"Is My Neck Broke Coach"

Johnny, two great stories. I always liked Barry Mac and still get a bang out of him even today when I see him. I related this story to his sister this AM while in the line to vote. She got a huge laugh out of it also.
I remember listening to the Donaldson game on the radio with my dad that nite and was of course very disappointed that the Mustangs lost but cheered each time my cousin Randy Clement (safety) made a tackle (he propably had to make more than he should have if Donaldson was running that toss sweep "to perfection"). Randy was tough as he was a "pseudo" member of the notorious "Jackson Highway Gang". He lived in town but Tommy and I would get him and his brother Johnny to come out to play football, basketball, and baseball with us.
Johnny, again my hat is off to you the "#1 Mustang fan of all time". I guess we can tell the story that came out the other day when our wives got together. Trudy, Johnny's wife jumped on me and said I was causing her husband to spend too much time on the computer and my wife, Kathy, echoed the same sentiments. They said that they might just kick us out and we could room together and then spend as much time as we wanted to on the computer. I asked Johnny if he could cook and, of course, the answer was "NO" and he said do you cook and dito. So we decided to appease them so we could stay where we were.
Thanks, JR.
Scotty Portis (Mustang 1955-58)

Subject: Coach Ward

Scotty.... Thanks again for passing the e-mails to me. It's great to read the stories and the memories so many of his students and former players had of Coach. One thing I think of when asked about Coach Ward was getting everybody to work together. He would tear you down on Monday and have you thinking you couldn't beat Yuma on Friday night but after Thursday he would flip it around and you could beat the Packers. By Friday night in pregame he could get you so excited and fired up you were ready to actually play the Packers and knew you would beat them too. Ha...

I've got a couple of Coach Ward stories I'd like to share with everyone. My Junior year in the spring we were running our offense on Thursday before a spring game in Waverly the next day. We were going toward the south endzone and we ran sprint out pass right. I was the QB and "lofted" a pass to Barry Murphy in the southwest corner toward the visitor's concession stand. If you remember the wire around the field between the poles then you may also remember the poles were painted white about 6' from the ground. Barry was running full tilt and hit the light pole and the chance meeting knocked him cold for about 2-3 minutes and he lay motionless on the ground. The entire team ran down to check on Murf and Coach Ward and Coach Welch were straddling him. Finally Barry moved a little and looked up to Coach from his back and asked, "Is my neck broke Coach"? I thought Coach would bust a gut laughing so hard. Up to that time Barry was a complete idiot and somehow this meeting with the light pole actually made him sane and he was able to sing tenor in the choir.. Ha

My Junior year in 1967 we were invited to play Nashville Donelson High School in the Hendersonville Lake Bowl. We finished the regular season 8-2 and had a good team but not as strong as the 1966 team with Priest, Carter,Compton,Wallace and Barnett and all the other great players. Donelson finished the season behind Nashville Stratford High School and Stratford played in the Clinic Bowl that year. We were in the dressing room before the game and Coach Ward started his pregame speech and actually started crying. He told us he hoped he hadn't put us in a game where we were overmatched. I honestly feel the speech was heartfelt and he meant every word he told us. Donelson had an all state halfback named Kenny Johnson who was a tough running back. They ran the toss sweep to perfection a lot that night and late in the 4th quarter he pulled up on the sweep and tossed a halfback pass for a TD and they "got off the hook" and beat us 14-6. Looking back now I think too we were overmatched but that night we "felt" we could beat those guys and played like it too.

In closing I'd like to say all of Coach Wards "boys" loved him and wanted to win every game for him. He will be missed greatly.

Johnny Radford
Mustang (1966-1968)