- Name: Joey
- Surname: Tallmadge
- Location: Lake Orion, MI 48359
- About Me: I started writing when I was in high school. I graduated in 1985 from Clawson High School in Clawson Michigan. I had a creative writing class and wrote on the yearbook staff committee. In my senior year I distributed a publication that went on to gain regional publicity in the Oakland County Daily Tribune. I was published on the front page of the sports section for a limerick poem? It was not just any old poem it was entitled "Tonight Is The Night". I was able to create, distribute, and read the poem to my team mates at an after school team meeting. When I was finished reading the team didn't need any more pumping up. We were ready to go into battle.
The game we were preparing for was our last game of our senior year and it was against Lamphere High School. They were undefeated for the year until that night we met them on the field. They would have been the first team in all of M.O.A.C. History to be undefeated for the season. So they too had all the more reasons to win the game that night.
Us Clawson Boys dominated that night even providing the wounded Lamphere team with a touch back meaning that we scored their only two points that night for them. We beat them 12- 2 that night with a resounding shot heard round the entire M.O.A.C. Athletic Conference.
Coach Moore was a true inspiration to all of us Clawson Trojans and still is to this day. I'll never forget Coaches favorite saying. ?It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog that matters?? our team took that to heart and loved playing the sport right to the end.
Jim Sparks the head football coach at Clawson High School in Clawson Michigan currently has assembled for the past two consecutive years an Alumni Football Game that is surrounded by a full weekend of fun charity events all benefiting the Clawson Athletics and Band Programs. I have been able to play in both games and it is such a great feeling to be back on the grass and under the lights that it's really tough to truly do the feeling justice in a simple explanation.
That year at our year end sports banquet Coach Moore read my poem during his final speech that capped another successful year of Trojan Football. When Coach was finished reading my poem there wasn't a dry eye in the house. The true feeling of what we love about Trojan Football was there and felt by all who attended.
Sports Reporter Steve Stein called and set an interview time and came to my house. The interview took place at my desk in my bedroom in Clawson Michigan. My poem and our team's story was published on the front page of the Daily Tribune's Sport Section, also taking precedence over the announcement of the M.V.P. Player of the M.O.A.C. that wound up on page two who was from Lamphere High School. Their accomplishments none the less significant but took a back seat to the real story, of true American Brotherhood and football the game that we loved the years we played as Clawson Trojans.
Joey Tallmadge 2013
Tonight's The Night
Tonight's the night,
We've waited for.
For us to play,
And together never more.
The last time together,
On a field of play.
Let's do our best,
Tonight's the payday.
We've been as one,
So many years.
And now near the end,
We hold our tears.
We won't be silenced,
By that Lamphere line.
We've got what it takes,
It's our turn to shine.
Lamphere knows,
that they own the crown.
But us Clawson Boy's,
Should put them down.
It will only be done,
If our work is precise.
Expect no gifts,
We'll have to pay the price.
I feel as though,
Our past has returned.
Tonight's the night,
We won't get burned.
We have yet to prove,
Our self esteem.
To go out in style,
and ourselves redeem.
We've worked ?so? hard,
All through the season.
Tonight's the night,
That's a good enough reason.
Written by: Joey Tallmadge 1984
This is now dedicated to all involved in the Clawson Trojan Football Program and all who love and loved the sport of football.
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