RichlandsAlum

At one time it was Maroon Wave Stadium, located in Junior Poca (a suburb of Welch). My dad played for Welch on that field back in the 1950s. Including one 1957 game against Northfork when he lined up directly across the line against his own brother (who played for the Blue Demons).

Hillsville. Don't know the name of the the stadium though.

Not to hijack a thread, but more history behind that tidbit.... The Southwest District was probably founded for the primary reason of allowing its member schools to compete for what was then the Division 1 state championship. Although designation as champion was still a highly arbitrary process, there were some standards established in the mid 1950s that included a requirement to play a minimum number of games against other Division 1 schools. For travel and scheduling purposes it made sense for the original members to band together and form the SWD to help meet that requirement. Graham, Grundy, Richlands, Tazewell, and Virginia High were among the founding members. The Western District was formed for similar reasons and mostly included schools from Roanoke and Lynchburg. Since the two areas were still pretty far removed from one another and neither district had enough to fill out a full schedule on their own, there was frequent "cross scheduling" between the SWD and Western District schools throughout the 1960s who were serious about challenging for state honors. Grundy played Glass pretty consistently. Tazewell and Graham both played Jefferson pretty regularly. Richlands played William Fleming and Patrick Henry. Virginia High started scheduling Glass and/or Fleming around 1965 as the standards apparently became a bit more restrictive. Around that time it appears that it became common for the champions of the SWD and the Western District to play each other at the conclusion of the regular season. Although if one of those teams were undefeated (as was the case with Andrew Lewis in 1966) then a game would be arranged with one of the schools further east to decide the state championship instead.

Since it's highly unlikely that the Town is party to the lease agreement, they probably didn't have legal standing to go into closed session. Virginia law is pretty specific and limiting about that sort of thing.

Unless they are prepared to participate financially in offering or building a facility, the Town of Bluefield really has no standing in this issue.

Galax. Fiddlers Convention reference got it for me.

Before my time but that game was apparently a real humdinger based on the score. My father-in-law's family has pretty deep roots in that area. I've spent quite a bit of time there and heard a lot of interesting stories. One in particular was that the merger between Dublin and Pulaski into PCHS was pretty rough because the two prior schools were such bitter rivals.

Soldiers Field -- home of the Dublin Dukes. I've got Pulaski County covered tonight, baby!

The Orioles of Pulaski High School. (My mother-in-law taught there in the 1960s)

Calfee Park in Pulaski?

Speaking only for myself, I am a genuinely horrible human being. No direct relationship between that, Richlands, basketball, and/or Richlands basketball.

Yeah, that's really perplexing. I would have thought that the coach might have made some effort to reel in his player after the very first technical was called. Apparently quite a few system breakdowns in that game. Very unfortunate.

https://www.facebook.com/martin.pounds/videos/1171451908033847/ The physical act in question is captured in the above link at about the 23 second mark. Reasonable minds may differ, but that looks like more of a drop to me. Still definitely an unsportsmanlike act that delayed the game either way. And the referee was well within his prerogative to make that call. But that and the subsequent technical calls really seemed to inflame the situation. Seems like there could be some kind of teachable moment there. Also what made me wonder if things had been chippy overall or with that particular player before.

Having seen the video, I'm curious about the technical foul call. I saw the referee repeatedly ask the Virginia High kid for the ball and the Bearcat player just drop it. But had there been some odd interaction before that? It's the official's prerogative but there appeared to be some dissension among the crew and I imagine that's a call that will be reviewed and discussed quite a bit within officials organizations. (Responses/comments from officials on this board certainly welcome.)

This triggered the following memory... Richlands played basketball at VHS during the '82-'83 season. The Bearcat student section fanned out along the first row of the (then) new gym and unfurled a long banner that read, "Blow Me, Tornadoes" replete with a naughty-looking rendition of our mascot. It was enough to make our guys stop and laugh during the game. Sorry if this violates terms of a family friendly board. But I have to admit that I thought it was clever. Perhaps the current generation of Bristol youngsters can come up with something snappy.