“This was just a great game to watch. This is what Friday night football is all about.” - Lloyd Alexander

It had to end... But that doesn't make it any easier.


Every Friday night, since the end of August, it seems like the whole town has cheered for the 2010 Dalton Bulldogs football team. And I am so thankful that we live so close to our family because I was also able to cheer along and watch my little brother play every single game of his senior year.

I watched as he worked hard over the past few years to build his strength and endurance. I watched as he and his classmates of 12 years grew together as not only as teammates, but as friends. I watched as he took the field and owned his role. I watched him do his job over and over and smiled and cheered every time they announced his name on the speaker. I watched him work well as a member of a unit, and I watched as he grew into a respected leader. I watched him experience pride in himself. And I watched him do something he genuinely enjoyed.

I watched as he grew up.

And I have never been more proud of him.

Meet the Team Night

"Let's face it, you have to have a slightly recessive gene that has a little something to do with the brain to go out on the football field and beat your head against other human beings on a daily basis."
- Tim Green

"We have a strange and wonderful relationship - he's strange and I'm wonderful."

- Mike Ditka

Running out onto the field for the first home game

"Football is an honest game. It's true to life. It's a game about sharing. Football is a team game. So is life."
- Joe Namath

"When I played pro football, I never set out to hurt anyone deliberately - unless it was, you know, important, like a league game or something."
- Dick Butkus

"Most football players are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental."
- Doug Plank

"Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only about two things - blocking and tackling."
- Vince Lombadri

"I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault."
- Jack Tatum

Senior Parents Night

Mom and her baby

"Football is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom."
- Danny Blanchflower

The 2011 Seniors

Last Home Game

Just a couple of #55's top fans♥

"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
- Walter Payton

"To have the kind of year you want to have, something has to happen that you can't explain why it happened.... Something has to happen that you can't coach."

- Bobby Bowden

"Taking a Knee" for the last time

"Deep inside, we're still the boys of autumn, that magic time of the
year that once swept us onto America's fields."
- Archie Manning