One-Minute Reads about Film Photography

The football game with a big twist.

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This is an oldie back from the 1981 Texas A&M University versus Southern Methodist University football game at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. Cadet Greg Hood infamously removed his saber from its scabbard during an unauthorized incursion onto the field by SMU cheerleaders. Read more about it here from the UPI archives.

This photo made national news and won a first-place spot-news journalism award. It was just being at the right place at the right time plus being alert. Shooting football games is a continuum of trying to get some great shots from the game action, and during time-outs is when you put the camera down and take a breather.

I was just standing there and watched the theatrics ensue when I became aware that this was going places and quickly pulled up my Nikon with the 420mm lens (300 + 1.4 teleconverter) and got the shot JUST IN TIME…and miraculously in focus (this is before auto focus!)

The negative of this shot along with many others from my time as a photographer and photo editor at the TAMU Battalion student newspaper have been lost to the ages, but I still have a lot in my archives that are published to flicker. You can get there by going to https://vinylfye.com/

I have ONE print of this photo, an 11×14 fiber print mounted on acid-free board that I did back in 1981. Thank goodness for hypo-clear and archival washing I did on some of this stuff!

• gregory gammon / www.vinylfye.com