestablished in 1932, and has continued uninterrupted for 83 years.