Memories / Comments

Submitted By Emerson Senn 5/15/26

Message
 Cream of the Crop You know the older you get it seems it becomes more and more difficult to be impressed. I guess when you are in your seventies it’s   pretty safe to say that you have just about seen it all, so to speak, or at   least more than most. Just a few days ago I attended an outing that was being   held at the home of an old high schoolmate close to Lake Murray, in Lexington   County. I’m not sure if the group was church affiliated or hunting related,   it could have been either but I do know that my old school mate was part of   some “high society wildlife organization” for a long, long time. He’s retired   now but still goes on hunting trips most people only dream about. In addition   to me being invited, my old (and he is old) high school offensive line coach   was there too. I guess there was a total of twenty guys there give or take a   couple. I understood I was going to a wild game dinner so I made sure I   didn’t eat much all day in a hope to take advantage of sampling all the   varieties of meat that would be available. Sure enough, as soon as I arrived   there was quail and fish available with other game being prepared to sample.   As guys tend to do, they were munching on the goodies being offered as well   as engaging in wide range of topics in various conversations and that’s when   you never know what is going to come up and not to be disappointed, that’s   exactly what happened this particular evening. It seemed all these guys knew   each other and as I was listening to the chatter, I learned some of the men   there knew my former coach and then I remembered that he did do a coaching   stint at Lexington High School where these guys went, and I’m assuming   graduated. Somehow during the cross-talk going on my old coach commented that   I had played against one of the guys that went to Lexington. That’s when my   former school mate told them that he and I had graduated together at Lower   Richland. It was almost immediately after that when someone asked if that’s   when Mooney Player was there, is he still living and how old is he? The coach   responded yes, and noted he was there at that time also. In fact, not only   had he coached with Mooney, he played on back-to-back state championship   teams for Saluda High School when Mooney Player was the head coach there.   That seemed to create several side conversations among the group and the   conversation I was involved in was about a game between Lexington and Lower   Richland in 1969 that I was having difficulty remembering and then I heard a   voice above all the chatter. He said the best high school game that has ever   been played in this state was when Lower Richland played Eau Claire at the   Carolina Stadium. There seemed to be agreement by most in what was said.   Another man said they don’t play high school ball like that anymore, it was a   true team sport back then. Then another said, I don’t know, I think the game   the week before that one was the best game ever. He said that was when   Freddie Solomon was quarterbacking at Sumter High School. I’ll just have to   be honest; I couldn’t take it anymore as I confessed to being in both games   and I’d say Freddie Solomon was the best player to ever draw breath in this   state. I told them that we had created this “umbrella” defense to contain   spaceship #13 from getting around end because if he did there was no one in   the state of South Carolina that was going to catch him. However, a couple of   minutes before halftime it was evident that Sir Freddie had been throwing a   lot of shade on our Umbrella Defense. The score was Sumter 28 – Lower   Richland 16 late in the second quarter when one team member gathered a few of   us together on the sidelines and said we need to pray. That’s when I realized   we were in a seriously bad situation. We managed to keep Sumter from scoring   again before halftime. I told them that we went into dressing room for   halftime; our offense and defense always met separately so we were two   groups. I told them the lights were out and the coaches were all outside of   the locker room. It was just the players in two groups sitting in the dark   with the sound of bands in the background. Not a word was being said. Just 30   high school kids left sitting in the dark to ponder a 12-point deficit.   Finally, the double doors opened and Mooney ordered one of the managers to   turn the lights on. Mooney announced to the whole team that “We are going to   our basic 50 defense that we learned at camp”! The offense cheered and the   defense went out in the second half and played the toughest half of defense   I’ve ever witnessed in my whole playing career. After all, they were the best   defense in the state of SC and those of us on the offense sure were glad we   didn’t have to play against them. I said Eau Claire had a better team overall   than Sumter and both teams were well coached, but Sumter had Freddie Solomon.   I said I have a picture from the Sumter game under glass on my Chester   Drawers of Freddie Solomon watching Lower Richland celebrate after the game.   The picture is entitled “Couldn’t Do It Alone” and that is the gospel truth,   but what a performance. Amazing after 55+ years you are reminded by total   strangers of what an incredible event you were a part of. Eau Claire may have   had the most talent and Sumter may have had Freddie, but we had the   Impossible Dream and 30 “Totally Committed” Dreamers. I hate to say this but   Mooney was right. He said you’ve got so many weeks to sacrifice for something   you can look back on the rest of your life. Keep on celebrating boys!