Comparing the 2009 and 1972 Football Games

The Big Game lacks the pageantry of years ago



The818Now
November 18, 2009
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By Joyce Rudolph

Standing on Memorial Field Friday night watching The Big Game with my classmates and former Burbank High School football stars, we reminisced about the last time we were all together in the stadium. We couldn’t help but notice the lack of excitement and revelry we remember from that great 1972 season.

Leo Orange, Mick Flavin, Bruce Smentek, Frank Baldino, Fred Hodges and Mario Perez from the championship team of 1972 were huddled on the right side of the field near the goal post. They were excited about the upcoming transformation of the football stadium and several said after 66 years, it’s definitely time for a facelift.

But we all couldn’t help but notice the lack of songs we remember the band used to play throughout the game to get the guys fired up. Gone were ”Go, go go, go you Mighty Bulldogs,” “Fight for Burbank” and “Budweiser” to name a beloved few.

And, when the band went out onto the field, there were no baton or flag twirlers or drill team members galantly marching behind them in snappy royal blue uniforms and dazzling white pomm-pomms. And the cheerleaders pomm-pomms are barely larger than the girls’ hands now. They didn’t even bring them to cheer the guys on at the end of the field when a touchdown was scored.

Probably the most astonishing change was the band not playing the school’s song “Hail Burbank High School.” Instead, the football team did a choreographed hiphop-inspired drill with chanting.
Sadly, this isn’t the pageantry I remember.