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CHAPTER THREE

The Big Game

On Friday night, I went to the Students’ Centre. There were a lot of people there, and Jenny was wearing a long dress and singing. Three or four other people were in the group with her, and they made a good sound. Jenny saw me and smiled, and I sat on the floor and listened. It was wonderful.

They played for about an hour, and I was lying back with my eyes closed, listening happily. How did it happen? I’m not sure. But suddenly I found that I was playing my harmonica with them!

Jenny stopped singing for a second or two, and the others in the group stopped playing. Then Jenny laughed and began to sing with my harmonica, and then everybody was saying ‘Wonderful!’ to me.

Jenny came to see me. ‘Forrest, where did you learn to play that thing?’

‘I didn’t learn anywhere,’ I told her.

Well, after that, Jenny asked me to play with their group every Friday, and paid me $25 every time!

The only other important thing that happened to me at the university was the Big Game at the Orange Bowl in Miami that year. It was an important game which Coach Bryant wanted us to win.

The game started, and the ball came to me. I took it - and ran straight into a group of big men on the other team! Crash! It was like that all afternoon.

When they were winning 28 to 7, Coach Bryant called me across. ‘Forrest,’ he said, ‘all year we have secretly taught you to catch the ball and run with it. Now you’re going to run like a wild animal. OK?’

‘OK, Coach,’ I said.

And I did. Everybody was surprised to see that I could catch the ball. Suddenly it was 28 to 14! And after I caught it four or five more times, it was 28 to 21. Then the other team got two men to run after me. But that meant Gwinn was free to catch the ball, and he put us on the 15-yard line. Then Weasel, the kicker, got a field goal, and it was 28 to 24!

But then things began to go wrong again. Weasel made a bad mistake - and then the game finished, and we were the losers.

Coach Bryant wasn’t very happy. ‘Well, boys,’ he said, ‘there’s always next year.’

But not for me. I soon learned that.

I couldn’t stay at the university. I wasn’t clever enough at the lessons, and there was nothing that anybody could do about it. Coach Bryant was very sad.

‘I knew this would happen, Forrest,’ he said. ‘But I said to them.

“Just give me that boy in my team for a year!”, and they did. And we had a good year - the best year, Forrest! Good luck, boy!’

Bubba helped me to put my things in my suitcase, then he walked to the bus with me to say goodbye. We went past the Students’ Centre. But it wasn’t Friday night, and Jenny’s band wasn’t playing. I didn’t know where she was.

It was late when the bus got to Mobile. Mom knew that I was coming, but she was crying when I got home.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

‘A letter came,’ she cried. ‘You’ve got to go in the army!’