Published: November 25, 2009 11:23 pm      

HOPKINS: A recollection of Syracuse

Most city skylines have one or two objects that seem to stick out. Buffalo has city hall and the Niagara Mohawk tower. For decades, New York City’s Empire State Building had competition with a pair of towers to its south. Chicago has its Sears Tower. Syracuse has the Carrier Dome, sitting on University Hill.

The Carrier Dome will be a popular destination for thousands from the Tonawandas this weekend as the North Tonawanda Lumberjacks football team sets forth to play in the state championship game.

I grew up in Central New York where the dome is for high school football there what Ralph Wilson Stadium is here: The site of sectional championships. My high school’s football team made three trips to the dome while I was a student (I didn’t play, my sport was hockey), one in 1987 and two in 1988. (The dome hosted the section semifinals as well.)

Since the dome opened in 1980, my hometown’s two high schools have shared a very corny rally cry: “Rome to the dome!” There would be no trip to the dome my freshman year as the Rome Catholic High Redwings stumbled through a 1-7 season. The team laid the foundation in 1986 for future trips.

The 1987 squad reached the sectional semifinals and faced Port Byron. A bunch of friends piled into my friend’s parent’s Toyota minivan for the 45-mile trip west to Syracuse. Everything was fine until we reached University Hill, a seemingly 80-degree incline. The van was standard shift and my friend was still getting the knack of shifting.

We stopped at a traffic light near the top of the hill. When the light changed, we stalled. The van slipped backward a few inches as my friend tried again. It stalled, again. On the seventh or eighth try, several red lights later and a near-miss with the pickup that was riding our rear bumper, we were on our way.

Entering the pressurized dome, we held on to our hats as the rush of air greeted us. Remarkably, even though only about 4,000 of the dome’s 50,000 seats were occupied, the crowd sounded like there were 20,000.

Unfortunately, entering the dome was the highlight that day. I can’t remember the score by Port Byron ripped our Redwings by 15 or 16 points. One of our players was burned so bad on one defensive play that he was called “Toast” for the rest of the school year.

Senior year, 1988-89, was different. Our gridders again met Port Byron in the section semis, but this time Rome came out on top, by a larger margin than the previous year’s loss. The back-breaker was a beautiful flea-flicker when our star quarterback PJ Skibitski lateralled to Dylan Gifford, who threw a perfect pass downfield to a wide-open receiver who jogged into the end zone.

I can’t remember the receiver, but I remember Dylan’s quote in the Rome Daily Sentinel: “I didn’t know if it would work. All week in practice I was throwing ducks.”

Alas, the 8-1 Redwings couldn’t cap the season with a Section III title, losing in the final the following week. Still, my friends and I enjoyed three fantastic road trips, and the loss was forgotten by the time we got back to the van.

Now I work nearly 200 miles farther west on the Erie Canal. This North Tonawanda team has a chance to make history. Have there been better NT football teams than the 2009 edition? Possibly, but not likely.

I’ll defer to Dave Anastasi, the former Jacks coach who has been around the team since the 1940s. In a letter to the editor published Nov. 18, Anastasi wrote, “This 2009 team is the best football team NT has ever fielded.” He knows a warehouse more about the team than I, so I’ll take his word.

No matter what happens in Syracuse on Sunday, this team is a champion and the best that’s represented the Tonawandas.

•••

Go Jacks.

•••

The year 2009 is, mercifully, nearing its end. It’s been a year of financial hardship for almost everyone. For many, the year started out with a wave of optimism but has crashed back to reality and continued uncertainty. Still, if we all look deep inside, I’m sure we all have something for which we’re thankful this year. I wish you and your family a happy Thanksgiving.

John Hopkins is the night city editor of the Tonawanda News. His column appears Thursdays. Contact him at john.hopkins@tonawanda-news.com.