Getting a history lesson from a history maker

Did you know the goalpost at the north end of Turpin Stadium is the original one that went up when the stadium was completed in 1976?

Robert Weeks knows.

The Demons’ sophomore kicker got that nugget from Chuck Bourg, whose job it is to know all about NSU’s athletic facilities. Bourg is the director of special facilities for athletics, and is also back in the equipment business handling football and other sports. So that brings him to each day’s Demon practice.

Kickers being kickers, they have a lot of down time during a two-hour practice. You can only kick so much before your leg gets tired – a lot like pitchers in baseball or quarterbacks in football.

So at some point, Weeks and the other kickers engaged Bourg in a discussion of the goalposts, wondering why the north end goalpost and uprights is sturdier. The uprights on that end tend not to lean to one side or the other, but on the south end, a windy day might create a little lean to one side on the south goal.

Bourg had the quick answer – it’s the 30th birthday for the north goal post. The south goalpost – at least the uprights and crossbar – came tumbling down for the first time at the end of the final regular-season game of 1997, the Thursday night, Nov. 20 showdown for the Southland Conference championship won by the Demons 38-24 over Stephen F. Austin. I get goose bumps remembering it, watching from the press box, wishing I was down on the field in the sea of Demons celebrating.

The south end zone uprights and cross bar came down again the next season, also on a Thursday night, this time when No. 8-ranked NSU beat then No. 1-ranked McNeese State 14-10.

Another attempt came in 2000 when the Demons knocked off highly-ranked Troy State 24-17 with a stirring goalline stand (four downs from the 2 yard line or closer) in the final two minutes clinching the outcome. That happened at the north goalline; students rushed both goalposts, but the combination of security and the sturdy north goalpost stopped the attempts.

Weeks, by the way, noted that one of the two sets of uprights at Kansas last week seemed to bow inward slightly, narrowing the angle at the north end zone. Interesting that all of his record four field goals came at the south end, kicking into the scoreboard and the open end of the horseshoe-shaped Memorial Stadium.

The Pineville product found out he’d been voted SLC Special Teams player of the week when his grandmother called Tuesday night to congratulate him. He quickly visited www.nsudemons.com to get the whole story and by Wednesday, was well versed in the history of his achievement, having erased a nine-way tie for the school record.

UPDATE – Sophomore receiver Dudley Guice had another surgery on his broken jaw on Tuesday in Lawrence, Kansas, and is due to return home this weekend.