We eat fairly regularly at Twin Oaks. Friday night, Chrissy Ielapi, who co-manages the restaurant with her husband Jim, told us that the night before the place had been packed. And that’s because Thursday night was a home Bridgeport High School football game as the Indians took on the Lewis County Minutemen, defeating them 44-20. Even on a week night, the restaurant – known for its Italian specialties - didn’t settle down until midnight or so.

 

We’re usually there too. And last year, you could pretty much guess who was going to be sitting at what table. Families of football players, cheerleaders and just die-hard fans would come bustling through the doors in their red and white, talking about the game. Then in would come some players as restaurant patrons yelled out congratulatory remarks. As everyone enjoyed their pizza and hoagies, they visited each other's tables, sharing their thoughts about the game, a particular play – or just life in Bridgeport.

 

It’s tradition.

 

A longtime tradition.

 

Forty years ago, we gathered at Sonny’s Pizza. Now Oliverio’s Ristorante, the East Main Street eatery – then owned and run by Sonny and Shirley Oliverio - was quite different back then; smaller and less formal.  I can still see the letterman’s jackets flung over the chairs in what’s now the front room of the restaurant as we hopped table to table chatting with friends. Besides the BHS gear, what comes to mind is laughter – and lots of noise. That was during the mid- to late-1970s and during that general time period, other post-football game hot spots included Pappy’s Pizza (at that time located at the present El Rincon at Gabriel's Plaza), McDonald’s and the Ellis Restaurant both on Route 50, the latter in the building most recently housed by Tom Davis Garden Center.

 

Several years later – in the late-1990s and into the new millennium, kids gathered at Damon’s at East Pointe. We had kids in high school then and when they were underclassmen, we parents got to accompany them – well, because they needed a ride. Everyone grabbed up a table and watched WDTV’s “5^th Quarter” post-game highlights on the TV screens located throughout the room. As everyone relived watching those plays, you’d hear oohh’s and aahh’s around the room. Channel 5 even set up shop there for the event, broadcasting live. When our kids became upperclassmen and we no longer went with them, we’d watch for them on TV.

That’s good stuff.

 

And those memories got me wondering what other hometown places kids have gathered through the years to keep the party going once the football games were over. I asked on the BHS Grads Facebook page and I got some interesting responses.

 

Back in the 1960s – said Shirley Reed Whitehair - the kids hung out at the Parkette, which was then further up “Old Bridgeport Hill” than it is now, and the Satellite, which was at the bottom of that same road below Minard’s Spaghetti Inn.  Another ‘60s post-football tradition, said Dee Riley Horne, was going to sock hop dances which were held right inside BHS. Before the games, everyone got pumped up at bonfires held on the school grounds. Brenda McEldowney Swiger said the sock hops started even before BHS was established along Johnson Avenue. The early sock hops were held in the basement of the school, which was then located on Newton Street. The school is now Heritage Christian School, but for many years it was the old junior high. 

 

Between 1982 and 1986, Carl “Norm” Correll said he remembers piling into McDonald’s and Hardee’s after football games if there had been no other designated “meet-up” place. Another 80s hot spot, according to Lori Todd Watson, was Durangos on Rt. 50 just above present-day Pizza Hut in the spot that’s now WesBanco and used to be Arthur Treachers. Danny Riggs added that his friends, in addition to McDonalds, gathered at Two Beep -  behind the I-79 rest area, past Urse Honda. 

 

Correll said he thinks WDTV’s “5^th Quarter” started up sometime in the early 1990s so when it was fairly new, the kids sought out places with TVs. Although lots of folks still frequent Twin Oaks on game nights, high school kids often head to Buffalo Wild Wings at Charles Pointe where they can catch game highlights and chow down on their favorite wings.

 

I’ve even known of groups to flock to iHop for post-game pancakes.

 

Long live the Bridgeport Indians and long live the post-football game hot spots – wherever they may be. 

 

Julie Perine can be reached at 304-848-7200, julie@connect-bridgeport.com or follow @JuliePerine on Twitter. 

 

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