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As we open the 2011 football season, we are proud of our new addition to our football stadium. We have built new restrooms and a new concession stand at the south end of the stadium. We also have a new entrance complete with a new ticket booth and new decorative gates. Just south of the stadium we have a new track and football practice field that is near completion. The whole complex is a much needed and first class addition to our athletic facilities. I hope the people of Brewton will be pleased and take great pride in the new structures. Our hopes are that sometime in the future we can build new home bleachers and improve the north gate of the stadium as well.
Our stadium was built in 1965. The school had moved in 1963 to its present location among the pecan orchard north of town. The baseball field had been completed but the area where the stadium sits now was really a swamp. I can remember as a small boy going to the baseball field. There was a dirt road that went through some woods that you entered from Belleville Avenue. We played part of the '65 season at Rotary Field before moving to the new stadium. Obed Monk was President of the QB Club and he was determined to get us in the stadium before season's end. On Friday, October 29, 1965, T.R. Miller played its first game in Brewton Municipal Stadium beating Monroe County 6-0. End Jeff Kaylor caught a pass and streaked down the sideline on the home side for the only score of the game. In 1979 we built offices and locker rooms under the stadium and stayed there until we completed the fieldhouse in 2001.
From 1939 until 1965, T.R. Miller played at Rotary Field. It sat right where the Brewton Elementary School sits today, just behind the old T.R. Miller High School building. The school was a two story brick structure that had been built in the late 1920's. It had high ceilings, tall windows and two huge starcases at each end of the building. The football field was typical for that era and ran north to south like Highway 31. T.R. MIller defeated Jay in 1939 in the first game at Rotary Field. It had wooden bleachers on each side with a concession stand (a small, white wooden building) in the corner closest to Evergreen Ave. The pressbox was on the visitor's side (the side closest to Hwy 31). This was a compact stadium. The bleachers were very close to the field and there was not a lot of room on the sideline. Last year we found some old films of some games at Rotary Field. When the play came near the sideline it looked like the pressbox shot was almost directly down, as though it was shot from a blimp because the bleachers were so close. There were trees in the northwest corner of the stadium right by the fence. At a big game it was not unusual for people to sit in the trees to watch the game. There was barely enough room for the field from end to end. If your kicker was pretty good, the extra point ended up in the apartments across the street from the stadium. I attended several games there as a youngster in the early 60's. I particularly remember watching the '64 team with Mike Sasser running up and down the field in all red uniforms. I was there for the last Miller-Neal game played at Rotary Field. Two great teams both playing their last game (before the days of playoffs). Neal had a bruising runner in Donnie Fountain to counter act the great speed of Sasser. Sasser got injured and Neal won 7-0. But that game is really remembered for the torential rain that marred the second half. I stayed for the whole thing. When we built the new stadium, they made Rotary Field into a Little League park near the Evergreen Ave side. I played Little League there. They left the home bleachers for people to sit and watch the games. When they built the new elementary school in 1976, they tore it all down.
As much as I enjoy seeing our new facilities I believe it is as important to remember the past and where we have come from. After Alabama won the national championship in 1979, Bear Bryant said, "A great tradition like we have here can be a burden. But it is also what sustains us. Tradition will sometimes allow us to prevail when we could not otherwise."
Amen.
