Please Help Out Benkelman, NE Beat Bigger Cities Around The Nation

I think I got my knee bent backward in a game there – some guy littler than I was lined up against me and at the snap dove at my knees, bending the right one backward when my cleat got stuck in the ground.

Our senior year we lost to Benkelman. It was one of those games that we should have won, but nothing went right the entire game and you couldn’t really explain what the problem was. It was so incredibly frustrating. Late in the game, we called a "Medicine Valley Raider reverse right " or something like that – it was obviously a reverse play (in fact, I think it was a double reverse, we didn’t call it very often) and it was feast or famine. In other words, it always lost 20 yards or went for 40 or more.

And this time, it went for 40, except for one problem. As the second reverse is coming around, I turn behind me and see a guy that’s about to cut off our back, so instead of pulling in front of the back, I turned and plow this guy as he’s running toward me and looking at the back. Another one of his teammates is right behind him, and he runs into the guy I’ve just blasted, so I basically took two guys out of the play.

I hear the announcer yell “What a block” and it’s the only time I can remember hearing anything from the crowd or the stands.

Like I said, we should have gained about 40 yards, but they called me for clipping on the play. I didn’t submarine the guy, didn’t hit him from behind, so I have no idea how they made the call. I was so pissed off I burst into tears in the huddle, and started screaming at the kid next to me.

What I learned from that was that sometimes games just come apart when they’re not supposed to and there ain’t a damned thing you can do about it.

I also remember the drill team had some very nice looking young woman. The guys in the stands at basketball games used to throw pennies on the floor when they came out to perform.

And whenever we went there, it was Mountain Time, so when we got back home it was about 4;30 am. :)

My college roommate/maid of honor was from Benkelman. Brought back a lot of good memories hearing about it.

From when I first noticed this post to now, the margin between Benkelman and the 10th place town shrunk from 50,000 votes to around 47,000. That’s a decent gain for one day, but it’ll still take time to overcome a gap that big.