Knights of the Hill Country Read Online Free PDF

two feet and ended up on the other side of the goal line, eighty-five yards away. Got his picture all the way up in the Tulsa paper after that one.
    But his most amazing play happened in the state title game his senior year. He had these three triple-large linemen chasing him all over the backfield, nipping at his heels like grizzlies on a jackrabbit, so what did he do? He launched the ball, on purpose, straight into the helmet of the biggest one of them.
Pow!
The ball popped up at least twenty foot high, and when it come down, T. Roy snatched it out of the air and streaked down the sideline and all the way to the end zone, untouched. That one made the national news: QUARTERBACK CATCHES OWN TOUCHDOWN PASS!
    T. Roy Strong. They played offense and defense back then, and he even run back punts on special teams. You could still go up to the cliffs above Lake Hawkshaw outside of town and see where girls carved out their declarations of love for him in the rock. When he went pro with Dallas, they shifted him overto cornerback, and he had to retire after only six seasons with a bad shoulder, but that didn't matter. He was still a Dallas Cowboy, a Pro Bowl pick, a Super Bowl winner, and hands-down Kennisaw, Oklahoma's favorite son. No question.
    And I guarantee when he walked out on the stage in that little pavilion in front of me and Blaine, he still looked every inch the hero too. Except for the smooth way he moved, he could've been a town-square statue with that rock jaw and perfect haircut and slick gray suit. The crowd just about come out of their skin from cheering so hard. Behind him, six other big walking statues lined up, all members of the same team as T. Roy, the greatest of all the great Knights teams of the olden days.
    I never will forget the speech he gave that July Fourth, and I know Blaine won't neither. Right there, that was what it meant to be a Kennisaw Knight. He stepped up to the microphone and raised his hands to get the crowd to simmer down, bowing his head at first, real modest, then raising it back up and flashing that big wide perfect smile of his that let you know he was as glad to see you as he would be to see the president of the United States.
    “Thank you,” he said. “Thank each and every one of you who came out to help honor one of the greatest groups of guys anyone ever had the opportunity to play a game of football or any other kind of game with.”
    The whoops and clapping busted loose again, and he lifted his hands back up to quiet us down before going on. “It humbles me to stand here before this wonderful crowd of fans and alongside my old teammates, who have all gone on to accomplish great things. But we're not here to talk about that right now. We're here to talk about days past, a different time. A time when giants walked the Earth.”
    The crowd couldn't help but let out another roar, and me and Blaine looked each other in the eye, both of us nodding, not having to say a word about how big a moment it was we was witnessing in front of us.
    T. Roy went on then, reeling off all the team's big triumphs, the hard work they put in, the adversity they faced, and the unbreakable bonds they forged. For a second there, he even cried a little. Right out in the open. Anyone littler might've got ridiculed for doing something like that in public, but everyone just loved T. Roy more for it. He'd learned the meaning of courage, he said, and strength and comradeship. He'd reached the top of a mountain and stretched up his hands and felt the warmth of God shining down on his face, as if to say, “T. Roy, job well done.”
    “And so, in conclusion,” he said, “I hope all you here in Kennisaw, in this small town in the Oklahoma hills, will remember the greatness that lies within. Stick together. Do good, and then push yourself to do even better. The Knights of the hill country stand for honor and integrity, inner fortitude and grit, and the triumph that comes from hard work, and all of you here are a