It’s been more than a few years since the last football game was played at Veterans Field, but George Hoyle said the field is still in good shape.

The rest of the facility needs a little TLC, and Hoyle and WIZS’s Scout Hughes wondered aloud about what it would take to restore one of Henderson’s gems.

The short trip down Memory Lane came about after Scout said he stopped by to visit the football field recently. And although he didn’t grow up in Henderson, he said he could feel the nostalgia that so many – including his grandfather Howard – have for the football stadium that sits just behind the current Center for Innovation on Charles Street.

Depending on your age, you may remember Friday nights in the crisp fall air sitting on the Home side under the press box. If you didn’t arrive in time, you’d be relegated to the Visitor Side and those massive stone bleachers to watch the local high school team defend its home field.

June commencement exercises were held on Veterans Field, too. Oh, the stories that field could tell.

One well-documented story took place on Thanksgiving Day in 1947. That’s when Henderson High School hosted the state Class A football championship. And the local boys won, beating Mt. Airy, 25-14.

It’s probably been since the late 1980’s or early 90’s that any football has been played at Veterans Field, but Hoyle said it might just take the right person or people with the right vision to get football back.

There are grants through the NFL, for example, to support youth football.

The right person with the right vision could breathe new life into a space that has been the source of many good memories for generations in Henderson.

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