Spartans of ’62 are welcomed into HOF
Norman Bowman has won a race against time.
For years, Bowman had attempted to get the 1962 Richmond varsity football team inducted into the Richmond High School (RHS) Athletic Hall of Fame, he said. In March, he learned the team would be inducted at this year’s ceremony, scheduled for June 8 in the high school commons area.
The 1962 team is the lone team being inducted this year. Patrick Pierson, Robbie Robinson, Ashley (Simmons) Smith, Reid Summers, Elizabeth (Farnan) Wells and Gabe Vandiver are the individual inductees.
Bowman, a 1966 Richmond graduate who was among three freshmen on the 1962 team, wanted to get the team inducted while some of its members were still alive, he explained Tuesday at the Richmond News offices.
“Unfortunately, we’ve lost …, to my knowledge, around 12 or 14 of those players – teammates,” Bowman said.
The 1962 team consisted of 44 players, according to Bowman, who said he was the high school equivalent of a practice squad player that season. There…