“It’s probably a foot in diameter. And then when you look down in it, it’s gargantuan. It’s dangerous. Those people down there inspecting it now, we’re going to be throwing them a lifeline if they get too close. … I’ve never seen anything like this in high school sports.” – Fulton athletics director Jody Wright during an interview with Russell Mayes on WKCS-FM 91.1 on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, moments after a sinkhole opened in the Fulton field and delayed its game with visiting Alcoa.
I’ll admit it.
I wasn’t there at Fulton High School the night the sinkhole opened up late during the Falcons’ match-up with Alcoa.
It’s one of the bigger regrets in my journalism career.
At the time, I served as preps editor of PrepXtra at the Knoxville News Sentinel. And when you occupy that position, it’s your duty to be at the biggest game of the week.
And in the first decade of the 2000s, not many teams — save, Maryville — in the state carried as much name recognition as Alcoa and Fulton.
This was a marquee game.
Moreover, the game was to be on TV on Mark Packer’s “Rivalry Thursday.”
But I had every reason not to be there.
I was a new father. My daughter was still less than a year old, and my wife — a school teacher — had an Open House function that night. So I decided to stay home and take care of Cate and send one of my most trusted freelance writers out to Fulton that night.
I justified it further by telling myself that the game had lost some luster. After all, Fulton had missed the playoffs the season before and lost to Austin-East the week before hosting Alcoa. Not exactly the form the Falcons had shown in winning 3A state titles in 2003, 2004 and 2006 or in their runner-up seasons in 2002 and 2007.
They likely had a slim chance at beating an Alcoa team that was gunning for its sixth consecutive state title and that had beaten Maryville, 41-24, two weeks before without even throwing a single pass.
Maybe my game forecast turned out to be spot on, scoreboard wise.
But what happened in the fourth quarter that night couldn’t have been predicted.
It will forever be singed into my memory as one of the oddest on-field happenings in high school sports history.
And I had to watch it from my couch.
Fail.
So, here we are. Nearly 10 years later. Might as well do an Oral History on that night, don’t you think? Let’s look deeper into “The Sinkhole Game.” Here are the takes of those involved that night.
Or should I say, “nights”?
“That was totally different than anything I’ve ever been involved in.” – Alcoa football coach Gary Rankin, the state’s leader in all-time wins.
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