W.K. Brumbach Stadium, home of the Gaffney High School Indians and affectionately known as "The Reservation," is shown here jampacked with fans for a nationally televised game against Byrnes. When Bryce Smiley looks at the two glittering rings mounted in a small shadow box in his dormitory, he is reminded of home. The rings - earned in the 2003 and 2005 South Carolina High School League Class 4A Division I title games - beckon the Presbyterian College freshman to think of Gaffney and of Indians football.

"I want to come back here and coach and be a part of this tradition," says the former linebacker as he walks the halls of Gaffney High on Friday afternoon.

When he returns, in five years or so according to his plan, home will have a different look.

After more than 70 years at W.K. Brumbach Stadium - revered or reviled statewide as The Reservation - the Indians will play host to their last regular season game there on this night. Officials, staff and fans expect to have a new stadium on school grounds built in time for the start of next season.

The countdown to The Reservation's final day as one of high school football's hallowed grounds has begun.

2 P.M. Gaffney coach Phil Strickland sits in his office, which looks out on the practice field, where, he is told, a stadium will exist in a matter of months. On Oct. 30, the Cherokee County school district received three bids for the project - the lowest an $8.3 million estimate from Farley Associates of Indian Land.

Though Strickland has been at Gaffney for only four years - and won two titles -The Reservation's magic is not lost on him.

"But it's old and it lacks a lot," says Strickland, whose team entered Friday's game 10-0 overall and 5-0 in region play.

The stadium, built in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration, lacks enough restrooms, handicapped accessibility and adequate locker rooms for either team, he says. It has been granted exemptions from new building codes. And The Reservation is not located at Gaffney but at the middle school, which is a few miles away.

"It's not far, but you have to pack and plan just like it is," Strickland says.

Despite its signs of age, The Reservation has not lost any of its "mystique" for fans. But, Strickland says, the pride and tradition of Gaffney football is about the players and the fans, not the playing surface.

Smiley agrees.

"A night at The Reservation is special," Smiley says. "People know it for the tunnel,

and they know it for the hill, but I think they remember it for the way we play out there."

In Gaffney, it is known for much more.

The stadium is the community's weekly meeting house. It is where the home crowd - which averages between 6,000 and 8,000 - sits, stands and wears ruts in the decaying cement stands just as it has through more than 40 winning seasons, 15 state championship seasons, a winless 1975, and at least nine seasons without home losses.

The Reservation is where football is not only a local pastime but also a family legacy.

"If you were male in my family, you played football, and it was like that for a lot of players," says assistant coach Donnie Littlejohn, who played defensive line for the Indians from 1993-96.

"Our dads played on that field, our grandfathers, our cousins and brothers," Littlejohn says.

A smile flickers across his face as he tries to count the state titles held by family members. ... he counts three just on his mother's side.

"There's been a lot of blood, sweat, tears left on that field," Littlejohn says, wistfully.

6 P.M.

The lights dim inside the shops in uptown Gaffney, a swath of old-fashioned storefronts in rain- and wind-dulled brick buildings. Lamppost banners beseech passers-through to "Fall in love with Gaffney," which, on any Friday night, means falling in love with high school football.

A trail of cars snakes past the intersection of U.S. 29 and SC 11 - the two former Indian trails where Michael Gaffney is said to have settled and opened his store somewhere around 1804. The crisp autumn air vibrates gently with the distant sounding of the "War Chant". Though it is blaring from speakers, it sounds as though it is falling from the sun-forsaken sky. Cheerleaders are out selling programs; the Band of Gold is unloading its instruments.

The Reservation already is buzzing. Inside the gate, the crescent-shaped concrete bleachers slowly fill.

Men, women and children discuss various scenarios in which Gaffney could earn a home game for the first round of the Class 4A playoffs - a chance to visit The Reservation one last time.

Players from the 2003 and 2005 championship teams are gathering to be honored on the field before kickoff. Smiley, Rashun Harris and about 20 others gather in the blackened tunnel that used to intimidate opponents and charge up the Gaffney players. It has that same smell: of sweat and of dust and of cold. For years, opposing players stood in this tunnel pregame and felt a sense of impending doom. Here, the weight of several thousand fans who wished them ill -some showing it more than others - caved in on them despite the concrete barrier.

"They don't let the visiting teams run through there anymore, but that tunnel is still special for the current players," says Bob Prevatte, the former coach who led Gaffney to seven state titles and for whom the field is named. After the pregame ceremony, Smiley watches as his team charges out of that tunnel to thunderous cheers and fireworks and remembers what it felt like just a year ago. Artificial fog throws a gauzy veil into the velvet sky, and Smiley knows as long as he is just watching, it will never really feel the same, no matter where the Indians play.

7:30 P.M.

As the Indians prepare for kickoff against rival Spartanburg, principal Quincie Moore looks into the home stands and is disappointed. Too many seats at one end of the stands are empty.

"There's something special about the field, but it's the people inside that make it really special," says the Gaffney native.

"We're going to try to do some things to get this same atmosphere at the new stadium," she says.

The design, though not finalized, is expected to include a tunnel. It should

seat about 10,000 and include expanded and improved seating for the visiting crowd.

They will carry their traditions with them, Strickland says.

"Our tradition, our winning, is not about the field. And we can still win in a new stadium," he says.

8:30 P.M.

The Indians are leading 20- 0, and Deborah Wiley Ali has arrived just in time for the halftime show.

"I haven't been to a game here since my 10-year reunion," says Ali, a member of the Class of 1989. "But I wanted to make sure I was here for this last game because this place meant so much to me."

Tears well in her eyes as she notices the message "Thanks for the Memories" painted on the field in front of the home crowd.

The Reservation holds so many.

"Powder Bowl, band practices, homecomings ... we all went through a lot of things, all in this same place. That's just something we can all relate to," says Ali, who now lives in Charlotte. "It's a little piece of home that's in all of us."

"The Reservation is old, but I hate to see it go. I'm sure the new stadium will be nice. It just won't have the same sense of ... sense of place," she says as the band marches off the field.

9:30 P.M.

There will be another game here. The Indians defeat the Vikings 33-3 and many fans have already heard that their team has enough points in the seedings system to earn a home game the next Friday.

They leave thankful for what will now be a longer goodbye.

They are uncertain what they will be greeting at the end of the summer.

There has been discussion, mostly informal, about what the new stadium will be called. The school board has a policy for naming facilities, superintendent William James said.

"I'm not even going to bring that up yet, because it's such a tender subject," said Moore.

It may also be a moot one.

"No matter what they name it, people are going to end up calling it The Reservation, too," Smiley says with a shrug.

And he will call it "home."