Uncas
by William Crisp
During the fall of 1978, I was playing football and getting ready for archery season: the two passions don’t mix well, each being demanding lovers. Not much has changed in thirty-nine years. Today, I coach football and am preparing for archery season, still juggling my passions. Kids haven’t changed much either as several of my players are trying to figure out how to get out to their stands before meeting Kane on Saturday night. Legends of the fall indeed as these are the days that spate the wheat from the chaff in so many ways.
One of my best friends to this day is still called “Uncas.” He earned that moniker from juggling archery with school and football. Back in those days we used face paint while archery hunting to conceal our faces. Usually the paint was old GI issue stuff from the nearest Army/Navy store or we’d take cork from a wine bottle and burn it. Uncas had a buck running around his stand. In those days, all of the bucks were big, there just weren’t that many that had horns nor were the horns bigger than a four point. Time was cramped as the only time to get a shot at that buck was before school.