Reading about former UTC football coach and athletic director Harold Wilkes’ recent death on Dec. 23 at age 85 reminded me of a time I interviewed him for a football history book on UTC I wrote in 2000.
I remember we had come up with a mutual place to meet on the second floor mezzanine of the Read House outside the Silver Ballroom one weekday around noon.
I had never met him in person before, and as we talked I noticed that he had a nice and rather soft-spoken manner, which was not at all like some larger-than-life coaches I had observed before.
From Valley Head, Ala.
– not far from current Tennessee Vols coach Jeremy Pruitt’s former hometown of Rainsville – he had been the MVP on the 1958 University of Chattanooga football team that upset Tennessee in Knoxville.
He told me that after graduating and finishing his football career at UC, he had gone to work at Southern Chemical Cotton’s personnel office in Alton Park and was looking at a career in the business world.
But within a short period, he received a call and offer from longtime Mocs football head coach A.C. “Scrappy” Moore to become an assistant football coach beginning with the 1959 season.
Mr. Wilkes recalled in the interview that coach Moore was all business during work hours and could get quite animated when he was upset, but he knew how to leave the work behind at the end of the day.
He also recalled that coach Moore was highly respected as a coach, despite being at a smaller school, and that he was a good friend of such legends as “Bear” Bryant at Alabama, Wally Butts at Georgia and Gen. Robert Neyland at Tennessee, among others.
“We could walk in a hotel anywhere in the nation at a coaches’ convention and it took us awhile to get through,” he said.
Coach Wilkes had been hand picked by coach Moore to succeed him in 1968, even though some thought longtime assistant Joe Geri might get the job. The Mocs lost only to Ole Miss and Archie Manning that first year, and even shined in the game against the Rebels when the recently deceased Bucky Wolford had a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Coach Wilkes would also be the head coach in 1969 when the first black UTC football player – running back William Martin from Shelbyville, Tn. – arrived. That same year, the Mocs played a very good Louisiana Tech quarterback at Chamberlain Field named Terry Bradshaw, later of the Pittsburgh Steelers and TV commentating. And it was also the first year UC became UTC.
Coach Wilkes’ teams unfortunately began to struggle, and by the 1972 season, he had the unique opportunity in his other role as athletic director to fire himself.
“I knew we had to make a change,” he recalled in the interview. “There were people after me, of course.”
Coach Wilkes happened to know former New York Giants’ star Sam Huff, so he and perhaps others contacted him. Mr. Huff recommended his old Giants’ teammate Joe Morrison, who had retired in 1972 and was looking at getting into coaching.
Despite coach Morrison’s inexperience, he eventually got the Mocs going, and from 1977-79, the UTC football team enjoyed its greatest period of success in the last half century other than a few recent years under Russ Huesman. The 1978 team did suffer through a boycott among black players, however.
Coach Wilkes as AD had also been involved in the hire of mostly successful football coach Bill “Brother” Oliver after coach Morrison left for New Mexico and such successful men’s basketball team hires as Ron Shumate, Murray Arnold and Mack McCarthy.
About the time Coach Wilkes was transitioning into being a head coach, the famous Ice Bowl NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys was taking place at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field.
Because of the significance of the game, the way it ended and – yes – the fact that it was played in 13-below weather, the game of exactly 50 years ago – Dec. 31, 1967 – is one of the more iconic in NFL history.
I was 8 years old, and it is one of the first games I remember well. I can distinctly recall sitting in our den – which is the house my father, Wayne Shearer, still lives in -- and watching that famous last play for Green Bay.
Although I later started pulling for such teams as the Falcons, Titans, Steelers and even the Cowboys, my first favorite team was no doubt the Green Bay Packers under coach Vince Lombardi.
Out of curiosity, I went this week to the library to look at the old Chattanooga newspapers on microfilm from Jan. 1, 1968, to see how the game was covered.
The Chattanooga News-Free Press – my former employer – seemed to undercover it a little bit. The article on the game ran only on the third sports page – behind, of course, coverage of the Tennessee-Oklahoma Orange Bowl getting ready to take place that day.
It did run a rather humorous UPI story on the front page from entertainment columnist Rick Dubrow jokingly asking the readers if they saw the football game played in Iceland.
It definitely featured some weather and football to remember. A crowd of 50,000 mostly Packer fans admirably stayed until the end and watched a Packer comeback for the ages.
Green Bay had actually gone ahead 14-0 in the first half, but Dallas clawed back and led 17-14 with just under 5 minutes remaining. Despite having struggled in the second half, the Packers began a drive that has long been remembered.
They were able to get the ball down to the 1-yard line as time was ticking away and Green Bay was forced to call its last timeout. Although the Packers had a chance to kick a field goal and send the game into overtime, they called somewhat of a surprise play – a quarterback sneak.
Signal caller Bart Starr ran the ball behind guard Jerry Kramer and went over with 13 seconds left to give the Packers the lead and eventual 21-17 win.
Bart Starr was my first football hero, and I have never forgotten his heroics of that day on the “frozen tundra” of Green Bay, Wisc.
The Chattanooga Times the next day covered the game more appropriately, with three pictures of the game on the front page, and a now-famous picture on the first sports page of Bart Starr sneaking over for the winning score.
Mr. Starr went on to become a coach of Green Bay and had moderate success.
This weekend I took note of two other coaches I have followed. Perhaps as one who likes comeback stories, I have tried to follow the career of Dave Clawson, who many Tennessee fans will never consider a good coach because of the struggles Tennessee had in 2008 when he was the offensive coordinator and coach Phillip Fulmer ended up getting fired.
But I have quietly followed him and applauded the fact he was able to succeed enough at Bowling Green to get the job at Wake Forest. And this year he took the Demon Deacons team to a respectable 8-5 record and a come-from-behind and entertaining 55-52 victory over Texas A&M in Friday’s Belk Bowl.
Kudos to him! He might not have fit the situation well at Tennessee in 2008, but, at least in my opinion, he is proving to be a moderately good head coach, especially considering the schools where he has had to coach.
On the other hand, I must offer a little bewilderment over the former head coach of my Georgia Bulldogs, Mark Richt. On Saturday night, the current Miami Hurricanes coach actually pushed an official over a call he did not like, and was very short with a reporter at the half. He also seemed similar in a halftime interview before a loss to Pittsburgh over Thanksgiving weekend.
This was the coach whom everyone – including me – admired because of his morals and usually gentlemanly manner, even if he did not win enough SEC championships to satisfy some Georgia fans.
Part of his frustration is likely Miami’s poor play at the end of the season after a great start.
While he seems to have done an overall good job with Miami the last two years, and I and other Bulldog fans are wishing him well, here’s to hoping he gets back in 2018 more to his old self that everyone had formerly admired.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net