In the ’50’s, Kingman was having a normal football season. Once again we were fielding a team displaying determination, tenacity, and lunacy in spite of our cellar ranking.
Roy was looking for ways to improve our record since practice and scrimmage could take us only so far.

It was said that Bony-eyed Bonnie could fuse a guy’s joints just by staring at him.

We laughed at that, but no one made eye contact with her, either. Mystery clouded her. She appeared at the junction of the highway and a long dirt road to catch the school bus. Her house and family, if they existed,were never seen. Her personal space was three times the size of the most grubby kids and was never violated.

Except by Roy.

Willing to make any kind of deal that could help the team, Roy reasoned that she could put the freeze on the opponents and the Mohave County Union High School Bulldogs would put one in the win column.

Roy talked Dad into taking her with us to the game at Boulder City, Nevada.

That night under the lights of their field, inhaling the smells of mown grass, and the thrill of being out of town made up for the fact that I had to ride all the way looking out a side window to keep from seeing Bony-eyed. I was shocked to find that she could talk to Mom about regular girl things.

Poor Boulder City. They only had one play. Give the ball to their quickest guy who ran around end for a touchdown. It got boring pretty fast.
Kingman ran a Tee formation. Two halfbacks and a fullback. The fullback spot is the powerhouse runner, the man who will bowl over tacklers and punch through steel walls.

Our fullback was Bruce Ricca. Bruce was probably rocking around 120, maybe 130 lbs.

When Boulder City got spent from running touchdowns, kicking off and recovering fumbles to make more touchdowns, we lined up to make ’em pay.

The handoff to Bruce. He hit the line off-tackle going full tilt.

When they cleared the pile-up, Bruce had one thigh pad knocked out of his pants, and the other was ripped and hanging. His hip pads were twisted, the lacing of his shoulder pads was snapped leaving them to flop around under his jersey, and his helmet was cracked.

Later in the game, Roy managed to make a flying, twisting tackle to grab the foot and break the ankle of their end-run, touchdown-making player. That kept the score down to 63-0.

Turns out, Bony-eyed Bonnie couldn’t fuse bone joints, but she could help Roy forget the game. Bruce couldn’t remember the game for three days.

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