Tomcat back in the day | Syracusefan.com

Tomcat back in the day

Orangeyes

R.I.P Dan
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
16,265
Like
21,713
You can see the effects of his efforts from the 1:21 mark to 1:24, there is no mistaking the style, that's him folks.

Click
 
The place was a zoo. I got out of there ASAP. I didn't wanted to get hit by a swinging goal post as they removed it from the stadium.

Watching that scoreboard no one could ever read go down was fun, though.
 
I wound up with clumps of orange/blue painted turf, boards from the seating area and random chunks of concrete in the storage area of my Skytop apartment.

Very sad to say that I somehow parted ways with the artifacts over many moves over many years.
 
somewhere in a storage unit I have some orange railing. great flashback, thanks for the link.
 
You can see the effects of his efforts from the 1:21 mark to 1:24, there is no mistaking the style, that's him folks.

Click
I was indeed down there helping to take down the goalposts at the western end of the stadium, the side where the magnificent main entrance was, off Irving Avenue. We couldn't just shimmy up the uprights and unbolt the crossbar, as someone had covered the uprights with an enormous quantity of vaseline (which incidently ended up getting all over everything...I distinctly remember one guy who was helping to violently shake a goalpost, right next to me, suddently stopping and emitting a high pitched scream. "It's in my eye! It's in my eye! It burns! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!). Cautionary note 1 for future rabble rousers: beware the vaseline.

So we ended up just twisting the uprights back and forth violently, got into a good rhythm between them (you can see it in the video), making the goalposts do a crazy twist. A couple of boneheads had somehow scaled up to the cross bar, and as it started to sway back an forth, struggled to hold on and were eventually thrown far off it (might well have broken some bones in the process). They cried out asking us to stop, but it was really hard to get the whole thing moving and we were not going to stop once we had it close to collapsing. Cautionary note 2 for future rabble rousers: do not trust your cohorts (always wanted to use cohort in a sentence, also rabble rouser).

As we shook the uprights in opposite directions more and more violently, you could hear loud popping sounds as the holes bored into the metal to bolt the crossbar on started to rip out. Eventually, one end popped right off. It came down hard and I think a couple of people were injured. Cautionary note 3 for future rabble rousers: wear a safety helmet.

We had a ton of people initially, maybe 50 but by the time we finally liberated the crossbar, we were down to about 12 (it was hard, dirty work and I think a lot of people realized it didn't make a lot of sense...what were we going to do with a 50 foot aluminum cross bar anyway)?

Anyway, we threw it on my shoulders and started up the relatively steep stands of Archbold to get up to the Quad. Why? I don't know. I think we had a vague idea we were going to break it into pieces and everyone would have something to take home with them. We didn't think it through. Cautionary note 3 for future rabble rousers: think it through.

The crossbar was really heavy and it joustled around a lot as we navigated up the incline, occasionally digging into our shoulders (I was black and blue for several days). By the time we got to the top of the stadium, at Quad level, we were down to 6 guys, and as the euphoria of liberating the cross bar died, we realized we needed to figure out how to cut the cross bar into 6 pieces. It was think, high grade aluminum with a heavy seam. No way we were going to break it into pieces without heavy tools. One guy said he had a hacksaw at his apartment nearby that we could use to do the deed.

So we carried this heavy monstrosity all the way to his apartment, which was down at the end of Comstock, just before East Genesee Street (a long difficult walk). We were down to 4 guys by the time we got there. We were of the opinion that a hacksaw would go through the crossbar like a hot knife through butter. We were wrong. All 4 of us labored in th basement of apartment for 30-45 minutes, taking turns with the hacksaw. We broke 2 blades, got about 3/4 of the way through the first cut (had a horrible time trying to cut through the seam) before the apartment guy decided to kung fu the first piece off (we were out of blades by this point). Against all odds, it worked, he got his piece and wished up good luck cutting up the rest of the crossbar.

Kicked out from our friend's apartment, the remaining three of us wandered aimlessly for a bit. The remaining piece was too big to walk home with (we all lived in different places) and too big to get into a bus. What to do? Cautionary note 4 for future rabble rousers: bring a hacksaw and lots of blades. Or better yet, power tools!

We ended up at a service station on East Genesee St, somewhere around the intersection with Irving (it must have closed many years ago). Desperate for help, we told the mechanic there our plight and asked him if we could use a hacksaw. He hooked us up and about an hour later, the 3 guys left each had a 3 or 4 foot historic relic.

I still have mine. It might not have any monetary value but I will always treasure it. Partly because it came from Archbold. And partly because it reminds me of my youth and what is possible when you are naive and very very enthusiastic.
 
Great story Tom...as only you can tell it.
 
I was indeed down there helping to take down the goalposts at the western end of the stadium, the side where the magnificent main entrance was, off Irving Avenue. We couldn't just shimmy up the uprights and unbolt the crossbar, as someone had covered the uprights with an enormous quantity of vaseline (which incidently ended up getting all over everything...I distinctly remember one guy who was helping to violently shake a goalpost, right next to me, suddently stopping and emitting a high pitched scream. "It's in my eye! It's in my eye! It burns! Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!). Cautionary note 1 for future rabble rousers: beware the vaseline.

So we ended up just twisting the uprights back and forth violently, got into a good rhythm between them (you can see it in the video), making the goalposts do a crazy twist. A couple of boneheads had somehow scaled up to the cross bar, and as it started to sway back an forth, struggled to hold on and were eventually thrown far off it (might well have broken some bones in the process). They cried out asking us to stop, but it was really hard to get the whole thing moving and we were not going to stop once we had it close to collapsing. Cautionary note 2 for future rabble rousers: do not trust your cohorts (always wanted to use cohort in a sentence, also rabble rouser).

As we shook the uprights in opposite directions more and more violently, you could hear loud popping sounds as the holes bored into the metal to bolt the crossbar on started to rip out. Eventually, one end popped right off. It came down hard and I think a couple of people were injured. Cautionary note 3 for future rabble rousers: wear a safety helmet.

We had a ton of people initially, maybe 50 but by the time we finally liberated the crossbar, we were down to about 12 (it was hard, dirty work and I think a lot of people realized it didn't make a lot of sense...what were we going to do with a 50 foot aluminum cross bar anyway)?

Anyway, we threw it on my shoulders and started up the relatively steep stands of Archbold to get up to the Quad. Why? I don't know. I think we had a vague idea we were going to break it into pieces and everyone would have something to take home with them. We didn't think it through. Cautionary note 3 for future rabble rousers: think it through.

The crossbar was really heavy and it joustled around a lot as we navigated up the incline, occasionally digging into our shoulders (I was black and blue for several days). By the time we got to the top of the stadium, at Quad level, we were down to 6 guys, and as the euphoria of liberating the cross bar died, we realized we needed to figure out how to cut the cross bar into 6 pieces. It was think, high grade aluminum with a heavy seam. No way we were going to break it into pieces without heavy tools. One guy said he had a hacksaw at his apartment nearby that we could use to do the deed.

So we carried this heavy monstrosity all the way to his apartment, which was down at the end of Comstock, just before East Genesee Street (a long difficult walk). We were down to 4 guys by the time we got there. We were of the opinion that a hacksaw would go through the crossbar like a hot knife through butter. We were wrong. All 4 of us labored in th basement of apartment for 30-45 minutes, taking turns with the hacksaw. We broke 2 blades, got about 3/4 of the way through the first cut (had a horrible time trying to cut through the seam) before the apartment guy decided to kung fu the first piece off (we were out of blades by this point). Against all odds, it worked, he got his piece and wished up good luck cutting up the rest of the crossbar.

Kicked out from our friend's apartment, the remaining three of us wandered aimlessly for a bit. The remaining piece was too big to walk home with (we all lived in different places) and too big to get into a bus. What to do? Cautionary note 4 for future rabble rousers: bring a hacksaw and lots of blades. Or better yet, power tools!

We ended up at a service station on East Genesee St, somewhere around the intersection with Irving (it must have closed many years ago). Desperate for help, we told the mechanic there our plight and asked him if we could use a hacksaw. He hooked us up and about an hour later, the 3 guys left each had a 3 or 4 foot historic relic.

I still have mine. It might not have any monetary value but I will always treasure it. Partly because it came from Archbold. And partly because it reminds me of my youth and what is possible when you are naive and very very enthusiastic.
I laughed out loud several times as I took that memory journey with you. I'm still smiling, great story.
 
Now that is comedy folks.
 
hey tomcat...that was my uncles service station he sold it and moved to florida,right next door to where the yankees had pre-season camp.he worked on the yankees vehicles quite offen

but you guys need to hit the weights

depending on what sch. the pipe was, a 50' section could weigh anywheres from 60 to 150 lbs. if aluminum
Cross bars for college football are now 18 feet 6 inches long, but in 1978, they were 23 feet 4 inches. I don't know how much ours weighed but it was made of heavy duty metal that was very tough to cut with a hacksaw. The biggest problem moving it wasn't the weight but the shape. It was long and my guess is that it was 4 inches high by 4 inches wide, still gooey with vaseline, which made it awkward to hold in your hands for any length of time.

Anyway, thanks to your uncle for helping us out. If he didn't, we probably would have just dumped it on the side of the road and quietly snuck back to our homes.
 
Great story. If there were ever a video out there or pictures, they would be great to see.
 
I've read that story 3 or 4 times on these boards over the years and never get tired of it. Too funny.
 
I literally laughed out loud several times as well, and smiled throughout the whole story. Tom, that story is absolutely hilarious.
 
Great story. If there were ever a video out there or pictures, they would be great to see.

cc-20040925SmuAfterGoalpost.jpg


And one of the fallen.

cc-20040925SmuAfterInjured.jpg


At the apartment trying to cut the post

FLCN49IGD9ZS436.MEDIUM.jpg
 

Forum statistics

Threads
167,140
Messages
4,682,234
Members
5,900
Latest member
DizzyNY

Online statistics

Members online
317
Guests online
1,916
Total visitors
2,233


Top Bottom