Charles Kuralt grave
photo by John Shearer
Dean Smith grave
photo by John Shearer
Dean Smith grave
photo by John Shearer
Duke Chapel
photo by John Shearer
I enjoyed watching the presidential inauguration on television Monday, although I always wish those events could be outside. I know it was moved inside when Ronald Reagan was sworn in the second time when it was bitterly cold, but it was also still held outside at such other very cold inaugurations as Jimmy Carter’s in 1977, when it was about 28 degrees.
Whether it is a Republican or Democrat being sworn in, I like to watch the important quadrennial moment in American history. I also realize that not everyone follows that routine and that we are still obviously a 50-50 country. There might have been a lot of Republicans who did not watch the 2021 inauguration, and vice versa with Democrats this time.
Thinking about the close-but-sharp divide -- where Mr. Trump got 49.8 percent of the national vote compared to Kamala Harris’ 48.3 percent and won Wisconsin by less than 30,000 votes – I started hoping we can unite. That is, even though Mr. Trump has begun carrying out his campaign promises with a quickness mostly admired by close to half and not approved by almost the other half.
To me, the highlight of the inauguration, at least in terms of trying to unite Americans, was the prayer by 43-year-old Detroit pastor, the Rev. Lorenzo Sewell, who enthusiastically made much of his benediction the exact words of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And since Inauguration Day was also Martin Luther King Day, that seemed appropriate.
To me, it was a neat prayer by this pastor who is a conservative Christian and invited Mr. Trump to his church back in June and spoke at the Republican National Convention in July.
His enthusiastic prayer likely drew Republicans and Democrats together – at least briefly -- with the stirring words of Dr. King. I even saw Mr. Trump give him a hug afterward. Some might say that prayer was the most uniting moment of the day.
And Chattanooga even got a plug from the energetic pastor, as he also included Dr. King’s famous words from the speech where he says, “Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.”
Speaking of politics and Chattanooga, I heard conservative national radio political commentator Clay Travis of “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” reference Chattanooga while pitching on his show an ad for Legacybox, which digitizes old movies and provides other similar services.
He said that his mother and her family are from Chattanooga. This person also known for his engaging “Outkick the Coverage” college football commentary of recent years also had a grandfather who played football at the University of Tennessee for Gen. Robert Neyland. His mother’s first name is Liz, but I could not find anything else online. He grew up in Nashville.
After this story was initially posted, I received an email from Mr. Travis with this reply from an email I sent him Wednesday regarding his family connections to Chattanooga: “My mom is named Elizabeth Travis. She went to Red Bank High School. She is 80 years old. Her parents were Richard and Ruth Fox, who lived at 8 Trenton St. in Red Bank, Tennessee. I spent a ton of time there as a kid. My grandfather played football at Tennessee for Gen. Neyland in the early 1930s.”
And speaking of football and Nashville connections to Chattanooga, it was announced recently that longtime Tennessee Titans radio announcer Mike Keith will be the voice of the Vols following Bob Kesling’s retirement after this basketball season. As Chattanoogan.com columnist Mark Wiedmer and others noted recently, he spent some of his younger years in Chattanooga.
I looked in some old city directories at the Chattanooga Public Library and learned that his father, William H. “Bill” Keith, and mother, Janet, are mentioned in there every year from 1975 to 1979. He was listed as the terminal manager of Mason-Dixon Truck Lines the first year and as sales manager after that before the 1979 directory lists him as living in Franklin, Tn. His father did become president of FirstExpress carrier company In Nashville.
The family during that time is listed as always living at 2429 Maplewood Drive in East Brainerd, even though he said on a recent local radio show that he attended such different elementary schools as Apison, East Brainerd and Westview, although I cannot remember the order. Mike was born on Sept. 11, 1967, and went on to attend Battle Ground Academy and UT.
Of course, city directories are printed sometimes a few months before or after someone has lived there, so the exact dates might be a little different.
Mr. Keith is known for his positive and respectful and mostly non-critical style in announcing Titans’ games, which have had more disappointing than happy results in the years since their AFC championship game loss in January 2020. So, Tennessee fans who love the orange will likely enjoy his style – especially if he continues his familiar “sack” shout if an opposing SEC quarterback is tackled behind the line.
He was also good about taking time to be interviewed on radio stations across the state as the Titans’ announcer, so it will be interesting if he does that with UT as well. In the past, announcers John Ward and Bob Kesling have mainly focused on specific UT-generated radio or TV programs.
While writing for publications related to the Knoxville News Sentinel, I had the good pleasure of interviewing both Mr. Ward and Mr. Kesling, respectively, and they were both nice and kind. Mr. Ward was remembering attending the old Knoxville High, while Mr. Kesling shared his memories of announcer Lindsey Nelson, whom he considered a mentor.
Among the other UT sports figures connected to Chattanooga over the years, the late longtime UT trainer Mickey O’Brien grew up in the Highland Park area, current and longtime UT men’s basketball trainer Chad Newman went to Central High, and, of course, Lady Vols softball coach Karen Weekly and her husband, the now-retired Ralph Weekly, formerly coached UTC, among others. And popular Knoxville sports radio host Tony Basilio’s wife, Laura, is from the Scenic City.
Speaking of sports, I took my annual basketball watching trip to the University of North Carolina and Duke last week. Although I have sometimes been motivated to write entire stories about the experience, this time I will just hit a few high points.
First of all, I could not go on Interstate 40 through the mountainous border of Tennessee and North Carolina as I normally do because it is still closed due to damage that began with Hurricane Helene last fall. But I learned you can actually go up through Virginia on Interstate 81 and down I-77 and other continuous highways and hook up again with I-40 at Winston-Salem in the same amount of time as the normal way.
As an interesting sidenote, I realized that the mountains are less than an hour north of Winston-Salem and the isolated Pilot Mountain is closer than that. I always thought of that area as mostly flat and far from mountains.
Also, I realized that Mount Airy, N.C., and Galax, Va., are only about 28 miles from each other via roads. Mount Airy was the boyhood home of Andy Griffith, and yes there is an Andy Griffith Parkway there, while Galax was home to another accomplished and well-liked American – the successful former Georgia Tech football coach Bobby Dodd, who also played at Tennessee for Gen. Neyland.
I watched the North Carolina men beat California on Wednesday night, Jan. 15, and, while staying in the beautiful Carolina Inn by the UNC campus drove the next night to see Duke women play the California women at famed Cameron Indoor Stadium. Believe it or not, California is now in the ACC.
UNC is good, but it looks like they might need a good big man inside like the departed Armando Bacot to go with their other good outside players to be as strong as many UNC teams of recent decades have been, unless the others up their game.
The next day, while waiting to go see the Duke women that night, I visited the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery on the edge of campus looking for a couple of UNC-related figures who are well known and whose graves I had never visited. They were alumnus Charles Kuralt of CBS’ “On the Road” series and “CBS Sunday Morning” fame and former UNC coach Dean Smith.
Before I learned after his 1997 death that he had a court-documented secret mistress for years along with his wife, Mr. Kuralt had always been one of my journalism heroes because he also seemed more interested in feature reporting over hard news. That is, even though he had done a lot of the latter in his early years in places like Vietnam. But his “On the Road” stories and hosting of “CBS Sunday Morning” had such appeal to me.
And I admired longtime former UNC basketball coach Dean Smith after reading a biography of him for his general character and his coaching skills. Both people are buried in Section I in kind of the middle of the cemetery, and I found Mr. Kuralt’s quickly. It does not mention his CBS career, but some people had placed rocks on top as a show of respect or remembrance. His second wife, Petie Baird Kuralt, who died in 1999, is buried next to him
But I had trouble finding Mr. Smith’s and walked around the cemetery for a few minutes before figuring out you can track your location relative to the grave on your phone. As a result, I quickly came upon it actually just a few feet from Mr. Kuralt’s. You can hardly read the writing on it, and it makes no mention of coach Smith’s illustrious career that included coaching his first 25 years at Carmichael Auditorium/Arena just across the street.
Instead, it quotes Micah 6:6-8, 1 Corinthians 13:13, and features a quote about honoring those who create a better place for people who come later. He is the only one buried there, and he had a small American flag by it and some rocks on top as well.
Coach Smith would have been impressed, just as I was that night, with the Duke women under former UT Lady Vol star and Torchbearer Kara Lawson. She has been the coach since 2020 and is the same age – 43 -- as the pastor who delivered the inauguration prayer.
This is the third time I have seen the Duke women under coach Lawson, and they seem to be getting better each time. They hustled intently on defense and created turnovers and have a freshman center from Toronto named Toby Fournier. She looks like a typical tall person who is not quite as nimble footed as a guard, but she has quite a shooting touch and ability to rebound. A lot of teams would love to have someone like her.
Whether coach Lawson ever gets a chance to coach at Tennessee now that Kim Caldwell has had a good first year so far is unknown, but she seems on the road to success.
I also enjoyed seeing some of the Duke students and pep band members jump up and down as they do for the men’s games. I also noticed for the first time in my visits the tents outside the Cameron facility at Krzyzewskiville, where students have to camp out for tickets due to demand and tradition.
I had also enjoyed before the game walking around and into the giant Duke chapel and relaxing for a few minutes while music played intermittently from an organ inside and the carillon bells in the tower, both by students I did not see.
The building is very much in the style of the Washington National Cathedral, where a prayer service attended by President Trump was held on Tuesday after the inauguration.
President Trump’s inauguration and swift executive actions not seen in recent American history had not taken place yet but sitting quietly inside this hallowed building of worship could easily make one think of the grand potential of America and the human spirit.
Since sitting there, I have thought of coach Smith’s calls to make the world a better place for those who follow and Methodist minister the Rev. Adam Hamilton’s recent prayer hoping that America can reach its highest ideals.
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net