Wayne Clements played football for Saline High School under Coach Bill Lyons and remembers when volunteers from the community came together to lay the sod and build a proper football field for the team in 1948. "There wasn’t any money for something like that," he said. "It was the hard work of the farmers and dads who got together and hauled loads of donated sod from a farm on Fosdick Rd. with their tractors and trailers. That was the summer of 1948. These guys laid the sod, rolled it, watered it and camped on it to be sure the field would turn out alright. The lights went up at the field the same summer."

The first game was played against Ann Arbor’s University High School and then superintendent, Leo Jansen dedicated the field. "He had twin daughters who were cheerleaders, too," said Clements. The bleachers were maybe eight or nine rows high, he recalled and the Hornets were defeated during that first game. "We weren’t a very good team. Some of the guys were barely five feet tall. We’d never heard of a state championship then." Most of the athletes, like Clements, could also be found on the basketball court and baseball field during the school year. Clements played all three sports during his four years as a Hornet.

"I remember how muddy the field would get. We’d play in a mud bowl, finishing the game completely covered in dark black gunk." Clements said before the field was built, the team would practice and play football at the back of Curtis Park, running during warm-ups from Union School, west through Oakwood Cemetery to the park. "Bill Lyons was a teacher and did everything for the team: coach, doctor and psychologist. The budget for sports was much less then." Joe Colby coached the team later, recalls Clements.

"He was a former Navy man, much more strict and quick to discipline the players. He had a tight smile and was very tough," said Clements. "He fed us hot beef broth during cold games, to keep us going."

There were pep rallies in the gym, followed by a burger at Five Point on Maple and Michigan Ave. and in later years, a meal at Leutheusers.