Bobcats vs Sharps Game Postponed After Clock Discrepancy
HOBART, OHIO – Friday night’s much-anticipated matchup between the Hobart High Bobcats and the Leadville Sharps ended not with a kickoff, but with confusion, as officials postponed the game after discovering the American Lead & Graphite Stadium scoreboard was running on what they later described as “Eastern Kentucky Time.”
The problem was first noticed when both teams took the field to warm up, only to realize the scoreboard clock read 10:45 p.m. despite the sun still being visible over the water tower.
Referee Dan “Whistles” Carmichael attempted to reset the clock manually, but after several button presses the display cycled through Greenwich Mean Time, Mountain Standard, and briefly, “Pacific Future Time (+37).” Play was halted while coaches and administrators huddled at midfield with what witnesses described as “the same energy as a barn quilt committee trying to decide on blue or teal.”
“We can’t very well start a game if one team thinks it’s 7 o’clock, the other thinks it’s 11, and the band kids are on Australian Daylight Time,” said Hobart Athletic Director Carol Pritchard.
Leadville Coach Chuck Donahue was visibly frustrated, telling reporters, “Our boys didn’t practice all week just to lose to a clock. We came here for football, not for a geography lesson.”
Spectators, meanwhile, made the best of it. Several concession stand workers began selling hot dogs at half price, declaring it “late night happy hour.” A group of Hobart students reportedly set their phones to multiple time zones and began chanting “CENTRAL TIME, CENTRAL TIME” until being asked politely to stop by Principal Cavanaugh.
By 9:15 actual Hobart time, the decision was made to postpone the game to next Friday at Alma Chiggins Memorial Field in Hobart with both schools agreeing to “synchronize watches the old-fashioned way.”
Despite the chaos, many in attendance said the evening still felt like a victory. “It was the most Hobart thing I’ve ever seen,” said resident Martha Jane Petty, who added that she plans to frame her unused ticket.
The Terrance County School Board has announced it will “review the clock” before next week’s rescheduled game, though some residents believe the scoreboard “should be left alone to see what it does next.”
Does anyone know when they’ll make up this game?
i wouldn’t ask them, they don’t seem to know either
I haven’t had a chance to cheer on a game since Homecoming, 1928. So I’m casting my vote for “Prohibition Standard Time.”
You know, technically, it wasn’t Eastern Kentucky Time, it was an offset variant used by Terrance County until 1963. Get it right. Read your history books. Or maybe you should ask Dr. Marlowe?
LOL Leadville is so lame, can’t even run a red light correctly, let alone a football clock. That’ll teach them bozos in Terrance County to spread their dollar store virus over to us. The bridge over the Symmes River should be demolished, geez.
Also, Coach Donahue is a putz! I saw his wife at the Yacht Club with the HHS science teacher! Take that, Stink-a-hue!