I saw it with my own eyes, and I heard it with my own ears.

Friends, Quincy is becoming a football town. That's quite a statement for someone who is a native of football-crazy Ohio.

I didn't come to this conclusion overnight.

Like many of you, I have been watching the Blue Devils slowly gain a new level of respect this season, one that could be their finest since Jim Hart was quarterbacking the St. Louis Cardinals and Olivia Newton-John was singing "I Honestly Love You."

Admittedly, I figured all of this winning might be a mirage. It's not that I'm a negative person, but for each of the 11 years I have lived in Quincy, I have heard the horror stories surrounding the history of the Blue Devils football program.

So it was with great enjoyment last Friday that I watched and heard what unfolded at one of Quincy's finest eating establishments. That was the night then-undefeated Quincy traveled to Rock Island, a place the Blue Devils had not won in 36 years.

While my wife and I were discussing a non-football related issue over a nice dinner, a mutual friend, Jeff Carter of Summy Tire, sat down at our table and proudly held up a text message on his cell phone.

I couldn't read what it said from across the table, but I could tell it was something good by the smile on Jeff's face.

"The Blue Devils are winning!" he said.

Jeff was receiving text messages from a family member who was at the game, and to that point, all of the reports had been positive. Would the miracle season continue another week?

Some friends at a nearby table, Mark Schneider and his wife, Eunique, heard our conversation and they, too, joined in with some positive Blue Devils chatter. Mark was a lineman at QHS a few years ago, and Eunique was a volleyball star there.

News of the Blue Devils' lead spread throughout the room, and several other QHS football conversations sprouted wings. I know, because I found myself involved in more than one of them.

"This is so cool," I thought to myself.

Having been a sports writer for the first 25 years of my career, I realize the impact a story like QHS football can have on a community. So although I am not a Quincyan by birth, I have still taken great pride in what the football team is accomplishing.

I wish I could say this part of the story had the fairy tale ending that would have gone so well with the rest of the season to date, but as we all know, Rock Island rallied for a 20-16 victory.

What shouldn't be lost in that defeat is the interest the Blue Devils have generated. From the capacity crowds at Flinn Stadium, to talk on the street -- the QHS football program has accomplished something many thought might be impossible. It has made people care about Friday nights in the fall and care with honest-to-goodness emotion.

A minimum of three more weeks of Blue Devils football remains, two regular-season dates and at least one playoff game. Yes, the Blue Devils are going to the playoffs! Six straight wins to start the year guaranteed that, which helped remove a little of the sting from the loss at Rock Island.

The Blue Devils may have lost that game at Rock Island, but I hope Coach Rick Little, his staff and players realize they have already won a big piece of a city's sporting heart.

-- seighinger@whig.com/221-3377