MADRAS —

This is a job for them, even if they don’t get paid. They go virtually unnoticed during football games, but these four men don’t care. They maintain high professionalism for what most would perceive as a tedious task — yet there is no place they would rather be on a Friday night.

“We’ve got the best seat in the house,” says Delano Miller. “We get to walk right there along the sideline and hear the (visiting team’s) coaches talk. It’s a job. You do it for yourself.”

Adds William Patt: “It’s about the love of the game for me.”

Miller (better known as “Satch”), Patt (aka “Hobo”), Ellison David Sr. (known as “Alley”) and Gerald Sampson (nicknamed “Chickenhawk”) have worked the down and distance markers — or chain gang — together at Madras High for decades. The four Madras High grads are seasoned veterans, former White Buffaloes players who are students of football, frequently picking up schemes, techniques and nuances of the sport while working the chains. Satch is the longest-tenured of the crew, now in his 44th year, though Chickenhawk (41 years), Hobo (32) and Alley (30) have also each logged quite a few miles patrolling the sideline.

Yet even with all that time spent on the field — heck, with each other — these four, aging now but still as lively and jocular as high school kids, show no signs of growing weary.

How could they not enjoy their unpaid work? After all, as Hobo says, repeating Satch: “You’ve pretty much got the best seat in the house.”

The story of how this foursome formed is hardly the stuff of Hollywood. To hear Satch tell it, two of his friends back in the day persuaded him to join them in working the chains. His buddies eventually left the crew, and that is when Chickenhawk, now 67, got on board. In 1986, the group was short a member, so Satch recruited Hobo, now 50. Alley, 73, joined to get closer to the action as his son Butch played for Madras.

“I come just because it’s a Friday night thing,” Alley says, “and I’ve been doing it for years.”

Between these four Warm Springs residents is an encyclopedia of Madras football history and football analysis. They remember moments from years ago as if they had just walked off the field that day. Like a last-second touchdown back in the day that propelled the White Buffaloes to an upset victory over perennial power Vale. Or one moment when Satch got a little too close to the on-field action — or more accurately, when the action got a little too close to him.

“All of a sudden, they cut right toward me and I didn’t have time to react,” recalls Satch, 77 and the sports and athletics coordinator at the Warm Springs Community Center. “I got hit, and he must have hit me from here to that fence (a good 10 feet) and I landed in the long jump pit. It was just the one time. They don’t get close anymore.”

They have seen more than their share of football over the years, played by some of the best high school players 
Oregon has produced. Alley remembers quarterback Kellen Clemens, a 2001 graduate of Burns High who went on to star for the Oregon Ducks and is now in the NFL.

“That guy,” Alley says, still in awe, “he could throw it 60 yards on a straight line. WHOA!” And there was a player at Wilsonville years back (his name escapes the group) who would send kickoffs through the uprights. Chain gang members are expected to remain unbiased, which means no cheering, no yelling, no backseat-driver coaching. Bearing witness to stellar athletes such as Clemens, however, makes it difficult for these four men.

“You have to keep your mouth closed,” says Hobo, who along with Chickenhawk works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs roads department. “That’s the tough part. Even if we see something that the referees don’t see, how do you keep your mouth shut? That happens a lot.”

An offensive and defensive lineman for Madras in the 1980s, Hobo is suddenly struck by a memory.

“I remember you guys used to yell at me all the time,” he deadpans, the rest of the crew erupting in laughter. “When did that change?”

Like Hobo, Satch, a punter and defensive back, and Alley, a running back and linebacker, are former Madras players. Chickenhawk, as Hobo says, “was the cheerleader.”

“Chickenhawk,” Satch adds. “That’s how he got his nickname, chasing girls around in the stands.”

Again, the group cackles. That is how this crew operates: They bust each other’s chops and deliver witty one-liners, but when the game is unfolding in front of them they are at full attention.

“They treat it like a job,” says Butch David, now a varsity assistant for the Buffs. Right out of high school, he served as a chain gang member with his father. “I could guarantee they’re going to be here Friday night and do their job and I won’t have to worry about it.”

Some other high schools, he says, do not have it so good.

“They have high school kids doing the chain gang,” Butch David says. “You have to keep an eye on them.” Other times, he adds, “it may just be fathers out there cheering on their kids.”

“Over the years, I’ve had parents be jealous of these guys because they wanted to be on the sidelines and have a front-row seat. It’s an honor to have these guys all these years. I know they’re not going to be around forever; we’re going to have to start training some young guys. But while they’re here, we use them.”

While Satch concedes that he and his chain gang pals are not perfect — occasionally someone will zone out during a play and forget to move with the chains, for example — they have rarely missed a varsity game in their time, and Alley, who is retired, works the JV games as well. They are a team of their own, constantly communicating with each other to stay on top of the action and in the correct positions. This is a volunteer job — but they take it as seriously as their own careers.

They were here at the field in 1986 when Madras played in the quarterfinals of what was then the Class AA state playoffs — the last time the White Buffaloes advanced as far. They were here for a 23-game losing streak, and they were here a month ago when that three-season drought ended.

This chain gang has enjoyed the highs of Madras football, and they grinded through the lows. Yet while having the “best seat in the house” for home games is a perk, this crew has continued its 30-year-plus streak for one simple reason: the love of the game.

“If we got sick of it, we wouldn’t be doing this,” says Satch. “We would have been gone a loooooong time ago.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0307, 
glucas@bendbulletin.com