One hears so much these days about weapons being brought to school and sometimes used for nefarious purposes. Who doesn't long for the time when most of the boys in the school carried a jack knife in their pants pocket and many of the girls had a pen knife in their purse. I don't recall anything bad ever happening. As a matter of fact, I just stopped carrying a small folding knife a few years ago when it became such a hassle when flying about the country on business.

This was the same period of time that it was not unusual to see a student trudging up Jackson Street on his, or her, way to school toting a rifle over their shoulder. It was also common to see them being carried by students waiting for the school bus, or routinely seeing them carried down the school halls or placed in hallway lockers.

The fact of the matter is that Weedsport and many other schools in the area had a junior varsity and varsity rifle team. Weedsport even had its own rifle range in the basement of the Jackson Street building.

Other schools with rifle teams in the league included Auburn, Waterloo, Clyde, Central Square, Pulaski, Jordan-Elbridge, Manlius, Mt. Carmel of Auburn, McGraw, Vestal, Ithaca, Candor and Norwich.

From 1950 when the rifle squad was first organized until it faded away as a varsity sport in the late 1970s, Weedsport's varsity shooters dominated the league. Math teacher Roger Hutchinson was always the coach, and the success of his shooting teams was legendary.

Much was made a few year ago (and rightly so) about the boys varsity football team working its way through the sectionals to become New York state champions. It was said at the time that it was the first time that a Weedsport sports team had became state champ. This was not quite true.

In 1968, the Weedsport Johnny Green shooters defeated Clarence Central School, shooting 1386 out of a possible 1500 at the state championships held in Hempstead, on Long Island, to claim the state varsity rifle championship. Members of that squad included: Bill Corgnell, Bill Welch, Joe Ostrowski, Doug Millis and Ed Hazzard.

Many girls participated on the team, and in fact, the first Weedsport team member to earn the coveted “Distinguished Rifleman” award was a girl, Frances Backman. (You have to admit that distinguished riflelady or rifleperson doesn't' sound very good.)

Subsequent winners of the prestigious award included Dave Stebbins and John Whyte.

Next month, more “do you remember,” as I've been beaten up by people from coast to coast telling me I forgot.

Denny Randall is president of the Old Brutus Historical Society in Weedsport