Bert "Chig" Ratledge Lift-a-Thon 2003

A New Era Begins

By Rex Mingie, loudonfootball.com webmaster
Photos by Jeff McQueen and Jammie Graves

On Thursday, April 10 at 6:00 p.m. a new era in Loudon Football began. The first annual Bert "Chig" Ratledge Lift-a-Thon was held in the auditorium of Loudon High School. Now, as most of you know, the lift-a-thon has been held for many years. This year, however, was a bit different. The idea came about that it would be fitting to name the yearly event after Coach Ratledge for his many years of leading the Redskins; hence, this year's event was named after him. Furter, the lift-a-thon will from now on be named after Coach Ratledge and was permanently established in a short ceremony to honour the long-time coach. This was witnessed by about two-hundred people.

Numerous former Redskins came forth to give testimony about their experience with Coach Ratledge or to share some inspiration they received from him that they carried into their manhood. Former player and current assistant coach Mike Newman stated the following: "I never played for Chig, but he would come to our practices. You always felt like you needed to give it your best when he was there, in order to live up to the level he expected from his own players. It was as though you had a legacy to follow, and you didn't want to fail." Ricky Wiggins, who did play for Coach Ratledge, said, "I always wanted to meet his grandmother. He would tell us, 'My grandmother can do better than that.' She must have been some woman." The comments continued, player after player, until current head coach Jeff Harig came up to present Coach Ratledge with a plaque marking the occasion and proclaiming that future lift-a-thon's would always be named after him.

Finally, Coach Ratledge himself addressed the crowd. In a short, less-than-a-minute speech, the former coach thanked all present for the honour being given him and went on to state that, "It was the players who put the points on the scoreboard, not me. I was just standing on the sidelines."

The evening proceed with master of ceremonies Jeff McQueen reading an article about the 1962 undefeated team. The article summed up the games and events that made the '62 season so memorable. Of special mention was the death of "Big Joe" Turpin (75) who was killed in an auto accident that year. His death resulted in the first-ever retiring of a player's number. The full article can be found on the Redskins History page which was written by John Napier.

Finally, the lifting began. The boys performed both squats and bench press in an effort to raise funds for the team. Squats were performed on the stage; while bench press was held in the back of the auditorium. After all had finished, the numbers were tallied and the top three lifters of the six weight classes announced. If I heard right (and this is not official), the amount raised that evening was about $4,500. These funds will be used to support the Redskins.

Many former Redskins players attended the 1st Annual Bert "Chig" Ratledge Lift-a-Thon to pay homage to the man after whom the lift-a-thon will now always be named.

The top three flyweight lifters	The top three lightweight lifters
The top three middleweight lifters	The top three heavyweight lifters
The top three cruiserweight lifters	The top three super heavyweight lifters