inDECATUR

Antique DHS bike tags

These tags were proudly displayed on the bikes of DHS students until they "graduated" to four wheels:

Found this on one of the DHS alumni class sites linked from DHSga.com.

Decatur High Stadium at night, as seen from McDonough

The white specs are probably from a dirty lens.

You could watch the game from the construction fence on McDonough, if you're not willing to contribute $7 to help defray expenses. Once the new gym auditorium are built, this view will be lost.

A black mesh night has been put on the chain link fence on the Commerce side, but one can still see through it. A crowd of about 75 people gathered on the wall north of the stadium to watch the game for free.

A student told me she did the grass for this rather violently themed float, which she said won the float competition in the homecoming parade:

Snack pricing is comparable to college games, except soft drinks are only $2. You can buy a lollipop. Chick Fil A sandwiches are sold. See image of pricing sign in the continuation, if interested.

DHS alum are reminded of the new unofficial alumni website at dhsga.com, where some new images of the Class of '63 will be uploaded today.

Decatur High homecoming parade & ceremony

Dennis @ Next Stop ... Decatur has photos of the parade.

Here's a ten minute video of the presentation of the Homecoming court (the jerky motion in places is because inDECATUR doesn't get a press pass and thus had to stand in front of some steps to take the video, and it's hard to hear the band and the announcer):

The music, combined with the crossing of the sabres, made for an impressive ceremony.

Decatur kicks Cross Keys, 56-0

Decatur scored 56 points in the first half and held Cross Keys scoreless in both halves Friday evening to get its first win in its new stadium.

DHS is now 2-3 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

Cross Keys is 0-5. It lost its two previous games by 50-0.  There seems to be a shortage of players.

Some photos will be added by noon.

In 2004, Decatur beat Cross Keys 55-0, with all the scoring in three quarters.

Video of Alumni football players at the 9/19/08 DHS game

This five minute video shows guys who played football at Decatur high schools as early as 1940 (three score and eight years of tradition):

It would have been good if they were wearing placards which had their initials, and class years, with a directory to link to, but nobody asked this old blogger how to do it.

You can identify any of them by giving the time into the video and a description of what they are wearing.

A few of them will be passing on in coming years. We'll be able to look back on them in this video.

In any case, it was great that they were honored in this way.

As a bonus, you'll see the Superintendent of CSD, the school board members, and the DHS principal.

See this earlier post for a link to 177 images.

See this earlier post for a review of the game itself, which didn't go so well.

See Goldtimer's new unofficial alumni web site at dhsga.com.

Hillgrove christens Decatur's new stadium with its first loss

It is not often an opponent gets to christen another team's new stadium by disappointing four generations of fans.[DHS dates back to 1912.]

From repeated forced fumbles to a bulldozer of a rushing game, Hillgrove went to the new Decatur Stadium and lived up to every boo it received from the Decatur faithful as they rolled over the Bulldogs, 35-15.

"We challenged them to be more physical and aggressive and that's what they did," said Hawks' coach Phillip Ironside.

The Hawks' defense came out in full-force recovering two of five fumbles and grabbing an interception, while holding the Bulldogs to only 93 total yards.

"I thought Hillgrove's kids probably played a little bit harder than we did," said Bulldogs' coach Price Jones. "We just didn't play a good game."

continued in the continuation

Zack Huffman | Marietta Daily Journal | 9/20/20008

Since this was a special occasion, 177 photos are now linked at this earlier inDECATUR post. Some one-minute videos will be linked there Sunday.

See also Goldtimer's unofficial DHS alumni website at dhsga.com.

Grand opening of Decatur High stadium marred only by loss

UPDATE III: See a video of the alumni players embedded in this later post.

UPDATE II: See a writeup on the game in this later post.

UPDATE: 177 images can now be seen here. Included are closeups of all the attending alumni players (in small groups). If you can comment on the photos, identifying one or more of the alumni [name, class, etc.], it would be most appreciated.

Decatur's grand opening of its new stadium [just 322 days after its last game in the historic old one -- first lighted high school stadium in Georgia] was almost perfect. The weather was clear and mild. Decaturites packed the home stands. The grande opening went off without a glitch. The facilities were shiny, new, and operational.

It was marred only by an ugly 35-15 loss. The score was 21-0 Hillgrove Hawks [a AAAA school in Powder Springs] before the half. AA Decatur's record is now 1-2 with Price Jones as coach. He was promoted from being an assistant coach. The Hawks broke a two-game losing streak and are now 2-2.

Why did we schedule a AAAA team???

At least these Decatur Bulldogs did do better than the other Decatur Bulldogs, who lost 60-0.

See 177 photos in this Flickr set. Some videos will be linked Sunday.

Visitors enter the north stands from an entrance under the scoreboard off Commerce. The south (home) stands were packed for the game. This image was taken pregame:

The view from the south shows the metal bleacher style construction, and the concession building in the center:

The new Spike logo in the center of the field is large and looks great. [The old-style, forward looking, logo on the Decatur website must have been photoshopped. This blogger likes this one better, because it looks less like the Yale/UGA one.]

The people standing on the sideline are some of the alumni players. All of them will be featured in closeups in a Flickr album to be linked soon. [That's Walter Chadwick in the white tee shirt at about the 49 yard line. inDECATUR has posted his story.] The CSD Superintendent and School Board members are standing between the 45th and 50th yard line.

In keeping with the Berkeley side of Decatur, those who cannot afford a $7 general admission ticket can see the game quite well from the wall north of the stadium or through the chain link fence along Commerce.

The fans don't all wear the school colors of blue and gold. The press box is rather Mayberry looking, like a mobile home:

The lighting was excellent. The uniforms looked great, except this blogger would prefer the "Spike" bulldog logo [ass has been used in the past] to the word "Dawgs" (in baseball style print) on the helmets:

The field is also lined for soccer, which requires a slightly wider field. Decatur has a state championship in soccer in its trophy case.

Some of the old stones from the historic stadium were used behind the stadium. This blogger would have liked to have seen more of them, and less concrete/brick curbing and walls.

The flyover was a nice thought. Flyovers are rare in HS ball. But it seemed bigger, higher, and slower than most. This is a 10X zoom image:

Whether we really needed to borrow so much money to build a new stadium (vs. renovating the historic one [which was structurally sound] and just adding visitor stands on the north side) is debatable. But, now that we've voted in the $30M bond and accept the tax burden, it is nice to have shiny, new things.

The Mayor was there, of course:

See also photos taken by Dennis @ Next Stop Decatur (using his Cannon Rebel XT camera), whom this blogger finally had the pleasure to finally meet in person at the game.

See also Goldtimer's unofficial DHS alumni website at dhsga.com.

Parking for tonight's DHS "Spiritfest" and game

Some 10 months after Decatur turned out the lights at the old historic high school stadium on N. McDonough Street, the new brick and steel stadium that replaced it will host its first home football game Friday night.

Kick-off is at 7:30 p.m.

City officials are expecting a big crowd. Free parking is available in the school’s upper parking lot (along Howard), the Callaway lot (at Trinity and Commerce) and the Courthouse parking structure (also at Trinity and Commerce).

A free shuttle will run from the Callaway lot to the stadium entrance both before and after the game. Students will also be on hand to help direct foot traffic.

KT | AJC | 9/18/2008

Unless you are handicapped or elderly, another viable alternative is to WALK.  One can walk to the stadium from virtually any parking space downtown in five minutes.

It will be dark for your walk back, but if the Decatur PD is doing its job, it should have extra cops on duty downtown until 30 minutes after the game.

New websites for Decatur High School alumni

Goldtimer has created a new, unofficial DHS website at dhsga.com. If interested, check back weekly for updates, as it is sure to grow like topsy.

A new DHS forum (message board) has been created at dhsga.info. It will be linked from dhsga.com soon. Please feel to use it to share information about anything related to DHS, now or earlier.

These resources are for all alumni of all Decatur Schools, including Herring Street and Trinity High Schools, of course.

DHS field logo

Decatur [GA] High School plays its first game in its new stadium on 9/19/2008.

The logo in the center of the field is the traditional logo, not the new logo seen in the sidebar.

City of Decatur stadium status report