Jennifer Cooper
Contributing writer
Guy Gilmore (center with plaque) was honored shortly before one of Radford High School’s football games this past fall.
After 50 years of keeping the clock for Radford High School’s boys’ varsity, jayvee and eighth grade football games, Guy Gilmore is hanging up his timepiece.
“Fifty years is a good run,” Gilmore said. “I enjoyed every day of it.”
Gilmore himself is a RHS graduate, class of 1961, who played basketball throughout high school and football until getting injured. He had come back to the community after college when a friend who was a football umpire asked him to keep the clock for a scrimmage one evening. He said yes, and the rest is history.
Gilmore said, “I just enjoyed it.”
So much so that Gilmore went through training and testing by the Virginia High School League to get certified to be a clock keeper. He had to make sure he knew the official rules, such as what starts and stops the clock, and the different times of quarters at the different levels of play.
Gilmore also kept the clock for boys’ and girls’ varsity and JV basketball for 20-25 years, but had to give that up when his job as an accounting manager at the Arsenal kept him on the road too much. After all, basketball games could be a three- to five-night per week commitment. Fortunately his travels usually brought him back to Radford by Friday nights for football.
Not only did Gilmore enjoy the job and the sports involved, he found clock keeping was a good way to give back to the community and to participate in high school sports. His children went through the Bobcat athletic program as well – a son who played four years of basketball and, like Gilmore, football until getting injured at the JV level; a daughter who was a cheerleader; plus his wife’s brother played football – so the whole family was often at the games anyway.
Of the level of commitment, Gilmore said, “It was just a way of life.”
Gilmore’s favorite part of his clock keeping job was seeing lots of good athletes come through the programs, especially the 1971 and 1972 state championship football teams. “Everybody loves a winner,” said Gilmore. A number of those players went on to sign Division I scholarships. For a small city like Radford, especially, it was rare to see that much talent at once in the volume of high caliber athletes those two years, he recounted.
Sitting in the press box was a bonus, too, especially during inclement weather.
The biggest challenge, Gilmore laughed, was keeping quiet in the press box when he knew the officials had made a bad call.
Clock keeping was a fun and easy job, but it was one to “get involved in so you don’t mess up,” he said.
Radford High School Athletic Director Greg Wade said Gilmore was a “fixture – not only a dedicated clock operator but also a quality clock operator.” Wade explained that when someone unfamiliar with the school’s clock had to operate it, there was more room for error.
Gilmore estimates that he worked about 900 football games. He began missing a few once he retired from his day job, as he and his wife like to travel and fall is prime time to do so. That is why he told Wade that his tenure would end after this past season, his 50th.
“After 50 years it is time for them to get some new blood,” he said. “But I’d like to thank the school for the opportunity to serve for that amount of time. It was an honor to do it.”
Wade said, “Mr. Gilmore is a wonderful man. We hate to see him leave and are really, really going to miss him.”
