It was the last week of the regular season, but it also happened to be the first week of basketball season and I’m still perfecting my ability to be in two places at once, so we had to make a choice. Fortunately, there aren’t enough referees in Douglas County for them to play all of their games on Friday nights, and the Riddle Irish had to play their game on Saturday night. Perfect.
Riddle is a small town in southern Douglas County near Cow Creek where William Riddle settled in 1851, and his son J.B. bought some land there twelve years later. By the 1880’s the railroad passed through the little place, and the station was called Riddlesburg, for obvious reasons. When the first post office opened in 1882 it went by the name Riddles, and by 1910 it had been shortened to just Riddle. In addition to all the Riddles in the Riddle area, many of the next generation headed east and founded the Riddle Ranch on the west side of Steens Mountain which is now a National Historic Site.
The rain was constant until we got south of Roseburg and things started to dry out. It didn’t look like it had been raining as we got further south, but it still looked like it might. Not long after driving through the Myrtle Creek curves we exited the big road and followed the signs west. Riddle may have been settled as a farming community, but I counted four lumber mills between the freeway and the downtown, and it looked like there might be a couple more on the other side of town. The whole place seems to be piles of lumber, piles of logs waiting to become lumber, or other piles of stuff somewhere in the middle of the process, and I can’t believe I’d be far off by assuming that Riddle relies on the lumber industry for its survival.
We followed another sign pointing the way down Main Street figuring that would probably get us pretty close to where we wanted to go: Riddle High School. The school serves grades 7-12, with a little over 100 students in grades 9-12. The current school building is the third school on that same site, and was built in 1935. It’s been added onto since then, and is now an interesting mix of architectural styles. It’s a nice old place that’s probably seen a lot in the last 90 years, and we could see the lights for the football field somewhere behind it. It was still early though, and we were in need of a little pre-game snack before seeing the field itself.
When you’re looking for a place to eat, Riddle makes it really easy for you. There’s the Shamrock Cocktail Bar, or… Well, there’s just the Shamrock Cocktail Bar, and that’s where we went. Located right there on Main Street, the bar isn’t much to look at from the outside. In fact, we had to look more than once to identify it as being an actual place of business. Even after Mrs. Ednold opened the door and we walked inside it was not immediately apparent that we were in the right place. There were a few people there drinking quietly, but it was strangely lifeless on a Saturday evening. We grabbed a few seats at the bar and, though things never did get much livelier, spent a thoroughly entertaining hour over drinks and bar food in conversation with the bartender and her local friends. She and her pal Fuzzy, a log truck driver, included us in their colorful banter, but neither of them was much help when I questioned them about why the place was called the Shamrock or why the high school mascot is the Irish. Is it just because the Riddle family had Irish roots, or is there more to it? As a native of Californian, she claimed ignorance, and Fuzzy had no thoughts on the subject. No big deal. They were still fun, the food was good, and after throwing a few darts at the dart board, we were ready to say goodbye and find us a football game to watch.
After a little exploring, we found that the best parking lot is at the School Superintendent’s office just east of the school where, without having bothered to notify us, there was a huge tailgate party in progress. There were tents set up under which hamburgers and hot dogs were being served to raise money for the booster club and, except for the one parking place they had saved for us, the place was packed. There are just over a thousand residents of Riddle, and I wondered for a moment if any of them were still working at all of those lumber mills we had seen. It seemed everyone in town was tailgating, but having had our meal elsewhere, we skipped the food and went through the gate at the east end of the parking lot. There was a ticket booth at the gate, but it was closed and nobody was selling tickets, so we continued on toward the grandstand to find a place to sit.
From that spot just north of the field you can see the school up a slope to the west and the visitors’ wooden bleachers across the field between the 6-lane running track and Cow Creek, which runs just a matter of feet behind those bleachers. The main grandstand is small, but it’s wood and, most importantly on this night, has a sheet metal roof. Shamrocks spell out “Riddle” on the support posts in front, with a press box up top. There is lighting inside, and it’s a comfy little place to watch wet and muddy players slop around on the field in front of you.
Riddle began playing 6-man football in 1943, and started playing 11-man in 1960. They dropped down to 8-man in 2018 and have played 6-man since 2021. They’ve finished right around the .500 mark each year since then. They currently play in Special District 1 of the 1A 8-man classification, and came into this game with a 2-5 record and were on a 5-game losing skid after winning their first two. Those losses included a game where they conceded 90 points to the team from North Douglas. Their opponents from Mohawk sat at 5-3, having won their last two. The Irish’s lone trip to the state championship game came in 1981 in the 1A final. They lost that game and have never been back to play for a title.
Without a band or cheerleaders, you may have thought the atmosphere would have suffered, but it was not only Senior Night in Riddle, there would also be an exhibition at halftime featuring elementary students doing a dance routine they had been working on. So that, along with the tailgating, had brought out every child in the community to the Saturday night football game. They were everywhere, and they didn’t need any halftime ceremony as an excuse to run around and dance and generally do the silly stuff that little kids do.
Prior to kickoff, the four seniors were introduced with their families, which went very well. Then it was time for the Irish to play football, which did not go as well. Those Mustangs from Mohawk are pretty good, and the Irish had a tough time keeping up with them. Mohawk scored in the first quarter to lead 6-0, but then the Irish defense toughened up and didn’t allow another score in the first half. Unfortunately, the offense first fumbled the ball away for a touchdown by Mohawk’s defense, then threw an interception that was run back for another touchdown, giving the Mustangs a 22-0 halftime lead.
The score didn’t really matter though, because we’d all been waiting to see the little kids take the field and do a little dance for us. It had been raining off and on all night and when the players had made their way to the locker rooms the children ran out into the sprinkles to do some line dancing on the wet and muddy grass. I wish it had lasted longer, but it was a priceless performance and then they ran off to the cheers of everyone watching. Also at halftime, our unprecedented 50/50 losing streak continued. We’ve been buying those lottery tickets for over five years now and tonight we weren’t going to stop, especially since admission had been free. I understand that you have to view it as a donation and not expect to ever win, but if I die without ever having my number drawn I will be very disappointed.
Things continued to go downhill for the Irish after halftime. The Mustangs added another couple of scores in the third quarter and stretched their lead to 36-0, but that meant the clock would run continuously until the end of the game, and I didn’t hear anyone complain about that. Neither did I complain myself when I saw the menu at the concession stand. It was definitely one of the more impressive menus I've seen, but I just didn’t have room for any Frito pie and opted for the popcorn, which was nicely cold, and a cup of coffee, which was nicely hot. It was my first experience drinking coffee made with a Folger’s tea bag. Or should I say coffee bag? It tasted good, though, and now I’m surprised it’s not more common.
The Irish did score in the fourth quarter to avoid the shutout, but they lost 44-6 and their season is at an end while Mohawk will move on to the playoffs next weekend. The intermittent showers continued as we headed back north until we passed through Roseburg again, where the clouds started to take their job more seriously. The drops came down in sheets, and the night got a few shades darker. It’s funny how you don’t notice those reflectors running down the middle of the road until your life depends on them, as ours did until we came down out of the mountains near Eugene. It had been a gloomy night, but not nearly as dreary as it would have been without the Shamrock Cocktail Bar, or sitting in the cozy bleachers at Riddle High School watching players plastered with mud run around on the field on the banks of Cow Creek, or littler kids run around off of it.
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