Rumors about Crystal Falls Forest Park High School turning to eight-man football had been circulating for at least a year.

But those rumors turned into reality this past week when the CFFP Board of Education voted to adopt the eight-man game beginning next year.

For younger people, this probably wasn’t an earth-shaking event. After all, declining enrollment numbers just about everywhere in the Upper Peninsula have led to the action at several school districts.

But to anyone over the age of 50, this was clearly an athletic watershed moment.

People in that category have a sharp recollection of one of the very best football programs in the state. The large number of state championships, winning seasons and legendary coaches is a testimony to that.

And there were all the great players who represented the Trojans over the decades.

Running backs like Mark Flood, Dan Lato, Bryan LaChapelle, Bill Santilli, Lee Graff and numerous others left marks that stand to this day.

And the football tradition at Crystal Falls was an awe-inspiring one.

Ask any former player who went there to play a game. Back in the day, the pregame festivities started with a 50-member marching band and a guy dressed as a Trojan warrior entering the field riding a white horse. It was pure USC in the U.P.

The aura at the field was intimidating, to say the least.

I clearly recall more than a few local teams I felt had the talent to match up with the Trojans on the field. But they usually fell short on the scoreboard.

Ron Warner’s Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes were among the best in the U.P. for three decades. But it took several years before the Lakes could break the Crystal Falls jinx and establish their own impressive legacy.

Still, Warner’s own coaching career ended on a bitterly cold day in 2004 at Crystal Falls with a narrow defeat.

With the climate of U.P. football changing rapidly, we’re going to see more and more schools going to eight-man. In our area, Ewen-Trout Creek, Ontonagon and Baraga have gone that route.

Even LL-H, with it’s great tradition, could soon be looking at such a change.

This year’s team could make a deep run in the state playoffs and there might be enough talent left next year. But the prospects after that reportedly aren’t bright.

Now, eight-man has been a godsend for many schools in the state.

Baraga is a good example. The Vikings have won more games this fall than in the past five years combined and are competitive in most of the games they’ve played.

But there’s still a wide difference of margin between the haves and the have-nots. North Central, in its first year in the sport, has beaten all foes by an average of 65 points with a roster of superior athletes.

Still other schools (Stephenson is a good example) are playing eight-man despite having 25 plus players on its roster. And that’s something the MHSAA is going to have to deal with very quickly.

When it’s all said and done, prep football will never quite be the same for many of us old timers.

And not having programs like Forest Park playing 11-man football will a major reason.