Today I'm going to let my hair down a bit and give you a glimpse of my dementia. I'm a fan of numbers. Not the mathematical numbers that I struggled with as a youth (just ask Ann DiCenso, Norm Mittendorf, or any of my college professors), but football numbers. Specifically, Derby football numbers.There was a time that I could name the numbers of all the football players of my era. It wasn't just me, many of my friends were talented with Derby football numbers.
Any fan of Derby football from my era could name who wore 44...John Pagliaro. 48? Mike Sullivan. I could go on and on.
Of course, I've had a fascination with 47, which was my number. It was also Dave DeRosa's number and the recently departed Frank Zuba's number. There was a time or two while Frank was alive that the three of us happened to be together. I would deadpan, "do you realize that at this moment the three greatest number 47's in DHS history are together?" Of course, the three of us were the only 47's that I knew. Now that Frank has passed, I suppose that Dave and I are the two greatest living 47's in DHS history, but again I don't know of any other 47's.
This kind of illogical thinking has led me to today's blog. I'd like to call this Project Raider or Raider Numerology.
I have prepared on Google Sheets a spreadsheet from 1900 - 2019 that contains the numbers 0-99. I don't believe we've ever had single digit numbers or number 90 or above, but I've included them in the spreadsheet just in case.
There is a tab at the bottom listing the decade. 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, etc... Find the decade you are interested in and then find the year and enter the name of the person who wore that jersey. Keep in mind, I graduated in 1980, but my final year of football was 1979. Therefore, the years I played would be 1977, 1978, 1979.
Here is the link to the spreadsheet.
http://tinyurl.com/hjvtsgf
You can only view. If you want permission to edit and add names, please send me a message and I'll give you access to edit. If we get someone knowledgeable from each decade or break out the old photos, we could get a pretty good list together. Fill in as many names as possible over the next few weeks and in the end we should have a pretty comprehensive list.
Once we have a comprehensive list, we'll explore the second part of my dementia.
As I get older and celebrate a birthday, I celebrate by entering the Year of the Players' jersey from my era.
Here's an example. When I turned 44, I entered the Year of the Pags (after John Pagliaro). When I turned 45, I entered the Year of the Jocko (after Jocko Vielette). My greatest year was when I turned 47 (Year of the Gerckens), followed by my 48th birthday when I entered the Year of the Berey (after Dave Berey).
Now, I know what you're saying, either, "how the hell did we ever elect this guy to public office" (valid point), or "Hold on a minute, I played with Bob Orchano and to me 48 would be the Year of the Orch." That's fine. Your year should correspond with whoever wore that jersey the longest while you played. Except for the Year of the Pags. Since his number was retired, anyone who turns 44 enters the Year of the Pags.
This leads to another question that deserves an explanation. Why the Year of the Person who wore a jersey? Back in 70's the Super Bowl announcers would try to make arguments that the Chinese New Years had something to do with the eventual Super Bowl winners. For instance during the Year of the Snake, Ken "Snake" Stabler led the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl. During the Year of the Horse, the Broncos made the Super Bowl. This theory died out quickly when the Broncos kept getting beat and during the Year of the Dog, the Browns (remember the Dog Pound) fumbled away a chance to go to the Super Bowl.
Anyways, this is my dementia, so these are my rules. Right now, I am rapidly approaching the Year of the Owney (55 - Owney DiMauro), but I look forward to retirement when I hit the Year of the Batman (63 - Tony Battaglino). More likely though, I'll probably need to keep working until I reach the Year of the Agim (67 - Agim "Jim" Spataj). I think we'd all be lucky to live to the Year of the Snowman (78 - John Snow), Year of the Garf (79 - Roy Garofalo) or better yet, Year of the Pierce (88 - Lenny Pierce from my era, or the Year of the Vicidomino for the era before me).
So there you have it. No great meaning, no great writing style, just a quick blog inviting people to participate in my dementia.
If you'd like to contribute to the spreadsheet, contact me and I'll give you permission to enter data.
In Derby we trust. :)
