By DR. TERRY COOMER

Recently, I watched the movie Invincible. It was about the life of Vince Papale who grew up on the south side of Philadelphia and played tackle football (without pads on) with his grade school to high school friends.

When Dick Vermeil became the football coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976, the Eagles were in the midst of several losing seasons. He called for an open tryout of men in Philadelphia. He wanted to let the veterans know he expected some growing up and toughing up! Thirty-year-old Vince Papale tried out. He was the only player from many trying out that made the team! In the try out, Papale ran a 4.5 second 40-yard dash! That was fast and that got Vermeil’s attention. Each week Papale and his friends, who were lifelong friends, to now grown men, played tackle football each week on a park field. They played in the rain, cold, and all the elements. Papale and his friends lined up each week to beat the tar out of each other! These were tough guys! Papale went on to play three seasons with the Eagles. Unheard of! As I watched the film I told my wife Kim, who grew up on the northside of Noblesville, “Wow, that reminds me of the old Southside Park in Noblesville!”

From the 1950s until Jan. 1, 1991, the boys from the Old Southside of Noblesville played whatever sport was in season. I am going to apologize up front if I forget anybody’s name or I did not remember their contribution.

I can tell you one thing, these boys were tough and yes, we played tackle football without pads! There were some sprains, broken bones, some blood on the shirts, and extra-curricular activity after the plays! The boys of the Old Southside also made their marks on Noblesville High School sports as well. The playground of learning was Old Southside Park.

When I think of the Old Southside Park, the first name that comes to my mind was Jimmy Camp. The camp boys were all tough kids, but Jimmy was an outstanding athlete. He was fast, played hard and gave it all he had. He was a great football player at Noblesville High School and held some records for quite a while. His brothers and cousins ​​were tough and good athletes too!

I remember a tackle football game that was precipitated by the Bradfield boys and the Camp boys. We chose up sides and it was tackle football at its best! Jim Belden and Phil Shelby would have been proud! We lined up and hit each other. There was some vicious tackling, great blocks, and some great drawn up offensive plays. You know you go left; you go right, and I will hit you over the middle and heaven help the kid who caught the ball!

Some of the guys who played sports that I remember were: Denny Russ, Ray Dixon, Jim Tittle, Tom and Tim Netherly, Genie Bradfield, Bertie and Sammy Camp and (Camp cousins ​​and brothers), Joe and Donnie McKinley, the Schoolcraft boys ( several of them), Jimmy Atwell, Steve Coverdale, Randy Hatfield, Steve King, Larry and Theron Howard, Tom and Bill Cowart, Roger and Tommy Tharp, Danny Gray, Larry Castetter, Larry Stidham, Gary Holt, Sam Jamison, and Dennis Hampton to mention a few.

I am very thankful for all the guys who played at Southside Park. They challenged me! In the summer we played baseball daily. Hit one into Fourth Street on the fly and it was a home run! Mr. Lockridge had a fence around his garden in center field. The only house in Southside Park itself. Let’s just say when we jumped the fence to get the ball and got into his garden he wasn’t amused! Sometimes we even got a tomato or two!

I learned to play baseball, basketball, and football from these guys, and I got a lot better playing against the older boys. Jimmy Atwell, who lived one house down from me, and I made a pitching mound right off Fourth Street and put a home plate right in front of Mr. Lockridge’s fence to stop the ball when we missed it! Jimmy and I threw for hours at a time to each other. When we threw to each other, we would put the glove at a certain place. So, it wasn’t a strike if it didn’t hit the glove spot. We made it a game! Jimmy ended up being a pretty good pitcher and athlete at NHS. I ended up being drafted by the San Francisco Giants as the 78th player taken in the 1973 Major League Baseball draft, the first player from Indiana taken that year. We won the Advanced Babe Ruth Indiana State Championship and some of the players from the Old Southside played in 1969 (Noblesville’s population was 7,548) on the first baseball team ever in Noblesville High School history to win the baseball sectional. Larry Howard pitched for NHS and did a fantastic job! You got it, Larry was from the Old Southside of Noblesville!

Just after Christmas 1990 on New Year’s Eve 1990 and New Year’s Day 1991 everything changed for the Old Southside of Noblesville. A devastating flood took place. Everyone had to evacuate their homes if you lived west of Fifth Street. It was a 100-year flood per the National Weather Service. The weather service says White River crested around midnight Dec. 31.1990 at 21 feet, with 14 feet being flood stage. There were about 4 to 8 inches of snow on the ground. Some of the flood waters froze due to the bitter cold. My dad lived on Fourth Street and on the afternoon of Dec. 30, the Noblesville Police came to tell him to evacuate. He called me and I went to help. His house was destroyed after living there since 1951.

On the morning of Jan. 1, 1991, the Old Southside was changed forever. Many houses were destroyed. Everyone that lived below the hill had their home totally flooded. My father’s home had water inside to the top of the windows. All the people, many who had grown up there, and others who had lived there for years, stood on the top of the hill, at Fifth and Washington Street, and looked at the devastation below. Many of us boys and girls who were now men and women looked below at their lives washed away by the flooding of White River. Friends who had not seen each other for years, wept and hugged each other that day and the boys and girls from the Old Southside were coming to the aid of their parents and grandparents who had made their lives around Southside Park. Memories were shared and friendships were revisited from years gone by.

Yes, there were heroics that day. We were told that the gas company had turned off the gas to the homes. I noticed smoke coming from my father’s chimney and mentioned it to a fireman, Mr Reddick. He took a boat down and I gave him the keys to the house. He got in somehow and said the gas wasn’t off and the water was hitting the heating unit. He said, “It will blow soon.” My childhood friend, and neighbor one house down, Gary Holt, one of the boys of the Old Southside, did some heroics. Gary at that time owned his own heating and cooling company asked me where the gas meter was, and I told him. He went down in a boat with a fireman. He had to go underwater to get to it, but he turned off the gas and saved what was left of the house and probably others. The Noblesville fireman, Mr. Reddick, courageous as he was, contacted the gas company immediately to get them to turn off gas to the area. Obviously, it could have been a lot worse! Some of the Noblesville firemen and police officers watched from the hill with us and sought to help the elderly and comfort people. We greatly appreciated their help and kindness.

As we tried to clean up and sort through items in the houses, I was hauling carpets out to a dumpster and standing at our sidewalk was Bob Harber, fifth grade teacher at Third Ward School, who was in tears looking at me. He volunteered to go through the neighborhood for the Red Cross and give cleaners, buckets, and mops. If you needed something, you told Bob, and he would try to get it for you. We did not have water, electricity or heat and it was cold! We found what we could to heat, but Bob Harber was another hero for the folks of the Old Southside with words of comfort and showing compassion for all that were hurting. After all, he had taught most of the boys and girls from the Old Southside at Third Ward School. He knew all the boys of the Old Southside as he referred our murder ball games every day at recess, and we had some wicked murder ball games! We could really throw the ball! When you got hit it rattled you!

The city of Noblesville got grants and the first buy of houses from the owners of 44 homes were purchased. Other homes were purchased later. I remember signing the papers for my father who was seriously ill. It stated, “that no one could put a house back on the property. It would be torn down and would become part of the park area.” I was sad as I signed those papers that day knew because I a way of life was over.

While there are a few homes still there in the area, the neighborhood as it had been known for all those years was now over. Thankfully, Old Southside Park is still there, and some children still play there today. Any time I am back in Noblesville, I drive down there and look at where my parents’ home and my friends’ homes were. There is still a tree in the yard that my father and I planted together when I was a young boy 60 years ago. I always sit there and look for things I remember, especially that tree. I look out over the old Southside Park and think about the Boys of the Old Southside.

I will never forget the boys of the Old Southside, the sports we played, and how much fun and good times we had down there in the Old Southside of Noblesville.

You can reach Dr. Terry Coomer at [email protected]

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Given the end of athletics in the county, the Daily Journal decided to dive into our 20 year old archives to bring readers some of our favorite stories over the years.

DEC. Sep. 4, 2007 – Soccer is a physical game. On Monday, the boys’ soccer teams from South San Francisco and Capuchino took that premise to a new level. The players had to be on the defensive the whole game because they would be blown up if they didn’t protect themselves.

Elbows and feet flew, players pushed, pushed and grabbed. Tough tackles that verged on fouls were part of the game, but in the end the visit to South City prevailed with a 3-1 win to stay undefeated this season.

“We haven’t been in a game like this all year,” said Anthony Dimech, South San Francisco coach. “We played good football. Today it was a dogfight in the park. It was nice to see my boys keep their heads. It is good to have this experience. “

Both teams almost got hit in the middle of the first half when a Capuchino striker apparently got an elbow in the head. He went to the defender of the offending warriors and gave him a two-handed thrust in the chest. Several members of both teams flew in, but no further damage was done.

It seemed that the rest of the game was being used to get revenge. The Mustangs were looking for a repayment, and the Warriors returned the favor when they got it.

“This is usually a physical game,” said Capuchino manager Rod Kovacevic of the Mustangs’ game against South City. “[Nonleague] or league, it seems like a little more rivalry, even more so than Mills, which is really a rivalry. It always becomes a physical match. That was as long as I can remember – 10, 11 years. “

When the teams decided to focus on football, it was the warriors who did better. They controlled midfield, which allowed them to vary their attack – they could either build their offensive with multiple passes or send long through passes to strikers who ran at the top.

Capuchino, on the other hand, struggled to tie the passes together, so he took the more direct approach to goal.

“South City played better. They controlled the midfield. It was difficult for us to regain midfield, ”said Kovacevic. “That’s why they had more chances.”

The Warriors (6-0) took a 1-0 lead 15 minutes before the start of the game. The ball rolled along the midfield and a Capuchino player waited for the ball to roll past him so he could turn the field up. Instead, Jose Perez stepped forward and stole the ball. After a few taps, he sent a perfect pass that hit Aldo Castro in one fell swoop. He carried the ball deep into the end of the Mustangs and hit a perfect shot over the goalkeeper’s head and just under the crossbar from about 25 yards to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead.

This advantage lasted until half time, but a few minutes after the start of the second half, Capuchino (3-4) had a golden chance on the track. Nick Medina got his head on the ball at a corner at the far post. The South City goalkeeper tried to hit the ball clearly, only to let it bounce off his fist and get back to his goal. One of the warrior’s defenders headed the ball off the line and the crisis was averted.

Fifteen minutes into the second half, the Mustangs finally struck. Omar Castro sent a perfect pass into the center of the box after a free kick 45 yards from the Warriors’ goal. Teammate Nicholas Sanchez was there, putting a header back on top of the ball, which found the back of the net.

However, the Capuchin celebration was short-lived. Two minutes later, South City finally took the lead. Esteban Martinez moved almost the entire Capuchino defense to the left side of the field. Unfortunately, the Jaime Torres opened up a lot of space in the back. Martinez sent a long cross across the field. Torres made a few touches to control the ball and released his shot before the Mustangs defenses could recover. He shoved his shot into the right post for a 2-1 advantage.

About seven minutes later, the warriors added an insurance target for a nice offset. South City received a free kick right in front of the penalty area from Capuchino. Richard Luna sent a curling flank to the post on the far right, where Castro came in and buried it with his head for a 3-1 lead.

“There were a lot of free kicks in the game. Lots of good chances, ”said Dimech.

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