There was no Virginia football played in 1918. There was a war on, and able-bodied young men had actual fighting to do, in actual trenches.
But the Hoos took the field again in 1919. John Risher was there to watch them: a nine-year-old boy who lived with his mother in an apartment near Grounds.
Ninety-seven years later—after fighting in a war himself; after meeting, marrying, and spending six decades with his late wife—John Risher still watches Virginia football.
A moving, touching New York Times profile hit newsstands today. Most fans, myself included, probably hadn’t really paid attention when John Risher’s name has come up before: when he got a shout-out from Coach Mendenhall at the coach’s introductory press conference, or when he was recognized as Virginia’s oldest living football alumnus before the Richmond game.