Many’s I.D. Bostian to skip golf to support Many in state championship game

MANY – On a normal Sunday, not long after the morning services end at Many’s First United Methodist Church, I.D. Bostian grabs a bite to eat and heads to the golf course to meet his buddies for a scramble.

Bostian doesn’t let a little thing like being 94 years young stand in his way of chasing the little white ball.

But this Sunday, there will be no golf for Bostian and most of his friends. Instead they’ll be tuned 99.9 KTEZ at 1 p.m. because the Many Tigers (11-0) will be playing Kinder (9-2) for the LHSAA Class 2A state title just up the road at Northwestern’s Turpin Stadium.

“I hate I can’t be there, but with COVID and the crowds, I didn’t want to deal with all that,” said Bostian, a WWII veteran who has attended hundreds of Many football games since the 1950s when he wasn’t assisting with the development of Toledo Bend. 

He’ll tune in to hear his son, Randy, and co-host Brad Ford, break down the action of the Tigers’ second consecutive trip to the title tilt. Bostian was in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in 2014 when Many won that title.

“I don’t remember much of the details, but it was some kind of game,” Bostian said. “We raised the roof and had a lot of people there because we have the only football team in the parish.”

The Tigers have had a remarkable season despite the challenges of COVID-19, which cost them the opportunity to host their first two playoff games. Last Friday, coach Jess Curtis’ club bumped General Trass down to a private after an 83-36 thumping under the lights. 

Bostian stayed warm in the press box at John W. Curtis Stadium, questioning a few coaches’ decisions on both sides of the field or chuckling about how the score got further and further out of hand for his favorite team. 

“I know most of the kids on the team. I see them around town and talk to them,” he said. “I’m all over town.”

Bostian can see out of just one eye, so he doesn’t drive at night and he spends a lot of his time taking care of his wife. As a teenager, he was two weeks away from heading to the WWII invasion of Japan when the boat he was on had issues. His late brother wasn’t so lucky. He spent four years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp with a single blanket in 20-degree weather.

When the war ended, Bostian returned to Louisiana and went to work for Central Louisiana Electric Company encouraging landowners to give up property for the flooding required to build Toledo Bend Reservoir. The impoundment of water began in 1966 and Bostain has since spent countless hours mining crappie from its depths.

But Sunday, Bostian doesn’t plan on letting golf, crappie or anything else get in the way keeping up with the Tigers, although there won’t be many people left in Many with which to commiserate. Most of the roughly 3,000 residents will be in Turpin Stadium yelling and screaming for a team led by guys like Trotter Lafollett, Tackett Curtis, London Williams, Braxton Ebarb, Cadillac Rhone, Jaden Jones and Terrence Williams. 

The slices and lost golf balls will have to wait a week.

Twitter: @JimmyWatson6