Going the Wrong Way
It's the middle of high school football season, and that's a pretty big deal around these parts. So it’s a great time to share a great story about one of the most memorable high school football games ever. As one newspaper described it in recounting the story a few years back, it was "The Wrong-Way Play That Put a Small Mississippi Town on the Map."
It was Thursday night, November 3, 1988, in Tishomingo, Mississippi. The Tishomingo Bulldogs were playing the Falkner High School Eagles. Because of some tie-breakers in their divisional standings, in order to secure a spot in their playoffs, Tishomingo had to win by at least four points. The Bulldogs were leading 16-14 with seven seconds left in the fourth quarter, with the ball on their opponents' 35-yard line. Winning the game was a foregone conclusion, but to get to the playoffs would require a near miracle.
Coach Dave Herbert, battling Lou Gehrig's disease, was coaching from a flatbed truck along the sidelines. His team was winning by two points, but needed to win by four, so he had a difficult decision to make. His choices were to throw an unlikely "Hail Mary" pass, to try to score a touchdown, or attempt a 52-yard field goal, which he knew was not a possibility for his kicker.
But what the coach decided surprised everyone, including his own team. In fact, the play Coach Herbert called so confused his team that they were assessed two delay of game penalties, and game film shows turmoil in the huddle as these players couldn't believe their coach was asking them to throw away their hard-fought win. Coach Herbert's son was the quarterback and as he tried to explain the play, nobody in the huddle wanted to do it.
Finally, when the ball was snapped, the stands fell silent as Herbert took the ball, pitched it to running back Shane Hill, who proceeded to run 52 yards...the wrong way. Hill slid into Tishomingo's own end zone, giving Falkner two points for a safety, and thus tying the game at the end of regulation. As a result of that play, Hill's stats for that night were negative 26 yards rushing on 10 carries.
With the score now tied, the game went into overtime, where Tishomingo was able to pull out a 22-16 win and claim their spot in the playoffs. For those who are interested in that moment of high school football lore, here's a video of those dramatic final seconds of regulation that would lead the Bulldogs to their roundabout victory.
As word of the crazy wrong-way play spread, Coach Herbert gained national recognition. He was featured on the Today Show, he was talked about on the NFL Today pregame show on CBS, and the story was reported all over the U.S. and around the world. It went viral even before the internet!
The next week, Tishomingo would lose to Anguilla High in Coach David Herbert's final game as a coach. And those Tishomingo Bulldog players are now over 50 years old, but I bet they still remember that play vividly, and probably recount that memorable story every chance they get. But I bet they also learned a lesson in that dramatic moment that has been etched into their lives, and their decisions ever since.
And that bold play provides us a picture of our own lives sometimes, and teaches us some lessons we can apply to our own walk of faith. The most obvious is, sometimes you just have to trust the "Coach," even when you don't understand the play call. Because He is thinking further ahead than you are, and His foresight allows Him to see possibilities and opportunities you may not be able to see in the moment. And our first responsibility is simply to trust.
It's also a good reminder that life is rarely a straight trajectory, and there are always ups and downs, and detours that come as we try to navigate our path. And sometimes the only way forward, in the long run, is going backwards in the short term. We may not understand it, but again, we just have to "trust the process" and stay faithful, even when it feels like everything is going the wrong way.
I am praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
--Pastor Ken
