Sports Archives

October 22, 2010January 16, 2022

Cape Central Tigers vs Sikeston Bulldogs

It’s been more than 40 years since I last shot a Central High School football game. Maybe I should have passed on this one. According to news stories I’ve been reading, Cape and the Sikeston Bulldogs were undefeated for the season.

If I had to put bookends on the evening, the shot of a Tiger being consoled after the game would be at the back end and this shot of a Bulldog scoring the first touchdown would go on the front end. The Bulldogs scored in less than a minute, ending up with a 21-0 win.

Sikeston’s first touchdown

When I first started shooting sports, I was told a good photo was one that showed the ball, the player’s number, his face and action. Oh, yes, and it should be sharp unless you were trying for an arty effect.

You’re going to see a bunch of action shots here that bend that rule severely. I didn’t have any long lenses with me, so I was limited in what I could get. I decided to put in some of the marginal shots because (a) it doesn’t cost me anything and (b) somebody might recognize themselves.

Unpleasant flashback as the clock counted down

When I was shooting the final moments of the game, I had a scary flashback to a high school basketball game I shot in a small Ohio town. The game seesawed back and forth all evening. When the winning goal was shot at the buzzer, the losing cheerleaders started crying. Some of the fan objected to me taking pictures of that. I looked over at a local cop for support; he shook his head and said, “If they come after you, I’m out of here.”

A touch of class

Missourian photographer Laura Simon captured Cape Central defenders Rodney Reynolds and Devin Rowett helping Sikeston running back Darryl Howard get back on his feet in the fourth quarter. I missed seeing it, but I’m glad it happened. That’s the kind of sportsmanship you don’t see often these days. I’ve covered high school games where the coach berated a player for doing something like that.

I was touched, too, when I saw several players not only shake hands with their opponents after the game, but embrace each other.

The Jungle was full of Tiger spirit

I always enjoyed shooting the crowd more than the game. One Friday night in southern Ohio, I shot the best football game of my career. It had all the elements: enthusiastic fans, raving coaches, a kid who set a record in about every category you could think, winning cheerleaders, losing cheerleaders, a great photo of two opponents shaking hands at the end, and the losing team leaving the field.

Ohio football crowds

As it turned out, the sports editor ran a pedestrian action shot. On Monday morning, the published called me in to complain about our lackluster sports coverage of late. It gave me great pleasure to hand him the sheaf of photos I had taken at that game.

Did you hear her bell?

I was amused at the idea of the tiny bells being part of a band performance at a football stadium. (If those aren’t bells, I apologize. I know less about music than I do about football.)

Photo gallery from Cape vs. Sikeston

The gallery is in chronological order, from pre-game, game, half time, more action, then game end. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photo to move through the gallery.

I wouldn’t waste a lot of time on the game action photos unless you’re looking for someone you know. I didn’t have the lenses to zero in on the action, it’s been over 40 years since I shot Central High School football and close to 20 years since I shot any kind of football.

October 21, 2010

Football Ghosts at Houck Stadium

If I can get in, I’m going to cover my first Central High School game in about four decades. When I asked Missourian photographer Fred Lynch what kind of credentials you need to get on the sidelines or if could I just talk my way in, he said it was pretty casual.

Don’t bother talking. Just head for the 30-yard line with a bigger lens than the high school kids use. You use a monopod? That makes you look like a pro. But I am sure that you carry yourself like a pro. No one will know you are retired.

Impersonating a photographer

If you don’t see anything here for a couple of days, you can assume that I’ve been busted for impersonating a photographer.

Football ghosts

I haven’t scanned many sports negatives because I have a problem figuring out which teams are in the photos. Most schools didn’t have team names or logos on their uniforms in those days. I’m only assuming these photos were taken at Central High School games.

If you click on the photo above to make it larger, you can see the ghostly images of football players hovering over the play. Number 24, in particular, shows up right above the quarterback.

The photographer was sloppy

I’d love to make up some scary story appropriate to the Halloween season, but there is a simple, technical explanation: the photographer was sloppy.

The photo was taken with a 4×5 Crown Graphic camera that used 4-inch by 5-inch sheets of film in a film holder or carrier.

When you went to take the first picture, you would insert the film carrier into the camera and pull a slide that protected the film from light when it was out of the camera. After taking the photo, you would replace the slide, remove the film holder and reverse it so the unexposed film was facing the lens. You would “pull the slide,” make the exposure, replace the slide, remove the holder and set it aside.

Sounds confusing, right? It was.

Lots of things could go wrong

You could forget to pull the slide, so the film was never exposed
You could forget to replace the slide, so the film would be ruined when it came out of the camera
You could forget to flip the folder, so the photos would be double exposed with more than one image on the film (which is what happened above).
You could grab a holder than had been used, which would result in a double (or more) exposure.

Four sheets of film, five flashbulbs

Film was expensive, so it was common to be sent to cover a football game with four sheets of film and five flashbulbs (the extra bulb was in case you forgot to pull the slide, see above). You learned to make every shot count.

Flash bulbs, cold weather and static electricity were a bad mix. You usually carried the flash bulbs in your pants pocket. On a cold night, static electricity could create a spark that would ignite a bulb in your pocket. If ONE bulb went off, they’d ALL go off. Flashbulbs put out a LOT of heat.

If you ever saw me jumping and thrashing around on the sidelines, I wasn’t trying out a new dance step. There was a fiery furnace raging in my pants pocket.

66 or 67 Central High School football team

September 6, 2010

Riverside West vs ISC

Newspapers in the 60s and 70s didn’t expend a lot of ink covering women playing sports, so I didn’t shoot a lot of it.

All I know about this game is that some of the women have shirts with Riverside West and ISC on them. I wonder if ISC stood for International Shoe Company?

Limitations of electronic flash

Technically speaking, these pictures suck canal water. It was dark enough that I used a strobe to punch up the lighting. The problem is that strobes are great for stopping action – they have a very short duration – but the cameras of those days required you to use a slow shutter speed, generally around 1/60 of a second. That meant that you picked up ghosting and movement from the ambient light.

On top of that, the negatives were scratched up from being rolled up in a coffee can for 35 or 40 years.

Photo Gallery of Riverside West vs. ISC

Y’all have been getting really good of late at identifying people and places. Maybe you can fill in the details of this game. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the photos to move through the gallery.

August 2, 2010September 18, 2021

Lila Perry Survives Triathlon

We Steinhoffs are an athletic bunch. Son Matt (left) is a cyclist. Lila Perry Steinhoff, CHS Class of 1966, has been a swimmer since she was a tadpole. She still swims one to two miles a couple of times a week or more. Adam (right) is a triathlete, who does cycling, running and swimming. I ride a bike and jump to conclusions for exercise.

Adam asked Matt and his mother if they’d like to do a family Olympic distance relay at the 19th Annual Huntington’s Disease Triathlon in Miami on August 1, 2010. Each would do a leg of their specialty: Matt would ride his bike 40 kilometers, Lila would swim 1.5K and Adam would run 10K.

I would photograph the event and jump to the conclusion that they were nuts for doing this in August in Florida.

The Triathlon started at Dark O’Clock

These things start long before the rooster even turns over to smack the snooze alarm for the first time. We decided to stay in a Miami hotel to keep from having to get up even before we went to bed to be there in the pre-dawn hours. The hotel was upscale enough that they provided a couple of bottles of water (if you wanted to pay $6.50 a bottle). If we were hungry, room service would be happy to bring up a $4 Three Musketeer bar for a $3 delivery charge, plus a 21% gratuity.

I didn’t hear anyone snoring

Lila complained that she didn’t get any sleep because someone in the room was snoring very loudly. I didn’t hear him, and he didn’t keep ME awake, so I think she was imagining it.

They must be afraid of sharks

One of the first things they had to do was to check in and get race numbers attached to Matt’s bike and for Adam to display while he ran. Because swimming was involved, everyone had to have their race number written on their arms and legs in waterproof marker. When I saw them scrawling a big R on the back of Lila’s leg, I thought, “Man, they must be concerned about sharks out in Virgina Key Bay if they want to be able to tell which were the Left and Right legs of the swimmers.”

I found out later that I was getting my jumping to conclusions exercise. “R” stood for relay, meaning that it was a team, and not an individual entry. (I like my original theory better.)

Lila is NOT under house arrest

Lila is wearing an electronic device around her ankle, but she’s not under house arrest, nor has she been palling around with Lindsay Lohan.

The ankle straps contain timing chips that tell how long each athlete takes to cover a particular leg and how long they take in the “transition area” to switch to the next specialty. Swimmers, for example, have to make it out of the water, find their bicycles, put on cycling shoes and a helmet and hit the bike course.

Lila’s chip said she finished her swim in 47 minutes, 53 seconds. When she got to the bike transition area, she handed off the timing chip to Matt and was done for the day. She was lucky that her timing chip stayed on. Right after one of the elite groups took off, a timing anklet was seen floating about 40 feet offshore. Losing the chip can mean disqualification and having to pay $35 to replace it.

The wonders of digital cameras

When the swimmers went to check out the Swim Start area, it was so dark that about all you could see was the Miami skyline in the distance. I was amazed at how much detail the Nikon D40 will pick up with almost no light.

Lila tests the waters

Lila has had few experiences doing long swims in salt water. When the kids were younger, she was in the water shepherding a bunch of Boy Scouts qualifying for their Mile Swim badge. All of a sudden, this huge, dark object rolled over right in their path. She could just see herself writing a packet of “I regret to inform you that your son was eaten by an alligator while in my charge” letters.

Fortunately, the large object turned out to be a harmless manatee.

You can see that the sun was just beginning to think about waking up when she waded into the 87.9 degree water.

Danger: Spilled Testosterone

Before the races start, there’s a lot of kidding around and socializing. Don’t think for a moment, though, that these folks don’t take the event seriously. There was so much testosterone oozing out that the course was slippery.

Starts are controlled chaos

When the starter says “GO!!!” there’s a mad dash to get into the water and start churning. The guy on the right looks like he’s figured out a way to run on top of the water.

Lila’s a Diesel engine

Lila opted for a more sedate water entry, which put her at the back of the pack. She had no illusions about winning her first triathlon; her goal was to finish, hopefully in under an hour. I had no doubt that she’d make it, but some of the lifeguards may not have been so sure.

“As I passed the guys on the paddle boards, some asked how I was doing? I told them I have a Diesel engine. I’m not fast, but I can go all day. They could see that I wasn’t winded or struggling, so all was good. The only problem I had was that, without my glasses, unlike the bright orange buoys at the beginning of the course, the yellow buoys were hard to see against the green along the shore in the early morning light. As I went around the last two buoys, I had to ask the guys on the paddle boards to point me to the next buoy.'”

How Did Team DedicatedIT do?

You can see the course here.

Adam’s goal was to do his run in an hour. His last best time was 1:30. He was disappointed that his final time was 1:09:46. He said that the heat had pushed his heart rate above what he could sustain.

Matt, who was doing this for the first time, didn’t know what his goal was other than not being last. He completed his 24.8-mile bike ride in 1:26:03, an average of a little over 17 mph. Considering the heat and that the course involved climbing the Key Biscayne Bridge four times, that’s pretty good. Another consideration was that he was riding a bike handed down by his uncle, Mark, instead of the specialty bikes favored by the hard-core racers. Some of those bikes are worth more than Matt’s car.

Lila’s swim time for 1.5K (just a hair under a mile), as mentioned before, was 47:53, beating her goal of an hour.

They WERE a little disappointed to find that their gold medals weren’t REAL gold.