AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > April > 21
Monday, April 21, 2008
Memories of the “Underwear Hills”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The new elementary school in town is in the process - among other things - of choosing a name, school colors and a mascot. Obviously not the weightiest of decisions that will be made, but one that will lodge in a lot of memories.
Growing up I went all seven years of elementary school - this was in the pre-middle school era - at Underwood Hills, now The Epstein School. I can’t remember our mascot - the kids at other schools called us Underwear Hills — but I do recall our colors, for sports, were purple and white.
Back then our after-school sports program was run by the YMCA and was for boys only. If you were a girl with athletic prowess you were out of luck. As for us boys in the fall it was football, winter was basketball and spring was softball or track & field.
This being the south the greatest emphasis was on football. Our coach was a man named Larry Conklin, and in addition to teaching us football he also spray-painted our helmets purple and dogged us about our grades. I have no idea if he was a YMCA employee or coached as a volunteer, but we worked after school five days a week on the gravel and sand playground, playing our games on Saturday mornings in Chastain Park.
Very few kids wore cleats. You started the year in a new paid of Keds, with your parents hoping your feet wouldn’t outgrow them before you got your sports in for the school year.
I may leave some names out but the other schools in town back then included Highpoint, Liberty Guinn, Hammond, Guy Webb and Spalding. Heards Ferry would come much later.
There are two highlights from that period. The first was about the YMCA sports trophy that was given every year to the team with the best overall record. If one school won the trophy three years running they got to keep the trophy. We did. Hopefully that trophy is in someone’s basement and not in the landfill.
Second, when I was in 6th grade our quarterback was a 7th grader named Matt Robinson. Matt later played at Georgia and in the NFL. I caught a touchdown pass from him in a game - my only score in organized football. Ever. Years later when I was briefly a sports-talk radio producer I leveraged that TD into booking Matt on our morning show.
The new school off Lake Forest will have colors and a mascot but the YMCA no longer has after-school sports here in Sandy Springs. That’s not the worst thing in the world for those kids, but I sit here and think about those days. The memories have lasted 40 years give or take. Not bad as memories go.
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