He is a little irked that it wasn't 401 straight games, but sometimes things happen.

Hailey, 46, had the toe next to his right pinkie amputated on a Friday morning in 1977, and his surgeon nixed the idea of Hailey leaving Craven Regional Medical Center in New Bern to watch the game from an ambulance.

"I had his huge hole in my foot, and the doctor said there was no way I was going to that game," Hailey said.

Instead, then-Havelock principal O.K. Gainey Jr., the father of current Leesville Road principal Stephen Gainey, gave Hailey a play-by-play description of the 25-6 win over Goldsboro by telephone.

"He even let me hear the Marching Rams marching band at the half," Hailey recalled.

Other than that, Hailey has attended every Havelock game since Sept. 1, 1972 -- a 24-0 victory by Dixon in the first game in what was then Havelock's new stadium.

Hailey has a record of every Havelock football game ever played with the date, opponent and final score, including the school's first-ever game -- a 19-7 loss on Sept. 13, 1957, to Lejeune.

"That was a tough score to get," Hailey said. "I had to go to Lejeune and go through the archives."

Hailey started going to Havelock games when his father, who was in the military, was transferred from Hawaii to Havelock.

"Back then, high school football was the big thing in town," Hailey said. "There wasn't much else to do. You got to the game by 6 p.m. if you wanted a seat."

He has continued to go to every game because he loves the atmosphere, the unpredictability and the pure joy of high school athletics.

"Every Friday night, it is something different," he said. "It doesn't matter who you are playing, you're going to see something new."

He particularly loves the early-season games.

"There is so much excitement and you always think that you can have a good year," he said. "Then, if you don't, the start of the next season is only eight months away and you start hoping again."

One of the ironic things about Hailey attending so many Havelock games is that it has been very difficult for him to actually see them during the past few years.

He did not know he was diabetic until he had lost the vision in his left eye because of diabetic complications. He has blurred vision in his right eye, but he can see the game well enough through binoculars to keep comprehensive statistics for head coach Charlie Smith.

"I've never heard of anyone like him," Smith said. "He does a great job with our stats. He gives us a complete stats package, and that takes a bunch off my plate.

"But he does a lot more than just keep stats. He is the greatest high school supporter I've ever heard of.

"He doesn't try to coach. He just helps."

Hailey doesn't know how much longer he'll keep adding to the the streak.

He has no plans to miss a game, but he has health problems -- he is on disability because of his vision -- and his father recently died.

"But athletics is a great outlet for me," he said. "For two or three hours, your mind is away from everything else.

"Every year when August rolls around, I'm ready. It is almost like an addiction."

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