Raising the banner and bringing back a tradition

The new Cosmos banner was hung on Friday before a home football game. The new 20-foot by 20-foot banner was painted by Jamie Townsend.

   

2016-09-10 / Sports Print article Print Raising the banner and bringing back a tradition By NEIL P. ALLEN For the Eagle Times The new Cosmos banner was hung on Friday before a home football game. The new 20-foot by 20-foot banner was painted by Jamie Townsend. — COURTESY/NEIL P. ALLEN The new Cosmos banner was hung on Friday before a home football game. The new 20-foot by 20-foot banner was painted by Jamie Townsend. — COURTESY/NEIL P. ALLEN SPRINGFIELD — Members of the Springfield High School Booster Club (SHSBC) gathered along the sidelines before the start of the Springfield High School football game on Friday night, looking up the hill where two trees stood with ropes hanging on them. The anticipation that something was about to happen filled the air. Then, Paul Stagner, a Springfield firefighter, and some volunteers began hoisting a large canvas. The arm and hammer Cosmos banner was back in its rightful place. “The original banner had been hung for many decades, it was the stable of the football field. Then, 15 to 20 years ago it disappeared,” said Rachel Hunter, president of the SHSBC. “No one knows what happened to it. “We’ve been asked over and over again by the alumni and the coaches to have a banner,” she continued. “We couldn’t find the old one so we commissioned Jamie Townsend to recreate it for us. We gave him complete artistic control.” Prior to the banner being raised, the only ones who had seen it were Townsend, a Springfield High School alumni, Stagner and the volunteers who helped him with the dry run. “It’s pretty exciting. I think the athletes are going to be blown away by it,” said Hunter, who handled hiring Townsend to do the banner on behalf of the SHSBC. Helping to make the banner, which is 20-foot by 20-foot, raising possible were Tony Moriglioni, of the Springfield Police Department; Lance Roby; and Stagner. “On a volunteer day, they cut down the trees and Paul [Stagner] put the pulley system up,” said Hunter. “Paul took charge of the project once the trees were cut down.” Bill Otis, coach of the Riverside Middle School football team, remembered when he played football at the high school in the 1980s. “It was amazing to see the banner up on the hill,” he said. “The band used to take up a third of the stands. You could see the banner and hear the band. It was amazing.” Police Chief Doug Johnston remembered when it was first hung up back in 1972. “It went up at the first basketball game of the season,” Johnston said. The banner project is part of the work done by a newly organized booster club. “About a year ago we re-organized,” said Hunter. “We’re trying to reenergize an interest in sports. We want to bring back the hay day of Springfield sports.” This year, they have also brought back the athletic program, which features pictures of all the teams from fall sports and their rosters. “We used a program from 1976 as our model. We wanted to make sure it had everything it used to have,” Hunter said as she flipped through the pages. One hundred percent of the funds go back into helping the sports teams. So far this year, the SHSBC has purchased a netting system that will go along the edge of the field to keep balls out of the river, a new sled for the high school football team and new soccer goals and nets. They coordinated with the schools and recreation departments to make it happen. Johnston hopes that the banner and the newly energized booster club can help bring back the support the sports used to have. “When I was in school, if you didn’t get to the basketball games before half-time of the JV game, you couldn’t find a seat,” he said. “It was packed. The community support was tremendous. It is a shame to see that the sports are not supported like the used to be.”