By Robert Jimerson, Sr.
I believe it would have been the fall of 1971 or spring of 1972 when a group of parents got together to discuss forming a little league football team. The group of parents were, Gilbert and Iona Lay, Boots and Annie Keyes, Jr and Joyce Gates, Frank and Doris Patterson, Milt and Shirley Wheeler, Bally and Bobby Huff, Ty LeRoy, there may have been others but I do not recall at this time. At that time their boys had been playing football in surrounding organizations and they felt there were other boys that would play if there was a local team. I had been coaching for the Gowanda Packers for five years as an assistant coach to Stan Burzak and was slated to become head coach in the fall of 1972.
In late spring of 1972 Gilbert Lay approached me and told me of the plans to start a little league football team on the reservation and would I be interested in helping with the program and coach one of the teams. I thought long and hard on the decision because I had been with the packers for five years and Stan was going to step back from coaching, and I would be head coach. Looking back, I remember Gilbert asking me again in the present of Rev Owl. Gilbert asked Rev Owl “don’t you think Robbie should come and coach the new team” Of course Rev Owl said I should. I told Gilbert that was not fair ganging up on me with the man of the cloth. We all had a good laugh about it. Anyway, I talked to Stan and told him what was going on. Stan told me not to worry about the Packers and to go and help the organization and coach the new team.
Our first step was to come up with a name for the team and colors for the uniforms. I believe we had a naming contest. The name that stood out was Seneca Sachems (Chiefs). The colors selected was maroon and gold. Our next step was to apply to Tri County Midget Football league for admission. The league consisted of teams from East Aurora, Springville, Holland, Boston, Gowanda and Little Valley. The league consisted of 14 teams, each team had a pewee team age 8 to 10 and a midget team age 11 to 13. There were also weight limits for certain positions; on midgets, backs were a max of 120 lbs and linemen max of 130 lbs. Each team had to weight in before the game to make sure they were within the weight limit for their position. Our application for admittance to league was approved. Next step was to advertise and do a sign up so we would know how many kids we would have for both teams.
We had a good turnout at sign up. I think we had 30 boys for each team. Next step was to get uniforms and helmets. At that time Dick Fishers Sports store was the big sporting goods store in the area. They had a salesman named Jim Lutka who helped us in ordering all equipment and recommending items we had not thought of.
Next step was to find a field to play on. We wanted to be centrally located so we looked at fields around the Saylor building and even the old Thomas Indian School football field which had been located across from the present William Seneca Building. We finally looked at the area at American Legion Post 1587. We met with the legion members and asked if we could use the area between the building and the little league baseball field. They were good enough to grant our request. We figured if we angled the field, we could get the 100 yards in. We also put a goal post on one end of the field in case a team wanted to kick and extra point.
When I went to the league meeting, I met the coach of the Boston team. Since we were a new team, he offered his help in any way. He asked if we had a field marking machine and yardage markers, I responded with a no. He said they had just brought a new machine and yardage markers and said he would give their old ones to us at no cost. He also told me where we could buy the field marking paint. I remember every year when I went to get the paint, Frank Patterson Jr would let me use his pickup truck to go to North Tonawanda to get a 55 gallon drum of field marking paint.
By league rules we started practice August 1, 1972 and without pads for ten days. Dick Fisher Sports did a great job of getting all our equipment in a short time. When it came time to suit the boys up, Jim Lutka even came out to show us how to fit the equipment to the boys. Jim had been a great help to our organization from day one. He would go on to start his own sporting store and we would stay with him for the 15 years I coached the Sachems.
The coaches for the first teams were Pee Wee team, Milt “Tuby” Wheeler, Allen “Popeye” Jemison and Eli Jimerson. On Midgets, Spike Seneca, my brother Butch Jimerson and myself. Our coaching philosophy was to teach basic fundamentals and keep our plays simple. We also made the practices fun. At times coaches would take positions and run plays and tell the boys they could tackle us if caught us. After I “retired” from coaching, it was gratifying to see a number of my former players come back to coach the teams.
When we started our first practice there was a lot of enthusiasm from not only the boys but also the parents. Parents would bring their boys to practice and stay around to watch. With this enthusiasm came a great parent committee. They took care of all the fund raising and concession stand. They came up with a first in the league. At that time all football games and even baseball games the food was the standard, hot dogs, hamburgers and fries. Well, our parent committee came up with the idea of offering a food plate of potato or mac salad, bake beans hot dog or hamburger and even deserts. The committee would give the coaches slips at our weekly last day of practice to give to the kids to give to their parents for food donations. So, when we had our first home game the other team’s parents were quite surprise of what was offered and at a good price. Our concession stand was the talk of the league.
Speaking of our first home game, the Saturday before our Sunday game (all games were played on Sunday) the coaches and some fathers would mark off the field with the old field marking machine and paint. We would have to measure off the whole field, then used a string as a guide to mark side lines and all the ten yard lines. It would take a while because the paint machine would malfunction and had to be cleaned often. The coaches would try to see who could mark the straightest line. At times the lines were a little crooked, but I will not say who made those lines. Also, on game day Frank Patterson Jr would bring his scaffolding down to the field and setup behind our bench.
Dick Seneca would bring his amplifiers and speakers down and set on the scaffolding and he would do play by play of the games. The boys really liked to hear their name announced as they came onto the field or when they made a play.
At the end of the season we would have a banquet for the players. In early years with the help of Jim Lutka we would have Buffalo Bills players at the banquet to give a brief speech and sign autographs. Boys and girls really enjoyed that. Sometimes we even had some of Bills cheerleaders at the banquet.
Looking back on those years I see it was a fun time. I enjoyed coaching the boys and see the community behind the team and organization was exciting. It was a family affair, boys playing the game, sisters cheerleading, mothers making food donations and working the concession stand and fathers helping to set up the field and even working the concession stand. It was a good time.
Things have really changed since day one, there is a nice football field, new score board, new equipment building/concession building (glad the original small concession stand is still there) and bleachers for home and visiting fans. It was a shame there was no Seneca Sachem teams last year, I believe first time since the beginning, 1972. I hope there will be teams in the 2020 season. It will be hard starting up again almost like starting anew but it can be done with people and the spirit to make it happen.
