John Shearer: Remembering Tennessee Football Standout And Pioneer Paul Careathers

When Ricky Townsend and his Dalton High School teammates pulled up in their bus by the LaFayette High School stadium for their game against the Ramblers in 1970, he saw LaFayette standout Paul Careathers standing in the parking lot.
 
“He looked like a Greek god,” Mr. Townsend recalled recently.
 
The two would later go on to be contributing teammates on Tennessee’s varsity football team from 1972-74, lose contact for a number of years, and then reconnect in later years. By then, Mr. Careathers’ once perfectly chiseled and healthy body had felt the ravages of years of diabetes and dialysis treatment.
 
But Mr. Townsend still thought as much of the old Tennessee fullback/running back as he always did.
 
“He was a champion,” said Mr. Townsend. “He was great as an athlete and also great as a person.”
 
Mr. Townsend’s sincere recollections of him came following news of Mr. Careathers’ death early last month at the age of 64 following years of declining health.
 
A look back at Paul Van Careathers’ life shows a man who not only distinguished himself on the athletic fields, but later as someone who tried to help younger people lead a more moral and godly life through his church youth ministry work.
 
He was also a local civil rights pioneer, as he is believed to be the first black from the metro Chattanooga area to play varsity football for Tennessee in such a significant way.
 
As Mr. Townsend and several others, including widow Johnequia Careathers, reflected during separate interviews, Mr. Careathers showed distinguishing characteristics from the beginning.
 
He had arrived at LaFayette High School as a freshman in 1967 just a short time after black students no longer had to attend the old LaFayette black high school, Hill High.
 
Longtime LaFayette resident and businessman Jeff Potts, who was a classmate of Mr. Careathers and a fellow football player, remembered that the school was maybe only about 10 to 15 percent black, but everyone seemed to get along well. And that included Mr. Careathers with his teammates and classmates.
 
“When you are on the field, everybody is the same color,” he said. “Paul was just one of the team and one of the students in high school. He was pretty much an all-around good guy.”
 
Mr. Potts also remembered that Mr. Careathers was the kind of guy who would help someone, but otherwise minded his own business and was not a showboat.
 
Mr. Careathers’ widow, who did not meet and marry her husband until well after his playing days, said he told her that he never had any problems being a black pioneer at either the formerly all-white LaFayette High or as a football player at Tennessee.
 
However, she did say that he would occasionally have derogatory comments made toward him at other schools deeper in Georgia.
 
But most of the comments at that time when the South had already undergone significant change was likely directed at his talents as a LaFayette football player and basketball player.
 
According to some information in his old scrapbook that Ms. Careathers still has, he gained 3,972 yards during his three-year career with the Ramblers. He had a 7.3 average per carry during his sophomore year of 1968, a 9.1 yard average in 1969 on his way to 1,959 yards, and 1,144 yards during his senior year, when he had to miss three games due to an injury.
 
Mr. Potts’ said Mr. Careathers’ talents were somewhat diverse. “He wasn’t exceptionally fast and he wasn’t exceptionally strong, but he was strong and fast,” he said.
 
He said the Rambler team under coach Ralph Williams, who arrived before their sophomore year, went 5-5 in 1968, and had an undefeated regular season their junior year and won two playoff games before losing to Gainesville High.
 
During that year, the team defeated the then-military, all-boys Baylor School in what may have been one of the first times the Red Raiders played against a team with one or more black players.
 
During their senior year of 1970, Mr. Potts said the team finished about 8-3 but did reach the playoffs in those days when fewer teams made the playoffs. The team also beat rival Rossville High that year, 14-7.
 
Mr. Townsend remembered that when his Dalton High team that he quarterbacked played LaFayette, Mr. Careathers had a good touchdown run early, but Dalton was able to take control and win.
 
Mr. Careathers was also a good basketball player and wore No. 32 in both sports at LaFayette, just as he did at Tennessee. His football jersey at LaFayette was later retired.
 
Despite the fact that Mr. Careathers and Mr. Townsend were Georgia boys, they both ended up at Tennessee at the time when Bill Battle was the young head coach. Mr. Careathers’ scrapbook includes one or two vintage pictures of his apparent Tennessee recruiting visits or early days after signing a scholarship.
 
As for Mr. Townsend, he said he ended up at UT in part because his slightly younger sister, Debra, went on his recruiting trip with him but unfortunately passed away a short time later. He had told her he liked Tennessee and she enjoyed the visit, and he wanted to honor her memory by going there.
 
Mr. Townsend, of course, would be known for being a barefoot kicker, who was not afraid to tackle the opposition on a kickoff. He said the barefoot tradition started over one spring practice at Tennessee when he was sitting out after suffering a concussion and began practicing kicking – a lot.
 
“I kicked so much the sole of my shoe started coming off,” he recalled with a laugh. “I tore it off and started kicking in my socks. I later took off my socks and kicked barefooted. When I kicked barefooted, the ball would really go and I had more control.”
 
He said that coach Battle noticed how well he was kicking barefooted and told the equipment staff not to give him a shoe.
 
But before that, Mr. Townsend and Mr. Careathers arrived at Tennessee as part of a recruiting class that included Condredge Holloway, the electrifying quarterback and the first starting black quarterback in the SEC.
 
In what was the last football season before freshmen would be eligible for the varsity, the 1971 Tennessee freshmen team beat Notre Dame in Neyland Stadium on a Thursday afternoon and drew 30,000 fans.
 
Mr. Careathers was the top back on the 5-0 freshmen team in 1971 and then went on to be a regular contributor to the varsity Vols in 1972, ’73 and ’74.
 
Because the talented and future pro Haskel Stanback was also in the backfield, Mr. Careathers often played more of a fullback position during that time. Other key backfield mates included Bill Rudder and Steve Chancey.
 
Vol historian Tom Mattingly pointed out in a recent story about his death that Mr. Careathers did get some opportunities to shine. Among his statistical highlights, according to Mr. Mattingly, were a 56-yard run in a Tennessee road win against his home state team of Georgia in 1972, 125 rushing yards in the 1973 Tennessee game against Georgia Tech, and a 20.8 yard average on kickoff returns during his senior year of 1974.
 
Mr. Holloway also remarked in another recent obituary story on him that he always felt comfortable dropping back to pass with Mr. Careathers because he was such a good blocker.
 
Mr. Townsend agreed that Mr. Careathers had a lot of athletic skills at Tennessee. “He fit right in and contributed,” he said of the man known for his muscular thighs. “He had speed and power.”
 
Off the field, he was a lot less noticeable, but his traits were just as admirable, Mr. Townsend added.
 
“His athleticism and personality were both A-1,” Mr. Townsend said. “He was a quiet guy, but on the field, that’s where he talked.”
 
Mr. Townsend would lose touch with him not long after their days at Tennessee, but Mr. Careathers went on to become the first Tennessee player to be drafted by the Oakland Raiders.
 
Although Mr. Careathers thought he was doing well, then-coach John Madden approached him one day and told him he had been cut, his widow remembered him telling her.
 
But his wife said he looked back on that disappointing experience later as simply a time when the Lord had other plans for him and was moving him in another direction.
 
He went on to teach and coach at Elbert Long School (now Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts) off East Brainerd Road and Ooltewah, Hixson and Howards Highs. At Howard, he worked with a young man named Reggie White, the future Tennessee Vol star and NFL Hall of Famer.
 
Chattanoogan Bill Peterson was in school at Hixson when Mr. Careathers was on the staff and remembers him favorably, especially as a basketball coach.
 
“He coached B team basketball and track besides football,” he recalled. “I really tested his patience because I used to get nervous playing. But Paul was really nice and very smart. He was a chaperone on our Spanish Club trip to Mexico.”
 
Both Mr. Careathers’ widow and Mr. Townsend admit they did learn later that there was a period in his early adult and professional days when Mr. Careathers strayed slightly and occasionally from the moral and Christian teaching he had learned as the grandson of a preacher, just as countless others have.
 
He also began to suffer some physical health problems not long after his playing days due to high blood pressure and diabetes. That is when his future wife, Johnequia, met him.
 
“He used to be a lifeguard (at the Carver Recreation Complex) and he came to the Dialysis Clinic (on East Third Street),” she recalled. “He came over and started talking and a year later we became friends.”
 
They eventually started dating seriously and were married on Aug. 24, 1989.
 
A Brainerd High graduate who was younger than he was, she jokingly said she did not know her husband had been such a well-known football player until well into their relationship.
 
She did add that they occasionally went to UT lettermen events or football games, and he always continued to pull for Tennessee. In fact, the day he died, Sept. 4, was when Tennessee had its memorable come-from-behind win against Georgia Tech.
 
Ms. Careathers said she remarked that day to someone that he would have no doubt enjoyed watching the game and cheering on the Vols.
 
In later years, however, his main passion became church work and working with young people. That included taking an interest in his stepdaughter, Lynnequia Davenport, and her three children.
 
He had begun attending New United Missionary Baptist Church on Tunnel Boulevard about the time they were married, and he went on to serve as a youth minister there for more than 20 years.
 
“His passion was definitely kids,” Ms. Careathers said.
 
In addition to his other church work, including singing in the men’s chorus, he had always enjoyed other recreational activities such as playing racquetball, being a member of the Sports Barn, or hiking or rafting when health allowed.
 
She said that for about the last three years, he began having vision problems and could not drive.
 
That is about the time Mr. Townsend reconnected with him. Undergoing his own health problems that led to his own soul searching, Mr. Townsend said he was on life support for 14 days in 2013 after his CO2 level went sky high due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma.
 
He recovered and has developed better health, and the whole experience has made Mr. Townsend want to enter fulltime ministry work. He attends Christ Community Church in Dalton, where former Georgia football player Chuck Harris is the pastor, and helps at the Followers of Jesus Ministry Center. He also speaks to various church groups.
 
After his recovery, he said he felt led to reconnect with Mr. Careathers after hearing about his health problems from a mutual friend. They were able to get together a few times for meals and on other occasions, he said.
 
Besides looking back on the good old days of Tennessee football when the Vols were still enjoying some success under Coach Battle before a down period for the program, they also looked deep at their Christian faith. 
 
“It was just such a blessing to meet back up with Paul and talk about old times,” Mr. Townsend remembered last week.
 
Ms. Careathers, who in recent years has worked for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, said her husband’s health unfortunately continued to decline and he suffered cardiac arrest and died.
 
His heart may have physically weakened, but the emotional heart that led him to develop into an outstanding athlete and later positively mentor students and church youth members continued until the end.
 
“He just loved life,” said Ms. Careathers. “He loved his family, his church. He was always witnessing to his family.
 
“His goal was to see Christ. It’s hard, but seeing him go down, I know he’s at a better place. He fought a good fight.”
 
Jcshearer2@comcast.net