Going back to the late 1960s/early 1970s, I was Sports Editor of the Fredonia State newspaper, The Leader. I covered the various Blue Devil teams as well as the fiercely contested intramural sports.

After my team was eliminated from the touch football playoffs, I attended the championship game between a campus dorm powerhouse and a talented team of townies. There was no love lost between the two worthy finalists.

Back then, intramural rules were very basic, leaving some wriggle room for enterprising teams to develop plays that would be illegal on any other football field.

One of these plays was the “Sleeper” play. It involved the offense sending multiple players off and on the field between plays.

Bill Hammond

If the defense wasn’t paying close attention, one fewer player arrived in the huddle. Then just before the ball was hiked, a player on the offense would step onto the field, usually next to the amateur officiating crew’s head linesman, to avoid a penalty.

If unnoticed by the defense, he would be wide open and the totally unethical play often turned into a long gain or a touchdown.

If detected, someone would yell “sleeper” and the defense moved quickly to guard the player along the sideline.

During the semifinals a few days earlier, a key townie player suffered a severely sprained ankle. Let’s call him “Jay.” He showed up for the big game with his right ankle heavily wrapped and sporting a new pair of crutches.

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The teams were evenly matched and the game was scoreless at halftime. Moments earlier, it became apparent Jay and his team’s leadership were involved in a screaming match.

Jay apparently felt he was healthy enough to play and had to be restrained from ripping off his bindings and playing despite the pain.

He lost that argument and slowly stormed off at halftime to the opponents’ side of the field.

A familiar figure on campus, Jay was warmly received by the campus dorm team.

He was so mad his team was denying him playing time, he decided to “switch sides” and angrily spilled his team’s game plan for the second half.

Seems they had come up with a variation of the “sleeper” play. Their plan was to put a player in motion and have him run off their foes’ side of the field. The “sleeper” would step onto the field at that time and be undefended.

Alerted to this by traitorous Jay, the dorm team was ready and waiting for the innovative play.

Soon enough, the townies put a player into motion toward the dorm team’s sideline.

This was it and the tipped off defense was ready for it. Calls of “sleeper” echoed across the field even before the player in motion stepped off the field.

Sure enough, a townie player stepped onto the other side of the field and was immediately detected by the defense.

Now came the twist. When that player quickly stepped back off the field, Jay made his move.

He dropped both crutches and stepped onto the field.

Undefended, he caught a pass and hobbled down the field for a substantial gain. Not so much traitor as genius.

He didn’t score on the play, but the game-changing deception led to the winning touchdown by his tricky townie teammates.

The worst trick play I had the displeasure of witnessing occurred in 1973 and featured the best basketball team in Dunkirk High history and the worst team in Cardinal Mindszenty annals.

Coach Mike Tramuta’s DHS juggernaut finished its championship season with a 20-1 record.

Coach Bob Muscato’s Monarchs were destined to finish their miserable season 0-18 and already lost to DHS in Fredonia State’s Dods Hall, 71-49.

Confronting the intracity mismatch, Muscato came up with a plan he hoped would at least slow down the Marauders.

His radical concept involved playing four players on defense and leaving the fifth all alone in the front court. Whenever DHS missed a shot and CMHS rebounded it, they would throw it the length of the court for an easy basket. It actually worked a couple times, but Dunkirk’s all-star drenched lineup of Jesse Thomas, Lewis Mack, Dave Szwejbka, Jack VandeVelde and Don Reilly didn’t miss many shots against four outmatched defenders.

Final score was a new school record 114-71 victory that featured a rare 40-point second quarter that produced a 67-29 halftime score.

DHS center Jack VandeVelde added the final two points of that half with a thunderous then-illegal dunk. The crowd erupted so loudly the DHS gym seemed to shake. He was promptly ejected by referee Charley Nicosia.

That had little effect on the Marauder offense. They finished with a remarkable seven players scoring in double figures. Epic fail in my book, er column.

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DID YOUR trick play work or did it fail? Drop me a line at mandpp@hotmail.com and let’s reminisce.

Bill Hammond is a former EVENING OBSERVER Sports Editor.