Nearly 66 years old, Trussville landmark set to be demolished
By Gary Lloyd
TRUSSVILLE — Flecks of red and gray paint have been chipping away for several years.
The reserved seats, mostly the ones not shielded by the overhang of the press box, have faded from deep red to an almost pink tint.
A gaping hole in a corner of the stands greets you if you enter Jack Wood Stadium on the side nearest to Parkway Drive. Strips of grass have already been pulled from the end zone under the scoreboard, taken elsewhere to fill in the bad spots.
The red “HUSKIES” letters have already been removed from the press box, and soon some of the bleachers and light poles will be relocated to other fields in Trussville.
After that, a facility that has in many ways been the heartbeat of the city will be dismantled, brick by brick, row by row. It wasn’t clear when TriStar of America, based out of Norcross, Ga., would begin demolishing the stadium, though it was projected to be in late January.
The stadium was built in the late 1940s, the first football game being played there against Mortimer Jordan on Sept. 16, 1949. The Huskies won 25-6.
The Hewitt-Trussville track and field team held its final practice at Jack Wood Stadium last Thursday under the direction of David Dobbs, the coach at Hewitt-Trussville since 1990. His first time in the stadium came that year, coaching the defensive line in a freshman football game against Central-Tuscaloosa. Since then, Dobbs has been a part of winning seven Jefferson County titles in track and field, three or four more in junior varsity football. Dobbs will miss students yelling to him from their cars on Parkway Drive.
“I think it’s a central stopping place,” he said. “It’s almost like old home.”
Jack Wood’s first game
Jack Wood coached his first game as the Hewitt-Trussville head coach in the stadium that was eventually named for him. It was against Huffman in 1983.
“You couldn’t get in,” Wood said of the atmosphere.
Huffman returned the opening kickoff for a score, but Hewitt-Trussville nursed a 10-7 lead late in the game. David Partridge, who became Hewitt-Trussville’s defensive coordinator years later, led the Vikings on a game-winning drive with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. The atmosphere throughout that game, and many more games during Wood’s tenure that lasted through the 2001 season, was electric.
“The character of this place, I think you can come in on Friday night and see it,” Wood said last year. “It’s like a carnival instead of a football game. It’s one of the great places to play high school football.”
‘I don’t know Trussville without that stadium’
Hal Riddle was born in 1958, and his father moved the family to Magnolia Street in Trussville the next year. Riddle started going to games at the stadium in the 1960s.
“I couldn’t hardly contain myself with the excitement walking up there, hearing the band playing,” Riddle said.
Riddle, who played at Jack Wood Stadium and was the head football coach at Hewitt-Trussville from 2002 to 2013, said he remembers the stadium before the tower sat between the visitor side bleachers. He remembers when, for a time, there was nothing on that side.
“I don’t know Trussville without that stadium sitting there,” Riddle said.
Riddle said it’s “neat” that Jack Wood Stadium sits in the middle of the Cahaba Project, the center of town. The lack of parking on Friday nights was a negative, but it was also cool to see people lining their cars on Lake Street and The Mall, and walking to the stadium, he said.
Riddle has used Jack Wood Stadium as a point of reference when giving people directions. “You go past the stadium and then make a …” is how Riddle has started his instructions. He refers to it as “the stadium” to locals because they all know where he means.
“It’s just been a neat place,” he said.
The Hewitt-Trussville football locker room at Jack Wood Stadium is located underneath the home side bleachers, just left of the press box if you’re facing it. That location alone may have helped propel Hewitt-Trussville to victories. Players could hear the fans cheering, band playing, students stomping above them. That built up the energy level of past teams.
“Absolutely (it did),” Riddle said.
One of the best stadiums around
Jay Barker, a 1990 Hewitt-Trussville graduate who went on to win a national championship as the quarterback at Alabama, once dreamed of playing in Jack Wood Stadium as a Hewitt-Trussville player. He watched his older cousin play there, a place Barker believes back in the 1980s and 1990s was one of the best high school stadiums in the state and Southeast.
Barker said you knew the crowd was going to be loud, that the whole community was going to attend the game.
“I think that’s the one thing I’m going to miss about it, is that it has such a great community feel to it right there in the heart of the city,” he said.
After Barker’s playing career was finished at Alabama and he was living in the area, he’d drive to Jack Wood Stadium on Friday nights, his young kids sleeping in the car. He’d roll the windows down and watch some of the games, listen to the crowd. His son Braxton got to play at Jack Wood Stadium in the last couple years as a member of the Berry Middle School team. Barker told him that it’s where he used to play.
“That meant a ton,” he said.
Lasting memories
Brandon Cox, a former Hewitt-Trussville quarterback who went on to play at Auburn, said his greatest memory in the stadium came against Clay-Chalkville in 2001, his senior year. Clay-Chalkville led 22-21 and with a little over one minute to play, Cox hit a diving Chris Brewer in the back of the end zone. A holding call, however, negated the touchdown, backing Hewitt-Trussville up 10 yards.
On the ensuing play, Marty Rozell called “7 Flex Gun 100 Z Hitch-and-Go,” a play designed to get the ball to wide receiver Lee Guess. Cox thought he overthrew the pass, but Guess made a leaping catch in the corner of the end zone. The two-point conversion was good, and the Huskies won 29-22.
“Of all the football games I ever played in, three Iron Bowls included, this was the greatest moment I ever experienced,” Cox said. “The what seemed like 15,000 fans in attendance at Jack Wood Stadium went crazy. And I think Coach Wood actually cracked a smile when we came off the sidelines. Lee and I have actually recreated that play a couple of times over the years when we have been out at Jack Wood Stadium. Even though the stadium will be no longer, the great memories of Jack Wood Stadium will be with us forever.”
Riddle drives past the stadium every day. Pretty soon, there will be heavy equipment on site and a fence barring people from coming in to walk the track. Riddle said emotions will surely run through him when he sees the stadium coming down.
“For people who have been around here, it’s just what they know,” Riddle said. “Everybody’s got some fond memories.”
Austin Wysor, a defensive end who graduated from Hewitt-Trussville in 2014, said his best memory is beating Gadsden City 17-14 on Nov. 1, 2013. It was his final game in Jack Wood Stadium and the toughest game he’s been a part of.
“The city won’t be the same without it,” Wysor said. “It’s like taking the heart out of the city. It’s been there for so long and with a lot of memories. It’s more than just a football field to a lot of people.”
Dobbs said he looks forward to making new history at Hewitt-Trussville Stadium, where the new track is complete. There is, however, something to be said for the history at Jack Wood Stadium.
Dobbs knows that history is important, and so does his daughter. For Christmas, she peeled up a few pieces of the track and placed them inside a clear ornament. It’s now one of his favorite ornaments that will hang on the Christmas tree.
The Saturday after Christmas, a Hewitt-Trussville track and field alumni party was held at the track. Those who attended took pieces of the track to keep. Dobbs has a piece he’s going to frame and put on the wall in his office. He wanted to carve out the red “1” of Lane 1, but it was too big and would’ve likely fallen apart. Dobbs is trying to preserve what he can.
“I don’t want the kids here to forget where we came from,” he said.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.