Senior chain gang

Blake's junior varsity has a very senior crew working the chain gang, with the youngest member being 81 years old.

By AARON PAITICH, Special to the Star Tribune

Last update: October 21, 2009 - 10:54 AM

The Blake School's JV football team has a senior-dominated chain gang for its home games, but we're not talking about a crew with 2010 patches on their letter jackets.¶ We're talking about three guys carrying the sticks who are 81, 91 and 93 years old.¶ "They really get into it," Haven Lucas said.

Lucas coached Blake's varsity football team for 26 years before he started working at Copperfield Hill, an assisted living home located in Robbinsdale. It was there he got to know residents Leonard Sidle, 93, and Rollie Herriges, 91 -- two avid and knowledgeable sports fans who have been around the block.

"We would be going someplace and they would always be talking about sports," Lucas said. "'Did you see this game? Did you see that game? Gosh, didn't the Gophers do well?'"

Still very connected to Blake, Lucas knew how difficult it was to find people willing to work the chains. With games typically starting at 4:30 p.m., some parents can't get off work in time. Those that can make it want to watch their kids instead of lugging around the chains. So in 2005, Lucas approached Sidle and Herriges with the idea.

A North Minneapolis native, Sidle would play park football nonstop as a kid and thought this would be a good chance to exercise while doing a favor for a friend.

Herriges, originally from Madison, Minn., used to move the chains as a high school student for the Hopkins varsity football squad in the mid-1930s.

"I always enjoyed football -- I loved it," Herriges said. "Everyone has been really nice, and we can take all the exercise we can get."

This season, the chain gang added some youth and quickness with 81-year-old Jerry Alch. The former track and football star lives close to the school and wanted to see if they needed any help; they welcomed him with open arms. He's such a speedster, Blake even hired him to work the varsity games.

Despite the unseasonably cold weather, Lenny, Rollie and Jerry show up a half-hour before each game to haul the equipment out of the shed. They chat on and off with the referees and move the chains with style. And they're always watching out to make sure they don't get hit by a player spilling onto the sidelines.

"You want to see me move when they come near me?" asked Alch, who handles the down marker. "I drop everything and run."

As Blake's JV season comes to an end, this special chain gang hopes to reconvene next fall with fresh energy and another year of experience under their belts.

"Well, I hope so. But at the age of 93, you never know," Sidle said. "But right now, yes. What we used to do when we were young, now we take for our health."

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