Coach Eddie Scott, Pawhuska Huskies 2009 Version Football

Photograph of Eddy Scott by Stephen Payne

Ray Stice asked me about Coach Scott and I was not able to find the information I sought so, I just asked Coach Scott.  He graciously sent me a note offering information about himself.  First, he said he was flattered that alumni were asking.  Coach Scott said "It is a great time to be a Huskie and I am proud to be a part of Huskie Football.  I am a 1992 graduate of Pawnee High School where I played football, wrestled, and played baseball.  I played defensive end for the Ranger football program at Northwestern Oklahoma State University (http://www.nwosu.edu/football) from 1993 until 1997.  I then coached the offensive line at Northwestern for a year before taking my first coaching job at Ponca City (Wildcats).  I then went to Texas for two years to coach football and power lifting in Marble Falls.  A fellow NWOSU graduate asked me to return to Oklahoma, giving me the opportunity to coach in Guthrie where we won the 2002 5A state football championship.  In 2004, I took my first head coaching position in Hulbert, Oklahoma, and then moved to Pawhuska in 2006."

"I married my high school sweetheart, Tracey, in 1994 and we have three children:  Tyler, age 11, Payton, age 8, and Trenton, age 4.  Tracey teaches English and Leadership at Pawhuska High School; she is the Student Council Advisor."

 "We have an incredible group of young men and I am grateful for the opportunity to be their coach.  This team is what some might call an "old school" team as they work hard, hit hard, and they let their play on the field do the talking for them.  They are respectful, respond to coaching and I truly enjoy being around them."

Coach Eddie Scott via e-mail, December 1, 2009.

The photograph was taken just after the football game on Saturday, December 5, 2009 at my first chance to meet with Coach Scott.

Our Neighborhood

A woman I knew only as Mrs. Woods lived in this house, just as neat, trim and proper today as it was in the 1950's. It sits next to a dirt alley between Prudom and Revard Avenues, just south of 7th Street and next to the former library that is now a part of the First Baptist Church. Bobby Hughes and I were about six or seven when we first became a thorn in her side for she was older than our mothers, probably a grandmother's age. Personally, she seemed always as organized, neat and proper as the home, which was not good for us. We were kids and noisy. We were playing tag, ball, wrestling, riding bicycles, teasing the dog, anything we could do to make noise, and we didn't do that on purpose; all of it was a byproduct of having fun. A lot of things we did were in the park where the library was later built and we invariably walked in front of her house. If she was outside, she told us to be quiet; if she was inside, she came out and told us to be quiet. We were a little in fear of her but we never did anything to cause her a problem, not on purpose anyway.

Bird Creek Borders

Bird Creek divides Pawhuska--not exactly into two even sections--but into north and south sections. The north section includes the schools, main hills, cemetery, downtown Pawhuska and most residences. The lower section is south of downtown and includes the section of town that we once unabashedly called "Colored Town." Some people used a more pejorative term. Along Bird Creek, but still on the north side of it are some industrial areas, such as the power and water plants and the defunct brick plant.

Bird Creek begins near Pearsonia and meanders southward across Osage County, entering Pawhuska on the northwest side west of Pawhuska Cemetery and the old brick plant. It effects a major crossing with Main Street, where the new bridge, built in 1958 [the old bridge was much older], offers four lanes to cross. Bird Creek continues under the bridge, southward until it intersects the low water bridge, then passes under the pedestrian swinging bridge and passes under Oklahoma Highway 99 where it divides Pawhuska between town and Lynn Addition.

I was fourteen years old when the new bridge along Main Street was under construction. What marks that year for me so clearly is that I had a 1958 motor scooter and I took my friend Cheri Maker on a ride to the edge of the new bridge, still under construction, and we walked out onto the still unfinished bridge.

The motor scooter was built by the Cushman company and sold by Sears and Roebuck with the model name of Jetsweep. Cushman sold their model as the Pacemaker. The scooter had one seat and a passenger shared it by sitting on the back half or she could move further back over the metal cover which was not comfortable. I picked Cheri up at her house and asked her if she wanted to ride and she said, "Sure" and hopped on. She was wearing a dress and I expected her to go in and put on jeans but she was comfortable and a bit daring so, she went--in the dress. I wore jeans.

The older bridge survives only in my memory as I took no photographs of it and a bridge is difficult to photograph. I remember that it was narrow, permitting two way traffic but in close quarters. I went to Ponca City on buses a few times and held my breath as we met a truck on the bridge. The bridge over Clear Creek, about a half mile further west, was worse. The bridge at Main Street was within walking distance from us and my mother and I had walked there a few times and watched people fish from the bridge, often with cane poles and a line and cork. Anytime I had looked over the sides, I became scared, mostly from the darkness of the water, so it wasn't my favorite activity.