Marching Through Georgia

By Douglas Veazey

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 18, 2008
• ISBN: 9781465330468

Douglas Veazey

Douglas Veazey was co-captain of the 1954 Rossville Bulldogs. This team had the smallest enrollment of any high school to win the State Championship in Georgia’s highest classification. Following high school he attended Georgia Tech on an athletic scholarship where he received a B.S. Degree in Industrial Management. While there he played quarterback on the football team and was Captain of the baseball team. Veazey is the Co-Founder and long term C.E.O. of the Rubber Polymer Corporation, a manufacturer of high performance coatings and construction materials. He is retired and lives with his wife of fifty years, Mary, in Buford, Georgia. They have four children and five grandchildren.

Book preview

Marching

Through

GEORGIA

DOUGLAS VEAZEY

Copyright © 2008 by Douglas Veazey.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2007908500

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4257-9315-9

   Softcover   978-1-4257-9311-1

ISBN:   ebk   978-1-4653-3046-8

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Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

ROSSVILLE, 2007

HISTORY OF THIS WRITING

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

The year 1954 found America finally at peace. During the last twenty-five years, the nation had survived the Great Depression, fought and won World War II, and was forced to go to war again in Korea in 1952. Now the guns were silent. True, it was not totally at peace because the cold war with Russia was at its height, and the threat of annihilation through atomic attack was constant.

American minds wanted to turn away from constant trouble and enjoy their lives. One way they chose to do this was through sports. Major league baseball was more popular than ever. The NFL was starting to come into its own. College football was riding a huge wave of popularity, but in the South, the most popular sport around was high school football.

Rossville, Georgia, was no different from hundreds of towns and cities around the country except in Rossville, a town with a population of approximately three thousand, the sport had become almost a religion.

Football games on Friday nights always drew a crowd nearly double the town’s population. The topic of every conversation throughout the week was regarding their precious Bulldogs. Even during the off-season, though the high school fielded teams in the major sports, football was still king, and fans started counting the days right after Christmas until the first game the following September.

During World War II, Rossville had suspended its competitive sports programs. In 1945, at the conclusion of the war, Mr. H. L. Brotherton, superintendent of Rossville Schools, went to Mr. John L. Hutcheson and asked for help to revive the sports program. Mr. Hutcheson, owner of Peerless Woolen Mills, agreed to help with some money, and Mr. Brotherton breathed life back into their sports program.

Rossville fielded some good teams between 1946 and 1949. Some big stars developed—the North boys Flip Gainer and Rex Evatt—but the biggest shining star was a big rawboned fullback named Pete Brown. Pete made All-State, played in the All-Star Game in Atlanta, and got a football scholarship to Georgia Tech, where he made All-American in 1952. Pete paved the way for the rest of us who played for the Bulldogs. We all owe him a big thank-you. Boots Payne was the coach at Rossville from 1946 through 1948. After the 1948 season, he took the job as head football coach at Marist School in Atlanta. The Rossville football program was at a crossroads.

Again Mr. Brotherton went to Mr. John L. Hutcheson for help, and Mr. John L. got excited. Mr. John L. Hutchinson was known and called by adults as Mr. John L. The Peerless Mills had grown during WW II and the Korean War to a huge mill. It manufactured woolen army blankets and now had branched in many other markets.

In 1954, the Mill, as it was known, employed approximately six thousand workers. In addition, Mr. John L. owned many of the businesses in Rossville as well as many of the houses. The mill offered employment to many of the town’s population as well as the surrounding area. Mr. John L. loved football, and he loved Georgia Tech. When Pete Brown got a football scholarship to Tech, he really got fired up. Mr. Brotherton’s plea for help was received with more enthusiasm than even he expected.

Walt Lauter was the recreation and athletic director for the mill. Under his direction, the mill not only sponsored teams for kids, but also fielded highly competitive adult teams in basketball and softball. Walt was a very good athlete in his younger days. Although he had lost a leg as a child and walked with the help of crutches, he nevertheless competed hard in sports. He learned to play basketball on crutches and was an expert swimmer.

On a blustery day in February 1949, Walt was in his office organizing basketball practice for that afternoon when his phone rang. It was Mr. John L. wanting to know if he could come upstairs to his office. Walt said, I’ll be right there. He was seldom summoned to the boss’s office, and he wondered what in the world this was about. Mr. John L. was looking out the window across the parking lot at some vacant land across the street. He invited Walt to sit down. Mr. John L. wasted no time. He said, Walt, I’ve been thinking. You know the high school is losing their football coach. HL has asked me for some help with that, and I’ve agreed. Then he looked Lauter straight in the eye and said, Walt, I want to build a state-championship program with the high school football team, but I only want to compete in the highest classification. Everything will be first class. I want a championship team, and, Walt, I want it before I die. Don’t tell me about long-range plans; I’m not a spring chicken you know.

Walt replied, That’s a tall order. How much do you want to spend?

The reply was, I don’t give a rats how much you spend, just get it done. Yes, sir, replied Walt, I’ll make it my top priority.

Walt went to work. They built a beautiful modern football stadium across the street from the mill and called it Hutcheson Memorial Stadium. Mr. John L. didn’t like the name much, saying, Dang it, Walt, I’m not dead yet. Walt covered his tail by saying, The memorial is for the boys lost in World War II.

In conjunction with Mr. Brotherton, Walt started a search for the best coaching staff they could find. They settled on Lewis Hooks, who had played center at Georgia Tech, as head coach. Tom Coleman, who had been an outstanding tackle at Georgia Tech, was hired to head up defense. J. D. Allen and Glenn Wade, both of whom had played at Carson Newman, were hired as the offensive coaches. The season of 1949 launched the program to fulfill Mr. John L.’s dream.

Great strides were made in 1949 and 1950. The Bulldogs had some good players like Rex Evatt, Bobby Case, Herman Beagles, Bill Rildoffer, and others, and it became apparent that the Bulldogs were becoming a program to be reckoned with. However, a storm was coming that even Mr. John L. could not control.

Lewis Hooks’s father-in-law died, and Lewis had to return to his home in Statesboro, Georgia, to take over the family business. Then in June of 1950, the North Koreans invaded South Korea. In the spring of 1951, reserve unit First 105 Howitzer Battery, based in Chattanooga, was activated. Members of this unit that were sent to Korea were coaches Tom Coleman and J. D. Allen. Players Buddy Strickland, Grady Wilson, and Barry Eckles were also called to duty for their country. This left the Rossville Bulldogs with one coach, Glenn C. Wade. Mr. Brotherton interviewed other candidates, but it soon became apparent that Wade was the right man for the job. As things sometimes unfold, preparation meets opportunity and great things result.

Glenn C. Wade is a native of Clinton, Tennessee. He played football and basketball in high school, and when Clinton lost its coach to WW II, Glenn became the coach although he was still in high school.

World War II was under way, and all the young men were enlisting. Glenn was drafted into the army, but he was classified 4-F, unfit physically for duty because of a hernia. He worked for a while to save up $300.00 to have an operation to repair his problem. So at midsemester, Glenn joined the Marine Corps.

He went to boot camp at San Diego, followed by another training camp at Camp Pendleton. Wade was a crack shot with a rifle. So good, in fact, he became a sniper in a scout platoon. The future coach served on Saipan and Okinawa before becoming a part of the forces that occupied Japan after their surrender in 1945.

Glenn had married Ms. Dot Snow from Mississippi before he went overseas. In 1946, he returned to Jefferson, Tennessee, and enrolled at Carson Newman College. He went to school year-round so he could graduate in three years. He still found time to play football and basketball. During the summer after his graduation, he was hired to coach the backs and coach basketball at Rossville High. After two years, the eruption of 1951 took place; and at age twenty-five, Glenn C. Wade became head coach of the Rossville Bulldogs.

His 1951 team won eight games while losing two. Only Rome and Russell High beat the Bulldogs, but two loses kept them from the play-offs. The 1952 team’s record was 8-3. It had losses opening night against Cedartown and at home against Dalton. That was to be the last home loss for the Dogs for the next three and a half years. The third loss was in a play-off game against Decatur.

The Dogs had beaten Decatur, a state power, at Hutchison Memorial during the regular season. However, the two teams ended the season with identical records. Thus, a play-off game at Decatur was necessary to determine the champions of Region 4AA. Decatur drove the ball seventy-eight yards on the ground. The clock showed just over two minutes to play when the drive started. They scored with two seconds left. Many believe that the clock was managed to allow this long drive. Coach Wade maintained that if we had stopped them, the clock would not have mattered. Playing on the road in a close game was always problematic.

The 1953 team was made up of almost all seniors. Marion Moore, Tush Thompson, Jim Reynolds, Fred Thurston, and Doug Veazey were junior starters. This team had a record of 7-0-3. They had three ties to ruin this great, undefeated season. The ties were against Cedartown, 0-0, in a monsoon-rain opening night, 7-7 against Dalton at Dalton and 13-13 against Decatur. These ties were heartbreaking because once again the Bulldogs were denied the state play-offs.

Mr. Brotherton, in conjunction with Coach Wade, had hired Harry Summers and Paul McClendon before the 1951 season to round out the depleted coaching staff. Summers had been an end for Coach Scrappy Moore at the University of Chattanooga, were he was an outstanding player. McClendon had played at Carson Newman and had been a running back. Coach McClendon left after the 1953 season, and Paul Campbell was hired to replace him. The coaching staff for the ’54 season were Wade, head coach and backfield; Summers, line coach; and Campbell, the coach of the B team.

CHAPTER I

SPRING 1954 PRECAMP

Down, set, hut, hut. This loud sound was ringing out over the practice field. It was the big day of spring practice, the final scrimmage.

The Bulldogs did not have enough players for the traditional Blue and White game. The seniors from the ’53 team challenged the ’54 team to a scrimmage. It was not a contest. Hoyt Jenkins, Dale Westbrook, David Brotherton, and Bill Anderson were causing havoc along the ’54 line. The first four plays they tried to run Jenkins and knocked James Campbell, the center, back into the quarterback’s lap before they could complete the exchange.

They tried to run fullback, Jim Reynolds off tackle. Bill Anderson shed his block and met him head up in the hole with a loud pop. Veazey tried to run an option. Dale Westbrook knifed in and hit him before he could get the pitch off. The ’54s could do nothing against the ’53s. After about one half hour of mayhem, Coach Wade blew his whistle and said, That’s all, boys. He thanked the ’53s. What could be said, it was an old-fashioned tail kicking from way back.

The 54’s staggered toward the dressing room and the shower as if they were in a trance. Reynolds and Veazey were jogging up the path together. Jim said, That’s the worst beating I’ve ever taken. Yeah, replied Doug, I feel like my whole body is broken. Tommy Clark joined the group. The little halfback had taken a pounding too. Why do we play this silly game anyway, we must be sadists. Supposed to be fun, whispered Curly Warren, another of the halfbacks on the ’54s. Hard for it to be much fun when you’re getting your brains beaten out.

Back on the practice field, Coach Wade and Coach Summers were discussing the just-concluded scrimmage. Man, exclaimed Harry, we can’t beat the old ladies home. We’ll be lucky if we don’t get some backs killed next year.

I’m afraid you’re right. The linemen for the ’54s are so small.

Yeah, returned Harry, they are small, but they make up for it by being slow.

Heck, Glenn, we might as well laugh, we’re too old to cry.

Harry, we had better do some good planning this summer, or we’ll get our heads handed to us come September. As the coaches slowly walked toward the dressing room, Glenn suddenly had an idea. We need to go to a camp for preseason practice. Somewhere away from everyone so the boys can concentrate just on football and blending together.

Where will we get the money? asked Harry.

I don’t know where or how yet. I only know we need to. I’m getting busy on it Monday morning, but before we do all of this, we need to see just how committed this bunch is. Man, we got our heads handed to us today.

You can say that again. I can think of another part of our anatomy that got kicked, replied Harry.

You’ve got that right, said Coach.

True to his word on Monday, Coach Wade called the seniors together for a meeting. Men, I want an honest answer. Do you want to play our regular schedule next fall or had you rather drop out of the region and play smaller local schools like Lakeview and Chattanooga Valley?

No! No! No! came the simultaneous reply. We don’t want to retreat. If we get beaten, we get beaten, but we will be much better than we looked in the scrimmage, Friday.

Okay, replied the coach, we will drive on. I think we will be better too.

After the players had left the meeting, Coach Wade turned to the line coach and said, Harry, a lot of these teams are licking their chops to get back at us this year with all the graduation losses we’ve had. We have only lost five games the past three years, so a lot of our opponents will be looking for payback.

What’s the status of Ray Brian Thompson, Marion Moore, and Fred Thurston? asked Summers.

Well, Thompson and Moore have dropped out of school. They are overage to be eligible. Thurston left town with his girlfriend, was the reply.

That dang Thurston, said Harry. "He was the best running