Teams have a field day

The city’s titans of the gridiron clashed Friday for the final time before Memorial Field’s face lift, 63 years after the original field was christened.

Roars poured from the stands as bands and cheer squads rushed around the bowels of the stadium in preparation for the Bulldogs and Indians to meet for the 61st time. It was loud. It was homecoming. It was Burbank-Burroughs.

Burroughs Athletic Director Marty Garrison walked the sideline and greeted his former players before reminiscing about the importance of a game he’s attended nearly every year since the 1960s. Every year but one, Garrison said.

“I was stationed away in the Army,” he said. “Yeah, I remember missing that one and thinking about missing it.”

Garrison has witnessed brawls break out mid-game, seemingly impossible come-from-behind victories and gone head-to-head against people he’s known all his life. “It’s always been a big deal,” Burbank Principal Bruce Osgood said. “But this one is particularly special.”

The game was the last regular-season contest between the two schools played on the natural surface of Memorial Stadium. Workers at season’s end will replace the grass with artificial turf as part of a $12-million stadium renovation that includes facility upgrades and the installation of an all-weather track — a far cry from the field Supt. J.R. Croad dedicated May 29, 1946.

— Christopher Cadelago