Sarasota-Riverview ’04 regional still resonates
SARASOTA - Riverview High expects a good crowd Friday night as the school's football home gets renamed John Sprague Field at the Ram Bowl before the team's annual rivalry game against Sarasota High.
But compared to the turnout 20 years ago for the only time the Riverview Rams and Sarasota Sailors have met in the postseason, attendance will resemble a coffee klatsch.
Those who were at Cleland Stadium at Ihrig Field on the Friday night of Nov. 26, 2004 won't forget it. Forces merged to produce what Clyde Metcalf, then Sarasota's athletic director, called “the biggest event Sarasota High has ever hosted.”
The Class 5A-Region 3 championship was on the line as two bitter rivals scratched and clawed to advance to the state semifinals, and the pre-game hype and hoopla guaranteed a sellout crowd.
But 12,000 fans squeezed into Ihrig Field?
Not one but two local television stations broadcasting the game live?
One fan arriving 3 1⁄2 hours before kickoff just to make sure he got a seat?
The nutty scene surrounding a high school football game hasn't been witnessed before, nor has it been seen since, in Sarasota County.
‘It was unbelievable’
“It was unbelievable,” said Sprague, the Rams' head coach at the time. “The cameras above the field. When we walked out of the dressing room, they had to clear people out of the way.”
“They opened the gates,” said Bob Perkins, then the Sailors' head coach, “and we went, ‘What the hell?' There wasn't an open seat in the stands. To start the game, we had to go to the practice field and walk around to the back gate. They were so jammed on the Riverview side.”
Perkins might have guessed how big the game would be when a desperate Ray Woodie, then the head coach at
Bayshore High, wanted tickets so badly, that he met Perkins, returning from Tampa after a Thanksgiving dinner with his parents, that night at the Waffle House off the I-75 Ellenton exit to exchange money for ducats.
Woodie was lucky. He got a seat. Sisters and actresses Audrey and Judy Landers weren’t. The two arrived at Ihrig Field to find no available seats, even though Metcalf had gotten four area schools to donate portable bleachers, adding 1,200 seats to Ihrig Field’s 7,800 capacity. With more seats, Metcalf said he could have accommodated 20,000 to 25,000, but fire laws forced ticket sales to cease at kickoff.
Coca-Cola made two deliveries
Anticipating an overflow turnout, Metcalf opened two more concession stands, and Port-a-lets were brought in. Additional meat had to be ordered, and Perkins remembers Coca-Cola making two deliveries that week.
“What’s going on?” Perkins asked Metcalf. “I got 20,000 drinks.”
Said Metcalf, “Well, you’ll probably need another 10,000.”
Sarasota and Riverview began playing annually in 1960. From 1962 through 1974, they played on Thanksgiving morning in what was called the Turkey Bowl. From 1960 to 1970, Sarasota won nine of the 11 meetings. The two went back and forth until Riverview’s victory in 1993 started a 10-year Rams winning streak.
The two teams seemed on a regional final collision course during the 2004 season. They had met earlier that year in the regular season, Sarasota winning 2726. The Sailors, who finished 11-2, defeated Lely and Gibbs in the playoff’s first two rounds. The Rams, who ended 12-4, beat Naples and Boca Ciega for the right to face the Sailors.
The best player on either team was Sailors running back Mike Ford, who rushed for a state-best 2,696 yards, gaining 200 yards or more in 10 straight games, and 37 touchdowns. In Sarasota’s regularseason win over Riverview, Ford torched his former team for more than 200 yards. He was a back who liked to bounce outside and use his speed to outrun defenders, and in the game, Sprague’s outside linebackers helped Ford by focusing inside. Sprague wouldn’t make that same mistake in the rematch.
“Mike was so fast,” Sprague said, “that even if you waited, he could beat you on the corner. If you’re going to beat us with Mike, we’ll decide where Mike is going to run.”
Once the regional final matchup was set, the process began of hyping it. Tickets went on sale Monday morning, and the first buyer, chair in hand, arrived at Sarasota High at 6:30 a.m. By early that morning, Riverview had sold its allotted number of tickets, forcing Sarasota to deliver another batch.
Starting Tuesday, the Herald-Tribune ran daily stories on the front page and sports section. One Sailor alum purchased 48 tickets. Perkins heard from a high school classmate he hadn’t seen in 15 years. The guy wanted tickets. By late in the week, television towers rose above one end zone.
‘It’s bigger than I thought it would be’
“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” Metcalf said.
Sailor assistant coach Dale Boyes didn’t mince words. “This game,” he said, “to me, personally, is one of the biggest things in my life, other than getting married and having my daughter.”
Said Perkins, “We were almost mirror images of each other. We were so similar to them, but we knew mistakes would make the difference.”
And because of those mistakes, the game, as is so often the case, didn’t live up to the hype.
“I thought we had the perfect game plan,” Sprague said, “if they didn’t change. That was how they used Ford.”
Indeed, Sprague had his outside linebackers stay outside, and though Ford still gained 134 yards, the rest of the Sailor offense mustered just 95. Riverview took a 3-0 lead into halftime, but in that first half, wide-open Sailor receiver Chad O’Connor dropped a sure touchdown from quarterback Steve Karwatt.
The real backbreaker, though, was a Ford fumble at the Ram goal line with two minutes left in the first half. It was the second of three Sarasota fumbles in the game, and though Riverview coughed up the ball four times, the Rams recovered each one. At halftime, Ford, punished by the Riverview defense in the first half, walked over to his sideline and threw up.
The Rams increased their lead to 6-0 in the third quarter on the second of three field goals by Kevin Campbell. A 31-yard scoring run off a double handoff by running back Harry Scott made it 13-0. Later, on his final carry of the game, Riverview running back C.J. Hamilton gained 87 of his 140 yards rushing on the Rams’ final TD in a 23-0 victory.
“We didn’t make plays when we had to,” Perkins said. “We didn’t take care of the ball and the ball didn’t bounce our way.”
The crowd of 12,000 earned Riverview a check of more than $20,000 for their portion of the gate receipts. Then, the Rams headed to Fort Lauderdale to face St. Thomas Aquinas in a 5A semifinal matchup.
Riverview held its own against the Raiders but wound up on the wrong end of a 23-14 decision. The following season, Sarasota slipped to 7-4, and Riverview 6-6.
Friday night, a good crowd will occupy the Ram Bowl for the 65th meeting of the two schools.
But it won’t be 2004. When the Friday night lights burned the brightest they ever have.