Highlands Football Cannon 

“Let’s start with when Highlands first got the cannon. Originally, they wanted to do fireworks to celebrate touchdowns, but they were told it was too dangerous because of the fire hazard and large

crowd, so instead they decided on a cannon. In 1968, the cannon was bought for $800 from Dixie Gun Works in Tennessee by my parents Clem and Gloria Fennell,” said Jennie Fennell, class of 1979

and the daughter of Clem and Gloria (class of 1945).

The Highlands football atmosphere was very charged up back in the late 60’s and 1970’s, with routine parties and other celebrations pre-game.  “We had bonfires in Death Valley (today the Field House parking lot) before games. We would line the walls of the school with signs, have balloons at the front gate, and the cheerleaders would throw out plastic footballs into the stands during games,” Fennell said. The day after home football games, the custodial staff had their hands full, cleaning up all the confetti thrown by fans anytime the Bluebirds scored.  The gametime environment was quite festive!

Another adventure the cannon had was being in the 4th of July parade, yearly. They displayed it in a truck bed. The truck would follow the lead car and was the second thing in the parade

“My now father-in-law was told not to fire the cannon by the police, but as soon as they left, he fired it.  Eventually, they gave up and he fired it throughout the parade path,” Fennell said.

The Fennell family had a 4th of July tradition, along with many other

friends from Highlands, at their river camp.  “We always fired tennis balls out of the cannon on the 4th of July when we had it down by the river. Once when I was down there by myself, I loaded a shot just how I was taught but it didn’t work. So I just left it in. Later that day my dad came down and loaded another shot and when he fired it, he got covered in smoke and said, ‘That was quite a shot!’” Fennell laughed.

There was also an unfortunate accident including the cannon while it was at Highlands. “Once when we sent the team off to the state championship, alumnus Steve Roller was firing the cannon during the send-off. Unfortunately, the cannon was not properly cleaned out and when he loaded the gunpowder it fired, taking off part of his hand,” said Fennell.