From near the back row of Section B at Powell-Davis Stadium, 82-year-old Grady Hough squinted at the man seated a few rows in front.

"I can't see that far," he said. "Who is that?"

Hough was told the man was Dave Pattison.

"That's Pattison?" he said. "We played on the same team."

That would have been the 1950 Venice High football team, the first in the school's history.

Not 11-man. Just six players to a side.

"A center, two ends, a quarterback, halfback and fullback," said the 82-year-old Pattison, the Indians' quarterback when he played, first for head coach Charlie Gagg, then Bud Webster. "Our training field was the parking lot on Venice Avenue. It was the KMI parade ground. We went to school in Nokomis because we didn't have a school in Venice."

By the third year, the Indians had enough players to switch to 11-man. But just barely. "We only had 13 boys," Pattison said, "so you played offense and defense."

The 2017 Indians football team hosted St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday night in the Class 7A state semifinal. The stands at Powell-Davis were appropriately packed, many filled with seniors such as Hough, Pattison and 80-year-old Ed Ripley.

Gates to the stadium for the 7:30 p.m., game opened at 6. The three were in their seats not long after.

Other schools in other areas of the country may have the same loyal support, but they'd probably be the exceptions. Venice fans attend as many Indians games as they can, often wear green, and at least one retains a memory as sharp as a cleat.

"The population was 600 people," said Pattison, who moved to Venice in 1948 with his parents. "You'd leave Sarasota and there wasn't a traffic light until you got to Punta Gorda. In 1951, they put the first traffic light on Venice Avenue."

Pattison couldn't pinpoint how many years he's attended Indians football games. Twenty-five? Thirty? He called legendary Indians head coach Jim Powell a friend and had a granddaughter win a state title as a member of the Venice volleyball team.

Born in Fort Myers, Hough moved to Venice with his family in 1949. Ripley hails from New York, but relocated to Venice in 2010 and began attending games with Hough.

The two bought season tickets, and their seats, lined up almost directly on the 50-yard line, weren't by accident.

"I made a contribution to the weight room," Hough said, "and as a result, I get favorable treatment. That's why I'm on the 50-yard line."

But what stories the trio shared. Pattison said the team's first field was at the current location of Ewing Funeral Home and the parking lot of Babe's Hardware of Venice.

"Dick Rich had a gas station on the corner and there was Smitty's Bar and Grill," he said. "We called it Sandspur Stadium because it was full of sandspurs."

Ripley remembered the landing strip for Venice Municipal Airport being close to the current location of Powell-Davis Stadium.

Pattison wound up marrying the niece of Willie Robarts, who owned Robarts Funeral Home in Sarasota and had Robarts Arena named after him.

"When he opened it, I went to work for him," Pattison said. "If they were busy, I would take the ambulance to school in Nokomis, and if they'd get a call, I'd get out of class."

Compared to Pattison, Hough and Ripley, 69-year-old Venice fan Mel Flickinger is a newbie. He's been coming to Venice games for more than 25 years and had two kids graduate from the school. Both of them played for the Venice Vikings Pop Warner team.

"(Support) has always been strong," he said. "It's amazing when we travel. We travel much better than any team we ever play."

Call it the Venice Way.