THORNDALE, Texas — A Friday night football game in Thorndale doesn’t start until Bubba Grimm says so.
The superfan stands at the corner of the end zone, strategically stationed between the bleachers and Thorndale’s fieldhouse. When he sees the door open and the Bulldogs begin to spill out, he points up at the PA announcer and School Board President David A. Hall, a signal to start his introductions. Then, he throws his arms up at his sides to get the crowd on its feet. Once the applause has reached its crescendo, he cues the band’s fight song. Finally, he picks up his Thorndale flag and waves it frantically, a lightning rod in a perfect storm.
By the time Thorndale’s football team takes the field, the cheerleader chants collide with the drum line that beats as fast as the players’ hearts as they sprint through the tunnel. This is the idyllic symphony of Class 2A football in Texas, and Bubba is the conductor. In these precious moments before kickoff, Friday night is at his fingertips. And while it may be an exaggeration to say that all the different groups at the game move on his command, he is the embodiment of what makes this community, and the atmosphere they create, so unique.
Bubba Grimm is a 49-year-old man with Down syndrome who has dedicated his entire life to supporting Thorndale High School athletics. The Bulldogs won back-to-back football state championships in 1994 and 1995 when he was in high school, playing cymbals in the school band. Around that time, he coined his signature phrase, ‘All the way,’ meaning Thorndale’s going to go all the way to state. But it could also describe how Bubba knows only one way to root for his Bulldogs… all the way.
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