As I strolled around the Citrus Bowl, where Vero Beach High School’s undefeated football team was playing its final home game of the regular season, everything felt wrong.
Instead of the wave of nostalgia I expected to accompany Homecoming 2015, it felt as if I had wandered into an episode of the “Twilight Zone.”
The visitors’ bleachers were packed with a festive crowd cheering for the home team.
The visiting team occupied what historically has been the home sideline. And the Vero Beach High marching band, as much a part of Friday night football here as tackling and touchdowns, was exiled to temporary seating behind the east end zone.
What was especially surreal – and impossible to ignore – was the view across Billy Livings Field, where the 48-year-old concrete stands, closed for structural and safety concerns, provided an eerie backdrop to the Fighting Indians’ otherwise-rousing, 35-7 victory over Fort Lauderdale.
“I’ve never been here for a football game when the stands were empty,” said local attorney Todd Fennell, quarterback of Vero Beach’s 1981 state championship team. “It feels weird, like a ghost town.”
Rosie Livings, widow of the beloved coach for whom the field was named, sat on the visitors’ side, just below the press box. She said she would’ve gladly signed a hold-harmless waiver to return to her usual seat under the coaches’ box at the top of the concrete stands.
“Looking across at those empty stands,” she said, “it looked like a death.”
But she’s not about to mourn its demise.
Instead of endorsing any further attempts to revive the decaying concrete structure – something the Indian River County School Board is seriously considering – Rosie Livings hopes to see the stadium put out of its misery and replaced with a new facility befitting a football program of Vero Beach’s stature.
“The only problem we ever had with the stadium was that it didn’t hold enough people,” she said. “But it’s almost 50 years old now, and it’s falling apart. They need to dynamite it and start over.
“It’s ridiculous to spend $2 million to patch up 50-year-old concrete.”
It was two Mondays ago that Schools Superintendent Mark Rendell summoned Vero Beach football coach Lenny Jankowski, who doubles as the school’s athletic director, to share the findings of an engineer’s report revealing the Citrus Bowl’s concrete stands were structurally unsafe.
The late notice left little time to decide where to play Friday’s game.
The school district initially planned to move the game to Dodgertown, but Jankowski said a football field wouldn’t fit inside Holman Stadium. So rather than take Homecoming on the road – to Sebastian River – Jankowski opted to play at the Citrus Bowl, using the visitors- side bleachers and putting temporary bleachers in each end zone.
A crowd estimated at 4,000 attended the game.
“To be able to pull it off on such short notice was pretty amazing,” Jankowski said. “To have a packed house in spite of all the problems was even more amazing. But that’s the kind of support we get here.”
As for the aging Citrus Bowl, Jankowski said there might be enough support there, too – from the beams that bolster the concrete stands.
“I keep hearing that the vertical beams are good for another 100 years, so I don’t know if we need to refurbish or rebuild,” Jankowski said, adding that he didn’t yet know how the problems at the Citrus Bowl would impact Vero Beach’s ability to play a home playoff game, if the Fighting Indians continue to win.
“We’ve got one of the coolest venues in the state, but everything is outdated,” he continued. “The bathrooms, concessions and locker rooms all are from the 1960s. The entire structure – you don’t see a lot of concrete stadiums anymore – needs to be updated.
“So while it’s great to have the mystique and tradition of the Citrus Bowl, the place needs a complete overhaul.”
No one disagrees.
The debate now will be between those who want to renovate for roughly $2 million and those who want to rebuild for at least three times that amount.
“We’re going to have those discussions,” School Board Chairman Matt McCain said. “We don’t want to spend a whole lot of money putting lipstick on a pig, only to shoot the pig in a couple of years. But we’ve also got to come up with the money to pay for it.
“Obviously, it’s something we need to address immediately,” he added, “and we will.”
Count Fennell among those who favor building a new stadium, though he admits it would be “very hard” for him to see the old concrete stands demolished.
“We all knew this day was coming,” he said. “We just didn’t expect it to come this soon.”
Another vote for rebuilding came from Gary Parris, who scored the first touchdown in the then-new Citrus Bowl in 1967 – it cost $90,000 to install the concrete stands – before starring at Florida State, spending eight seasons as an NFL tight end and returning to Vero Beach, where he has spent the past 35 years as a commentator for the team’s radio broadcasts.
“It’s time,” Parris said before Friday night’s game. “I’m no structural engineer, but from everything I’ve read and heard, they’ve kept it going as long as they could. We need a new stadium.”
Yes, we do.
And I say “we” because for the past 35 years – since the legendary Billy Livings arrived from Alabama with his good-ol’-boy charm, quotable quips and winning ways – Vero Beach football has been as much as part of our community as Dodgertown, citrus and snowbirds.
Don’t think so?
Tell me, then: What other local happening draws paying crowds in excess of 4,000 at least seven times each year?
“The bond between the team and the community is what makes Vero Beach football so special,” Fennell said. “You don’t see this in a lot of other towns. This stadium is a community gathering place. Billy made that happen.”
Now, it’s up to the community to honor the Livings’ legacy and make a new stadium happen – one that won’t much resemble the old one.
“It would probably be something like the (South County) stadium they have down in St. Lucie West,” Parris said. “Maybe they can build a concrete exterior, but I’m sure it’ll have aluminum bleachers, like you see in most high school stadiums.
“They can put locker rooms underneath the stands, install better bathrooms and concession stands, and build a bigger press box,” he added.
“Sure, it’s going to cost some money, but the commitment needs to be made.
“Given what this program means to the community, I don’t think you’ll see a lot of opposition.”
There’s always opposition when the expenditure of tax dollars is required. There was opposition to the school board’s decision to build a new administration complex. There will be at least some opposition to any proposal to use tax dollars to build a new football stadium.
But there shouldn’t be.
Vero Beach football makes money – enough to fund itself, enough to also fund the school’s other athletic teams.
In addition, the program is popular with local businesses. And this community is filled with folks who possess the financial means to contribute to the cause.
“A large donation,” McCain said, “would be nice.”
Both Fennell and Parris said they expect local residents, even those who don’t have kids attending our schools, to rally around the program and help raise the funds necessary to rebuild the stadium.
“Look at the average age of this crowd,” Parris said. “A lot of these people have been part of Vero Beach football for decades. Some went to school here. Some have kids in school here. Some have grandchildren in school here.
“We’ve even people who’ve retired here – who have no direct connection to Vero Beach High School – who’ve adopted the program and support the team,” he added. “People from all across the community enjoy coming to these games.”
There’s a Rockwellian feel to Vero Beach’s version of Friday Night Lights.
And the Citrus Bowl’s quaint setting, carefully nurtured by Billy Livings and now fully embraced by Jankowski, has plenty to do with it. Both must be preserved for generations to come.
“I think everybody is looking at the big picture,” Jankowski said. “Whatever decision is made, we need to prepare for the next 50 years, like they did when they built this stadium.”
Let there be no doubt: The Citrus Bowl served us well, providing a venue for so many unforgettable moments, including that magical December night when a crowd of more than 7,500 watched Vero Beach edge Panama City Mosley 10-7 to win its only state championship.
“A lot of fond memories in this place,” Fennell said.
But even the widow of the man who coached those “Li’l Rascals,” as they were affectionately called, says it’s time to put nostalgia aside and do what needs to be done.
“Do I drive a car from the 1940s?” Rosie Livings said. “They need to knock it down and build a new one.”