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Phillip Marshall is preparing the Boog Family for what's coming...
Posted on 8/20/11 at 11:01 am
Posted on 8/20/11 at 11:01 am
Phillip's blog: Phony outrage
The stories I’m about to tell are true, told to me personally by those who were involved. Most of the names have been omitted to protect the guilty and the innocent.
STORY NO. 1
Auburn thought it was going to sign a star quarterback. A coach was dispatched to pick up the star quarterback to pick him up and hide him out until signing day. The coach arrived at the quarterback’s house and the quarterback's mother looked puzzled.
“He’s gone,” she told the Auburn coach. “He left with those nice coaches from Alabama.”
The quarterback signed with Alabama.
STORY NO. 2
Another Auburn coach had picked up a player and taken him to a motel the night before signing day. The coach was feeling good. He asked the player if there was anything he needed. The player told him he wanted a six-pack of beer.
The coach dutifully went and got a six-pack of beer. He was on one bed and the player was on the other. Both were sipping beers when the 10 o’clock news came on. The lead story in the sports segment was that the very same player had committed to Alabama and would sign the next day.
The coach looked at the player in astonishment. The player smiled and took another swallow of beer.
He signed with Alabama the next day.
STORY NO. 3
A coach from an SEC school was making a home visit to a star running back. The player had not returned home and the coach was sitting at the table drinking cheap whiskey with the player’s stepfather. There was a knock at the door. It was a coach from another school.
The coach from the other school looked at the bottle on the table and told the stepfather. “At our place we drink Chevis Regal.” The coach who had been sitting with the stepfather wasn’t sure what to do. After a pause, he picked up the bottle and drank took several swigs. “This whiskey tastes just fine to me,” he said.
The stepfather looked at the second coach and told him he needed to leave. The first coach excused himself, went outside and threw up.
The player signed with the SEC school.
STORY NO. 4
This one was told to me by the late Erk Russell, who became a great player at Auburn and a famed coach as Georgia defensive coordinator and later the architect of the Georgia Southern program. It was detailed in my book “The Auburn Experience: The Traditions and Heroes of Auburn Athletics.”
It was the summer of 1946, and Erk Russell was excited. He’d graduated from Birmingham’s Ensley High School and was going to fulfill a lifelong dream and play football for the University of Alabama.
Russell and some of his high school teammates had gone to Tuscaloosa after graduation. Under the lax rules of the time, tryouts were permissible. He’d made a quick decision.
“They put us in pads and those maroon-looking jerseys they used to call crimson,” Russell said. “We worked out and they offered me a scholarship. I went home and told my dad, who was a strong Alabama fan, that I was going to Alabama. We were all thrilled.”
Little did Russell know that he would never again wear an Alabama jersey.
Two days after Russell told his family he would play at Alabama, Jeff Beard, Auburn’s athletic business manager at the time, showed up at his house.
“Come on, boy, we’re going to Auburn,” Beard told Russell.
“I told him I was going to Alabama, but he said ‘No, you can’t go until you see Auburn’” Russell said. “He picked me and two or three other guys up and we went to Auburn. From there, we went to Gulf Shiores fishing. We visited around Auburn for another day or two. I came home and told my daddy I’d changed my mind.”
STORY NO. 5
An outstanding Auburn basketball player had an invitation to play in a prestigious international event one summer. He was excited, but one day he went to see his coach and told him he didn’t want to go. The coach told him he should go, but the player was adamant. The coach did some checking and found out why the player wouldn’t go. His entire wardrobe consisted of two pair of blue jeans and two shirts.
“What would you have done?” the coach asked me. “I’d have bought him some clothes,” I said. “And that’s exactly what I did,” the coach said.
All the stories I have told here are from at least 30 years ago.
The moral of these stories? The hand-wringing and moaning and groaning about “integrity” in college athletics is largely phony outrage. People have been bending and breaking the rules since players wore leather helmets, and no presidential retreat is going to stop it now.
The stories I’m about to tell are true, told to me personally by those who were involved. Most of the names have been omitted to protect the guilty and the innocent.
STORY NO. 1
Auburn thought it was going to sign a star quarterback. A coach was dispatched to pick up the star quarterback to pick him up and hide him out until signing day. The coach arrived at the quarterback’s house and the quarterback's mother looked puzzled.
“He’s gone,” she told the Auburn coach. “He left with those nice coaches from Alabama.”
The quarterback signed with Alabama.
STORY NO. 2
Another Auburn coach had picked up a player and taken him to a motel the night before signing day. The coach was feeling good. He asked the player if there was anything he needed. The player told him he wanted a six-pack of beer.
The coach dutifully went and got a six-pack of beer. He was on one bed and the player was on the other. Both were sipping beers when the 10 o’clock news came on. The lead story in the sports segment was that the very same player had committed to Alabama and would sign the next day.
The coach looked at the player in astonishment. The player smiled and took another swallow of beer.
He signed with Alabama the next day.
STORY NO. 3
A coach from an SEC school was making a home visit to a star running back. The player had not returned home and the coach was sitting at the table drinking cheap whiskey with the player’s stepfather. There was a knock at the door. It was a coach from another school.
The coach from the other school looked at the bottle on the table and told the stepfather. “At our place we drink Chevis Regal.” The coach who had been sitting with the stepfather wasn’t sure what to do. After a pause, he picked up the bottle and drank took several swigs. “This whiskey tastes just fine to me,” he said.
The stepfather looked at the second coach and told him he needed to leave. The first coach excused himself, went outside and threw up.
The player signed with the SEC school.
STORY NO. 4
This one was told to me by the late Erk Russell, who became a great player at Auburn and a famed coach as Georgia defensive coordinator and later the architect of the Georgia Southern program. It was detailed in my book “The Auburn Experience: The Traditions and Heroes of Auburn Athletics.”
It was the summer of 1946, and Erk Russell was excited. He’d graduated from Birmingham’s Ensley High School and was going to fulfill a lifelong dream and play football for the University of Alabama.
Russell and some of his high school teammates had gone to Tuscaloosa after graduation. Under the lax rules of the time, tryouts were permissible. He’d made a quick decision.
“They put us in pads and those maroon-looking jerseys they used to call crimson,” Russell said. “We worked out and they offered me a scholarship. I went home and told my dad, who was a strong Alabama fan, that I was going to Alabama. We were all thrilled.”
Little did Russell know that he would never again wear an Alabama jersey.
Two days after Russell told his family he would play at Alabama, Jeff Beard, Auburn’s athletic business manager at the time, showed up at his house.
“Come on, boy, we’re going to Auburn,” Beard told Russell.
“I told him I was going to Alabama, but he said ‘No, you can’t go until you see Auburn’” Russell said. “He picked me and two or three other guys up and we went to Auburn. From there, we went to Gulf Shiores fishing. We visited around Auburn for another day or two. I came home and told my daddy I’d changed my mind.”
STORY NO. 5
An outstanding Auburn basketball player had an invitation to play in a prestigious international event one summer. He was excited, but one day he went to see his coach and told him he didn’t want to go. The coach told him he should go, but the player was adamant. The coach did some checking and found out why the player wouldn’t go. His entire wardrobe consisted of two pair of blue jeans and two shirts.
“What would you have done?” the coach asked me. “I’d have bought him some clothes,” I said. “And that’s exactly what I did,” the coach said.
All the stories I have told here are from at least 30 years ago.
The moral of these stories? The hand-wringing and moaning and groaning about “integrity” in college athletics is largely phony outrage. People have been bending and breaking the rules since players wore leather helmets, and no presidential retreat is going to stop it now.
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