Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Outlaws Force Forfeit

By JOHN MILLER

What we had here was a failure to officiate.

O what a bitter taste is defeat when ne'er battle was fought.

No matter how it's prettied up, Gurdon suffered its first defeat of the season Friday night and never took the field.

The Dierks Outlaws, with their tail tucked firmly between their collective legs, will go down in the record books with a 2-0 win against the previously undefeated Go-Devils.

This is because the officials for the game failed to show. Because the home team is responsible for providing the zebras, Gurdon was forced to forfeit.

However, the story doesn't end there -- not by a long shot.

In fact, it proved to be a rather interesting night at Gus Brown Field even though there was no game.

The night began with both teams taking the field for pre-game warm up drills.

The Devils were ready to keep their unbeaten streak alive. The players, after the 22-21 win over Mineral Springs on Sept. 26, were looking for a perfect season. They knew their biggest challenges would be from Stamps and Murfreesboro and had reason for revenge against both squads from last year.

But the Outlaws weren't being overlooked. The team was ready to hit the field and show Dierks last year's 32-0 whipping was no fluke.

The home stands were packed, while the visitors side of the field also had a good crowd on hand. All were anxious for the game to begin.

When 7:15 rolled around word spread the officials hadn't arrived. At this point, no one was worried and the pre-game festivities continued.

The Gurdon Go-Devil Marching Band played the national anthem. This was followed by Dierks' band playing their school song, and concluded with the Devil band performing the Gurdon alma mata.

Time passed, 7:30 came and still no zebras had arrived. The panic button had not been pushed, but Gurdon Coach John Pace was on the phone trying to find out where the officiating crew was.

While he was working to track down the zebras, rumors began circulating through the crowd as to where they were.

Some of the rumors had the officials being so blind they lost their way and went to Dierks. Another was they forgot about the game and were at home. Still another was the officials were at a house of ill repute in Nogales. Basically, the fans were having a good time guessing as to the whereabouts of the referees.

Meanwhile, the band booster concession stand was raking in the money. With no game going on, the concession stand was doing a booming business. The fans were eating and drinking instead of rooting for their respective teams.

Earlier in the week, Channel 7 News had announced its helicopter would fly down and film part of the game for the 10 o'clock news broadcast.

Around 8:30, the copter was sighted, circled Gus Brown Field with cameras rolling, taking note of the lack of action on the gridiron.

The copter landed at the east end zone with the crew disembarking. The reporters were told of the situation and worked to make the best of a bad deal.

Gurdon's cheerleaders were coerced into making a lead-in promo for the sports segment while everyone waited.

And, to keep things interesting and lighthearted, the news crew arranged an impromptu football game between the Gurdon and Dierks cheerleading squads using footballs brought by the copter crew. Each team scored once, ending the contest in a tie.

A tiebreaker was instituted with the squad getting the biggest cheer being the winner -- Gurdon won.

And there were still no referees to be seen.

Rumors again started, with the officials being at a Burger King somewhere, and being broke down between Gurdon and Friendship.

The fans were beginning to get antsy as 9 o'clock rolled around.

Many were worried the Devils would have to forfeit the game because of this unbelievable turn of events.

Pace, meanwhile, kept the phone lines hot trying to track down the crew supposed to be in Gurdon and looking for a different set to come and officiate the game. The officials working the Nashville-Prescott contest agreed to make the trip to Gurdon as soon as their game was finished.

However, the Dierks coaches declined as it would have meant kickoff would be at 10:15 p.m. at the earliest. What the Dierks coaches agreed to do was return to Gurdon and play the game Saturday night at 7. This announcement was made as the Dierks band concluded what would have been its halftime performance.

As the Gurdon band took the field, fans were streaming out of the stadium, fully prepared to return. But, there were complaints this would conflict with the Forest Festival Pageant, also scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday at the Gurdon Middle School auditorium.

Saturday morning dawned beautifully and full of hope for the Devils who still thought the game was going to be played. This hope was short lived as they soon learned what a bushleague school Dierks has.

It seems when the Outlaws made it home Friday night, the school superintendent, Wayne Freppon, and principal, Gordon Allen, decided to make Gurdon forfeit and not honor the coach's commitment to play Saturday.

Pace did everything humanly possible to get the game played. He offered to give Dierks half the gate to return, or for the Devils to make the trip to Outlaw country.

But, showing how second rate they were, the Dierks administration refused. It seems they wanted a win and how they got it was irrelevant.

Of course, with the other teams in the 7A West seeing what happened to Gurdon, this may well be Dierks' last win of the season.

Saturday, Pace said the officiating crew was supposed to be from North Little Rock and be headed up by Ed Owens. However, Owens had hurt his back and left the state. Other members of the crew went to different games to work and nobody bothered to contact Gurdon.

The crew was under contract to work the game. Pace said the Arkansas Athletic Association will be contacted as to what Gurdon can do about the situation.

He said the contract with the officials isn't worth the paper it's written on because there are no repercussions if the crew doesn't honor it. Still, a copy of the contract was faxed to the AAA offices.

While the "loss", which will forever have an asterisk by it, is disheartening, the Devils must look forward as they are still the team to beat in the league.

This Friday they make the trip to Stamps to tangle with the Yellow Jackets. At this time, the 'Jackets lead the conference with a 2-0 league mark. But, Stamps has a 3-2 overall record.

"We need to beat them and win out," Pace said. "The boys were playing for an undefeated season and can still win the conference.

"But, if we lose to Stamps, we'll need help. They'll have to be beat by someone other than Mineral Springs. Gurdon still looks good for the playoffs."

The "loss" didn't affect Gurdon's No. 10 ranking in class A.

Looking at results from games played in the 7A West, the Horatio Lio