Since 1972, the Elkhart Memorial football program has seen an abundance of admirable athletes, so this fall, the Charger football team wants to do something special by bringing back any and all former Charger athletes, managers, and coaches who dominated on the gridiron.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Photo courtesy of Eric Nielsen

Members of the 9-0 2003 Northern Lakes Conference championship Charger football team.

Imagine how cool it would be to host a huge team reunion for the studs who were part of the football program back in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s. Afterall, the 2020 season will be the last for Elkhart Memorial Football.

“Since the 2019-2020 season will be the final one for Memorial athletics,” teacher and football coach Jeff Miller said.  “the football program wanted to celebrate the history of the school, all the players, managers, and coaches who have been a part of the entire program. In order to do that [celebrate them], we wanted to invite anybody who wants to, anybody who is able to, and anyone who has interest in coming back to Charger Field.”

This celebration would give the former athletes a chance to enjoy fellowship, see some people they haven’t seen in years, or perhaps decades, and returnees would even get a new look at the facilities, as things are certainly not the same at Memorial as they were years ago.

The plan is to have this celebration in conjunction with homecoming, which is the first week of October, when the Chargers face off against the Northwood Panthers in the second to last home game of the year.

“The idea of homecoming is people coming back to participate in all of the festivities,” Miller said. “So, we will have an event the Thursday before the game on October 3rd. There will be dinner, some fun activities, door prizes, and most importantly a chance for people to visit, hangout, and see people they haven’t seen in a long time.”

On the day of the homecoming game, Oct. 4, the alumni will have the chance to get a tour of the facilities, they will have the chance to be on the game field with the current football players during warm ups, and finally, the former members of the football program will get recognized on the track.

“It’s a way for us to say thank you for everything that they did for the program, the school, and the community as well as for them to feel a connection and to feel important,” Miller said. “We want to honor the past, we want to honor the people, and we want to commemorate the whole program of Elkhart Memorial Crimson Charger Football.”

If you or someone you know is interested in returning to Charger Field for this celebration, please complete this Google document.