"Camel Cigarettes"

Johnny, Fireball (Kenneth) Pinkley was ever bit the athlete that his big brother Wallace was. Fireball could "hum" a baseball thus his nick name. I never was able to hit his fastball. He was great on the diamond and football field both. The story of Kenneth and Larry sounds just like some of the tricks that Kenneth and Larry were capable of. I am not a bit surprised. Larry and I roomed together in Knoxville with a big old tight end from Centerville, a boy named Lonnie Smith. We had great times but it was all I could do to keep those two out of trouble. We lived in the athletic dorm which was in the stadium back then. Ever nite they would walk across this railroad trestle to the "Smokey Mountain Market" for a chile dog. I liked chile dogs from "the market" too but not enough to walk the trestle which was over the Tennessee River. I kept telling them they were going to get caught by a train and sure enough they did one nite. Barely made it across before the train got to them. They would stay all nite down on the rocks by the river fishing, sleeping in blankets with the rats running over their feet. Its a wonder we did not die of mercury poisoning, eating those nasty fish out of that polluted water.
Larry remains one of by best friends today. He is a "hoot" to be around still. He loved Coach and Coach loved him. His senior year at HHS he was returning a kickoff to the right (right return), when the flow started that way, he reversed his field and ran left for a touchdown. Coach Ward jerked him off the field and said, "Stewart, when I say 'right return' I mean 'right return', do you understand"; a meek Mr. Stewart replied "yes, sir". Coach Ward came to K'ville several times to see games while we were there.
Clyman Dale was as tough as they come. We were on the same field together my senior year and his sophomore year. In the Jackson High (Exchange Bowl) game that we lost, Moose had been hurt and Clyman took over at fullback and did a great job (as a sophomore). Toward the end of the game, we were on our 40 at the left hash mark and Wallace wanted to run a screen to the strong side as their ends were crashing like crazy. So Wade says, "Clyman, you are going to play quarterback on this play and block to the weak side and Scotty is coming to fullback and will take the pass after sliding off his block on the strong side-do you understand". His head shake was affirmative. We lined up in the "T" with the idea to shift into the single wing so Wade could take the direct snap. So far so good. I start calling the signal but Clyman forgets to shift so I had to say "Clyman, shift over" during the cadence, which he finally did and then the play went off as planned.
Fireball and Clyman Dale made great contributions to the athletic progams for Coach Ward. I am sure he was pleased with both of these men.
Scotty Portis (Mustang 1955-58)



Fireball and Clyman Dale

Scotty.. I talked with Kenneth "Fireball" Pinkley at the complex today and he had me laughing out loud. I asked him if I could tell his tale and said it was ok..

Here goes... It seemed that Fireball was younger than Larry Stewart and was somewhat in awe of him. Both Larry and Fireball had summer jobs working for the city and they were mowing the grass at the Clark Cemetery located on Murray Lane off East Paris Street. They broke for lunch with the other boys at the cemetery and Larry bet he could beat Fireball in a race to a large tombstone located a short sprint away. Fireball didn't think he could beat Larry and Larry said he was going to race him on his hands. Stewart told Fireball to let him get up and then give him 3 steps and then Fireball could start. The deal was if Fireball caught Larry before they reached the tombstone then he had to tackle Larry. Larry took off and Fireball caught him and tackled him as he was running on his hands and was upside down. Apparently Larry thought this was great for a young lad like Fireball to tackle him and he was so excited that he put Fireball on his shoulders and carried him back to the spot where they were all eating lunch. I wish I had a picture of Fireball riding on top of Stewart's shoulders don't you?

Another tale that Fireball told was about Coach Ward. It seemed one afternoon during practice that Coach Ward wanted Clyman Dale Smith and Fireball to stay after practice. They had no idea what Coach wanted and he had them catch punts and run them back till they were whooped. Coach finally told them to head to the locker room and hollored out that was for all the Camel cigarettes they had been smoking. As Fireball and Clyman were walking to the dressing room Clyman told Fireball he was glad coach Ward didn't run all of the Lucky Strikes out of him cause he didn't think he could have made it. These stories about Coach Ward seem to grow as everyone has good memories about Coach.

Johnny Radford