Soccer Shoes

Scotty:

Some weeks ago I sent in a memory of Coach Ward, but I do not see it posted below so I may have wrongly addressed it. I’ll try again with some rambling memories. Please let me say how much I have enjoyed reading the stories of others and reminiscing about growing up in Huntingdon. A couple of things come to mind. In the fall of ’64 when guys like Danny Woodard, Dale Strickland, Donnie Hall, Jerry Morris, Mud Brown and Jerry “Pee Wee” Robison were some of the really good seniors on the team Coach Ward reluctantly agreed to let the backs on the team wear “soccer shoes”- low cut, light weight shoes with a molded, soft rubber sole having short molded cleats. As I recall only the seniors and a few others who might get in a game(like up and coming sophomore, Steve Barnett) got the shoes. As we all thought the shoes looked “fast” and we thought we ran faster in them everyone was excited to have “soccer shoes”. As I and other sophomores played little we mostly looked forward to wearing soccer shoes in our junior and senior seasons.

The ’64 team went undefeated in the regular season and beat Bolivar handily in the Volunteer Conference championship game. We then went to play mighty Brownsville of the Big Ten in the Little Cotton Bowl in Brownsville. On an early possession Huntingdon drove inside the Brownsville 10 yard line. Our star tailback, Jerry Robison, took a handoff as a hole was opened off tackle. It appeared Pee Wee would score but he slipped as he cut into the hole. When he fell he broke his arm or his shoulder or something knocking him out of the game. Huntingdon failed to score and ended up losing to the Big Ten champion Tomcats by a score of 14-0 as I recall. After the game Coach Ward pronounced that “those darn soccer shoes” were the reason Jerry slipped and was injured. He thereafter banned anyone from wearing soccer shoes with the result that the guys in my class like Steve Barnett, Johnny Carter, Wool Townsend and I never got to wear them in a game where we were playing enough to affect the outcome. He was probably right. I don’t think we ever lost a game where soccer shoes would have been the winning edge.

In the fall of ’65 we lost to Camden and Jackson Northside and tied Paris. I remember that we were pretty much considered failures in the wake of the great team of ’64 and the teams of the late 50’s and of the teams led by the guy I believe to have been the best Huntingdon athlete of our era Bobby Hayes. I have always thought if Bobby had turned down Johnny Vaught’s scholarship offer to Ole Miss and chosen professional baseball we would have seen him pitching in the major leagues. In ‘65 Camden won the Volunteer Conference champion in a great game over Don McLeary led Northside. Everyone picked Camden to be the best team in West Tenn in ’66. They were led by QB Cliff Sturdivant(later a star at UT Martin and Huntingdon’s coach), bruising tailback, Dale Woodard and guard-linebacker, David Dulin, both of whom later starred at Tenn Tech. All spring and summer Coach Ward and all the players worked for one thing, beating Camden. The second game of the year we traveled to Camden. I don’t think I ever played on a team in high school or college that was as well prepared and motivated as our team was that night. Coach Ward had sort of gigged us all year about “those big ole boys at Camden” were looking down there collective noses at us. In the game that is still the most fun I ever had playing we beat Camden 28-0. The sense of accomplishment and satisfaction was immeasurable. We all gained a great sense of pride and the understanding(if we did not already have it) that if we would just listen to Coach Ward and Coach Welch we could accomplish all our football goals.

As many have already posted we all feel a great sense of loss with Coach Ward’s death. However, remembering his contributions to all our lives at an age when we were very impressionable gives us warm memories of the an individual who left us all a little better than he found us.

I look forward to reading future posts.

Tim

Tim Priest

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From: Roberts, Benny
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 2:36 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: RE: Coach Ward

tim,

being one of the youngest "posters" to this blog i will continue on your story. as you know my dad and mom were great fans. and with judy there we managed to go to every game. i remember cutting up newspapers so i could throw up confetti at brownsville. after pee wee broke his arm, my dad told me to just throw it up on first downs because he didn't think we would score. he turned out to be right. the night of the camden game you were speaking of, i rode with my dad and gene wilkes, gerry and barbara to camden. i remember all the way over there their conversation (strange how that kind of stuff comes back). they came to the conclusion that the only way we would win was for us to receive the opening kickoff and you return it for a touchdown. i can't remember if you did that or not but that thought just entered my mind as i was reading your story.

benny

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From: Tim Priest

To:

Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 8:29 AM

Subject: RE: Coach Ward

Benny:

No such luck for me on the opening kickoff. Certainly it was an all around team effort.

Tim

Tim Priest

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From: Joe Fortner

Sent: Thu, 1/17/2008

To:
Subject: Fw: Coach Ward

Tim, Great memories of the 64 team, When talking about the shoes, Danny Woodard was given three pairs of shoes. The soccer shoes, a pair for playing on a dry field and a pair playing on a wet field.

Freddie Holiday. enjoyed your post. I have a question, I have always been told the story of the coach of Milan High School football team who at the time was playing Somerville in football each year. He dropped Sommerville from their schedule because of Larry Stewart and stated he would not play them again until Larry Stewart graduated from high school. Instead of playing Somerville he picked up Huntingdon for the next football season and then Bro. Jonas Stewart moved to Huntingdon to pastor the First Baptist Church and Larry played for the Mustangs against Milan High School that fall.

Joe Fortner

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From: Scott Portis

Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 12:47 AM
To: '

Subject: Re: Coach Ward

Tim, I remember this game very well. I arrived late (after the kickoff-having driven all the way from Indianapolis, Indiana, where I lived at the time just to see this game) and went from 6th deep in the end zone closest to town to the front row (still in the end zone). You could not stir the people with a stick. Anyway, on your first touchdown run, as you came through the end zone the crowd was so close to the field that you ran right by me and I swiped you on the butt and screamed, "way to go Tim Priest". What a great game and probably the best team the Mustangs ever fielded (most points scored and fewest allowed). Perhaps the more modern teams have topped these records but that '66 team was one of the best in my memory. Geno Dill could tell us more.

While your brother and I were in medical school in Memphis, all medical treatment at the old "John Gaston Hospital" came to a grinding halt on Saturday afternoon when you and the likes of "Jumping Joe Thompson" and the rest of the Vols took the field.

Great memories.

Scotty

PS Johnny Radford, the greatest Mustang fan of all time, continues to "grow" the list of former Mustangs. Welcome to all.

Anyone else with a great story line such as Tim's, we would like to hear from you. It could by about a season, a team, a game, or a single play. Coach Ward would have loved these stories.

Holding his pants ...

From: Bette Robison

To:

Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 10:56 PM

Subject: Coach Ward

scotty...thanks for starting this,,,have loved all the old stories,, really enjoyed the one about Jerry that J. Fortner told,,,,I can remember him running a touchdown on Pudor Field...holding his pants with one hand and the ball with another....didn't ya'll have shoe strings to hold your pants in the "old days? whatever, Jerry's had broken that night../will never forget how Coach Ward would polish shoes with that old wheel thing every Fri. afternoon before pep rallys and try to mend uniforms ,wish more players would share theirs and had a way of knowing about the blog. I'm so glad that I had one last visit with him in the hospital altho it broke my heart to see him in the fragile state he was in....I'm sure he had every nurse in that hospital hopping!! .....is charlie rhodes, david's older brother.... i don't know him, but he is a wonderful story teller!!

From: Scott Portis
Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 3:35 AM
Subject: Fw: Coach Ward

Bette, welcome to the blog and you are the first female to contribute. Coach Ward would be happy, I am sure. I guess "Pee Wee" was running so fast his shoe string just broke. Maybe he was running so fast it caught on fire. I can't tell you how much I enjoy standing out in your mother's back yard and relating old Mustang stories with your husband. Jerry and I just tolerate your brother-in-law Lynn Brandon. By the way he promised us a blog. Be sure to email him and Harriet and get him on the ball. So glad you went by to see Coach before he died. Paul Allen and I were on our way when we got the word that he had died.

Charles is David's brother, and yes he is a great story teller. If you have not read his other stories on life in Huntingdon let me know and I well get you the addresses.

Again, Bette, thanks.

Jackson Highway Gang

From: Scott Portis

To

Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 1:57 PM

Subject: Re: Coach Ward

Joe, thanks for the blog. We all know the prowess of Coach Robinson, not only as a player but a very savy former Coach of the Mustangs. I am proud to be a next door neighbor of his mother-in-law and get to see Coach quite often, along with his brother-in-law and another former famous Mustang QB Lynn Brandon, when they come to visit. We stand in the back yard and talk Mustang football and often relive some of our old games.

Joe, I am reminded of the "Jackson Highway Gang" as we were known, a rough bunch of uncouth "country boys" as our city slicker friends called us. As I remember, the city boys would come calling to our field on Saturday for a little game of tackle football. Jimmy and Joe Fortner, Lynn Brandon, Mike "The Toe" McLemore, the Lumpkin boys, Donald Blankenship, Roy "Geno" Dill, the Chandler boys, Ralph Joyner, Chandler Peeples, Tommy and Bobby Crews, Scott and Tommy Portis, Ray Ivy, John Mitchell Smith, and least we not forget the female persusion- Ms Becky Presson and Ms. Betty Ann Portis made up the team. Geno Dill's mother looked out the window once and called her son over and said "Roy, you boys must take it easy on Betty Ann and Becky". Roy's reply "Mom, Betty Ann and Becky need to take it easy on us. Have you seen them hit?". As I remember, Betty Ann was a vicious tackler and was probably the second fastest runner on the field. Betty Ann was a little "salty" even when she got to high school. She went in the Lexington dressing room after a basketball game one night and "punched out" one of the Lexington players who had been holding her during the game. She probably could have made the high school football team. Anyway, you will remember that we broke Carl Holiday's arm one Saturday and Johnny Pitts fell victim to the brutality of the "Jackson Highway Gang" the very next Saturday-he got the same treatment and wound up in Dr. Douglass office for a cast. There was no third Saturday as word had gotten around and the white "arm bands" these guys were wearing was proof enough.

I am sure that these early days of playing football grew out of our love for the game but the town of Huntingdon has been a "football town" as long as I can remember. People like Coach Pudor, Coach Ward, Coach Bobby Hays, Coach Robinson, Coach Sturdivant, and Coach Mansfield have all been great leaders and motivators and have helped propel this love for the game. Football is such a character builder-it demands much, but the rewards in self esteem, self worth, team work, and respect for others in victory or defeat are worth the price.

Joe, thanks again for a good story and for remembering a great football player, Jerry Robinson, and his coach, Coach Ward.

Scotty Portis

1964 Lexington Game

From: Joe Fortner

To:

Sent: Friday, December 21, 2007 12:21 PM

Subject: Re: Coach Ward

I have enjoyed all of the stories below. This Paul Ward story was during the fall of 1964 season. We were 7-0 and going to play Lexington which was also 7-0. Everyone in town and the coaches had the whole team scarred that we would lose the game. the Jackson Sun picked Lexington to beat us, so much for their predictions. Danny Woodard our quarterback called the play 42 belly, a handoff to Jerry Robinson who ran the football in for a 50 plus yards touchdown. We kicked off to Lexington and they ran 3 plays and punted. First play from scrimmage Woodard called 42 belly again. Robinson ran the football again over 50 plus yards for a touchdown, We kicked off to Lexington they ran 3 plays and punted. Again Woodard called 42 belly and Robinson ran the football in for a touchdown of over 40 plus yards. We kicked off to Lexington they ran 3 plays and punted. Woodard called 42 belly again Robinson ran the football down the field for about 20 yards and fell down before scoring because he was so tired. Paul Ward was on the sideline laughing. I believe we won the game like 42-0.

Thanks

Joe Fortner