Friday Nights at Goldsmith-Schiffman Field

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Here's the text about Goldsmith-Schiffman Field from my book "The Baby Boomer's Guide to Growing Up in the Rocket City."

I didn't know when it was built, but on my first visit there I was sure it existed long before I was born. As a kid the place always looked more like a rock fort to me than a sporting arena.  It may seem strange in today's world, but back then I never even thought about where its name originated. It was always just Goldsmith-Schiffman Field.  I didn't know how to spell it. I didn't even know that Goldsmith was a Jewish name, nor did I care. I also don't remember when we quit going to football games there, but I do remember how modern the new Huntsville Stadium (now Milton Frank Stadium) looked compared to it. 

For all the things I didn’t know or remember back then, there are many things that are wedged in my memory today.

I remember the first time I went there was to see my brother, Don, play football. It may have been for Huntsville Jr. High or maybe even earlier. He played a lot of games there.

It always seemed to be cold there, and hot chocolate became my favorite beverage for football games, even if I did burn my tongue almost every time I drank it.

I thought about Goldsmith-Schiffman field the first time I saw John Belushi in Animal House, in the scene where he was under the stands at the football practice and looking up the skirts of the cheerleaders.  There was a bunch of us boys who spent a lot of time crawling up and down the bleachers using the framework instead of the steps.  I take the fifth on whether or not I took advantage of being under there to look up any skirts, but I do admit to looking for coins on some of my adventures.

I also remember that I either froze my butt off or got splinters in it from the wooden seats on almost every visit to the stadium. 

Jim McBride wrote about his own first memories of Goldsmith-Schiffman Field. He remembers walking with his dad from their home on O'Shaughnessy Avenue, to the field for Friday night games. They never missed the annual Huntsville High versus Butler High game. On Saturday mornings, after a game the night before, he and his friends would climb the wall and look for money under the bleachers. The ticket window was a perfect step up for the wall. 

Jim spent his summer days playing baseball at the Beirne Avenue playground. The backstop was across the street from Doug and Jerry Beal's house. In deep left field, across the hedges and Beirne Avenue, was the north wall of Goldsmith-Schiffman Field. It was a rite of passage to hit a baseball over that wall, and Jim remembers that it was years before he finally hit one over it. He says he was a late bloomer in every way. No one wanted to play left field because you had to climb the wall to retrieve the other team's home run balls, thus adding insult to injury. 

He also enjoyed watching his buddies at Lee play football there. The most memorable play to Jim was a run by "Trip Along" Armstong. “I felt his pain,” Jim says.

Tony Wynn recalls a lot of good football games played at this place. He thinks that both of his brothers, Collins and Don, played games there just like he did. It seems to Tony, at least one of the Huntsville semi-pro teams played there - maybe the Huntsville Rockets. 

Escoe German Beatty says, “My clearest memory of Goldsmith-Schiffman Field was when I was in the ninth grade and we were cheering at the first game of the season.  We were all worried because the letter sweaters had not arrived and we were there in just blouses and skirts.  Just in the nick of time Mrs. Parr came running up with her arms full of sweaters and we proceeded to put them on.  We about had a heat stroke, but would have died before we would have taken them off.  Ahhh, youth and all of our earth-shaking problems!  It is still the neatest old field with its stone walls and located smack in the middle of town with no parking lots.”

Don Wynn, Class of ’67, remembers that it was an exciting place to be on game nights. It was just a great place to play football.  The time-worn bleachers and dressing rooms added to the feel of the place.  Niles Prestage could kick the ball out of the stadium and across a few houses on extra point attempts. Finding a parking space added excitement to the night.  Local entrepreneurs made a little extra pocket change charging spectators to park in their yards.  It was like Birmingham’s Legion Field on a smaller scale.   In 1963 all of that changed when the city completed Huntsville Stadium and high school football in the city had a new home.  

Goldsmith-Schiffman was only used for junior high games for many years. After the city added a fifth high school the new stadium could not handle all the games and so some were played here again.  By that time, football crowds had shrunk to the point that the new stadium could not be filled.  Since Goldsmith was smaller, crowds frequently filled it and the feeling of playing in a full house returned to Huntsville.  It was so small that the first few rows in the stands could hear what the coaches were thinking!

Collins Wynn remembers going to the field with his dad and uncle, Milton, one fall night during the 1952 season when he was six years old. Collins assumes it was to see Huntsville High play someone.  He can clearly recall sitting on his dad’s shoulders as they walked into the stadium and marveling at the lights and noise.  For years thereafter he thought all football players were muscled like they appeared that night – he had no idea they wore pads.

When Collins, along with Mike Smith, Walt Thomas, Mike Chisam, Terry Preston, Sonny Turner, Jimmy and Bobby Durham, and others were 10 to 12 years old and roaming the neighborhood on a regular basis they would always show up at the field on Friday nights to watch the games.  Since they had no money, or at least not enough for a ticket, they had to devise other ways of getting in on the action.  The east end of the field offered the greatest opportunities.  The folks who lived in the houses across the street on the east side would let them climb a tree and jump onto their roof to watch the games over the rock wall for the pittance of a nickel or dime.  Sometimes there would be 15 or 20 kids sitting on their roofs.  

Some kids, like Walt Thomas, had enough nerve to actually climb the eight or 10 foot high east wall to sneak in. He would silently drop inside the park into the two feet or so of space between the dressing rooms and the east wall. He’d then walk out into the maddening crowd, very nonchalantly, as if he was a reputable citizen and paying customer.  “I’d say we got caught about half the time but it was the effort that counted.  While one kid was getting caught, three or so of his buddies were sliding by,” jokes Collins.

Once they reached 13 years old some of them starting playing football rather than just watching.  Coach Hub Myhand put together the very first Lee General football team in 1958.  All of the Lee Junior High home games were played there as well as their 10th grade season.  That’s the same year they went undefeated and beat Buckhorn twice in the same season 40 to nothing both times – it was a sweet, sweet season.  The hard lessons about winning and losing came later.

That same year Collins’s mom came to the field by herself one night and sat alone through the entire game in a drenching rain.  She was still there every time he glanced up.  In his mind’s eye she is still sitting there even today.  He’s not sure that he thanked her then but surely would today if he could.  Most of the time it is not what one says but what one does that counts.

You know, there is no way to calculate the positive effect the Goldsmith and Schiffman families had on the citizens and children of Huntsville when they generously donated the facility.  How many coaches, cheerleaders, doctors, ball players, parents, ticket takers, announcers and others have been positively affected?  Goldsmith-Schiffman Field has always given many folks a sense of pride in the neighborhood.

I continue the fun with my new AI app that creates music from the data I feed into it. This week I share with you my tribute to Goldsmith-Schiffman Field.

“Friday Nights at Goldsmith-Schiffman”

Music Created By Tommy Towery With AI Music Generator

[Verse]

The floodlights hum like a choir of bees

Bleachers creak with memories

Bundled up in a cool cool breeze

The whistle blows

Let the game unfold

Where the stories are louder than the score ever told

[Prechorus]

The Hot chocolate burns

But the chill’s worth the fight

Under a blanket with you

Everything feels right

[Chorus]

Friday nights

Oh Friday nights

Goldsmith-Schiffman Field

We took flight

Hand in hand

Hearts untamed

Every touchdown

Every game

[Verse 2]

Pom-poms wave

A sea of blue and white

Cheerleaders leap like sparks in the night

The whistle’s cry

A pause

Then a roar

The world outside can wait some more

[Prechorus]

The band plays loud

The Generals play hard

But your laugh’s my song

Every second here feels like where we belong

[Chorus]

Friday nights

Oh Friday nights

Goldsmith-Schiffman Field

We took flight

Hand in hand

Hearts untamed

Every touchdown

Every game

The Wayback Machine

"Radar Men from the Moon"

 Chapter 4 - Flight to Destruction

We continue the serial this week, just like they did back in the movies during our times.

"You Gotta be a Football Hero"

Pat Boone

"You Gotta Be a Football Hero" is a song written by Al Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis in 1933. It is one of the most widely recorded and performed American football anthems of all time. In 1935, "You Gotta Be a Football Hero" was the subject of a Popeye the Sailor cartoon. The film was produced by the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Adolph Zukor. Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto and J. Wellington Wimpy were each featured in the cartoon. It was released on August 31, 1935.

I might be a little late responding to comments and questions sent this week due to a problem with my internet equipment, but don't worry because I will catch up next week.

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