In fall of 1984, Roger Barnette picked up the telephone and found his calling.

His wife, on the other end of the line when the phone rang, told him their friend wanted to know if Barnette would “be interested in doing the chains.”

“Chains?” Barnette thought. “What’s chains?”

For the football games at North Iredell High School, his wife said.

“I guess,” said Barnette, a 1978 graduate of North.

“I loved sports growing up,” he said. “We lived on a farm and Dad didn’t let us play sports because we had so much to do on the farm.”

A bright-eyed, 24-year-old Barnette reported for duty a few home games into the 1984 varsity football season to offer his services on the sideline as a member of the chain crew.

He was responsible for the clip that first Friday night on the job. The clip marks a

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