Aug 15

Coach Madden, Ed Myers and
Johnny Thomason August 1953

That date has stuck in my mind for over sixty years.  I can never forget it, although it only happened once on exactly that day. But it has always conjured up those bitter sweet memories in my mind of...AUGUST FOOTBALL PRACTICE!

90 degree temperatures...  two a days mornings and afternoons... pads... blocking dummies..
(although I'm not sure if  the real dummies weren't the ones charging shoulder first into those inanimate bags.)...wind sprints...

and COTTON MOUTH!

That was a term I was convinced had gone out of existence, since high school football coaches learned that it's OK for their players to drink water during practice.  In fact it's absolutely necessary to prevent possible death from heat stroke.

Today's conventional wisdom among the coaches is:

When you're thirsty, drink some water. When you're not thirsty, drink some water. When you get home from practice, drink some water. When you get finished drinking water, drink some water.

90 Degrees

But, I recently learned via the Internet that the term cotton mouth is not extinct, instead has never been more popular. It's very common among today's "pot heads," who get it on a regular basis by smoking "weed."

So, there goes my story idea.

However, that doesn't mean when I get to that big practice field in the sky that I'm not going to look up our old coaches, look them straight in the eye and say, "See.......just because you caught a bunch of us drinking a few drops of water out of the shower heads in the field house during one of those August practices...that wasn't a sign of weakness on our parts, it was our God given survival instinct.

You might have well have blamed our hypothalamuses, Dammit!


"Shush....Don't cuss in Heaven, Ed."

-Ed

According to the American Medical Association,
100 percent of heat-related illnesses and deaths are preventable