I saw the word "Waterboy" the other day and it reminded me of the waterboy we had for our high school football team during the light grey ages of yesteryear. Since this occurred during the 1930's, it's too recent to be referred to as the dark ages.
We didn't have Gatorade or even individual bottles of water but most of the schools had a town water system. At least we had advanced from the pump or well water system so we were in the big time. But we had to depend on our official waterboy during the game. His basic equipment consisted of a ten-quart galvanized bucket and a long handled dipper. Everyone drank from the same dipper. The waterboy was responsible for the care and maintenance of the bucket and dipper.
The source of water for our home games was a spigot about 300 yards from our football field and our waterboy had to make several trips during the game. All of our games were at night and all sorts of night flying insects drank from the same bucket. Even with that Florida sand and other foreign objects finding their way into the bucket I don't ever recall anyone getting sick from drinking the water or drinking from the same dipper.
One of the schools in our conference did not have running water at the field site but did have a hand pump. It was located on the home side of the field. Our waterboy was not allowed to go across the field for a refill except before the game and during half time. During the game he had to circle the field to get a refill at the pump.
And that's the way it was during the 1930's, but we had fun !!!!!!!