Wiedmer: Mocs of 1964 prove you can often come home again

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Fifty years later, the 1893 Lady Liberty silver dollar still takes up space in Rick English's wallet. It's a daily reminder of just how poor he was on the August day he first arrived at the University of Chattanooga to play football in 1964.

"My father put me on a plane in Boston and gave me $5," said English, who now lives in Nashville. "I spent $3 on a Chrysler limo ride from the airport to campus and another dollar getting something to eat. That silver dollar was the only money I had left on earth."

He's lost the coin at least seven times since then, but always found it.

"I've almost rubbed it smooth looking at it," he said. "It reminds me just how much the University of Chattanooga changed my life. I'd probably be back in Boston pumping gas without UC."

English is far from the only member of the '64 Scrappy Mocs to maintain an enduring affection for his university and his teammates. More than 40 members of that team will gather this weekend for their third reunion in the last 10 years when the current Mocs host Mercer at Finley Stadium at noon Saturday.

"We had the first one in 2004," said Truman Anderson, a junior guard on that squad who helps keep the group united through emails and such. "Since then, we've started to do so many things together, traveling together and stuff. It's a very close group."

As Anderson, who grew up in Lineville, Ala., spoke Thursday, one of those teammates, Paul Schaller, arrived with his wife, Joan, from Buffalo, N.Y., where he was a high school football coach for more than 30 years, twice winning state titles.

"I was one of those Yankees they brought in to straighten out these Southern boys," said Schaller, who actually was recruited out of the Army while playing football in Korea.

"Truman and I were both guards and we brought the plays in from the sideline," he added. "We discovered a few years ago that both our right arms were longer than our lefts from Coach (Scrappy) Moore pulling them back to the sideline because he'd changed his mind about which play to run."

They all have their Scrappy stories. English recalled the training table Moore ran, and how area merchants would donate food.

"Sometimes the bread would get moldy," he said. "The coaches would tell us that the mold was good for us, that it had penicillin in it."

That also led English to try to get dates with sorority girls on Sunday, "so we could eat at the sorority house on Sunday night, because the training table didn't serve dinner that night."

Schaller recalled a memorable halftime speech Moore gave before spying a bucket on the floor.

"He kicked the bucket and it was full of concrete," he said. "I think Scrappy almost broke his foot. It was all we could do to keep from laughing."

Bert Caldwell grew up in Columbus, Ga., started his college career at Ole Miss, then became a starting defensive back as a senior on the '64 Mocs. He later ran an advertising and marketing agency in the Scenic City.

Of his final team, which finished 7-3 and shut out four opponents -- its losses coming on the road at Tennessee (10-6), Auburn (33-12 after UC led 12-0) and Southern Miss (31-0) -- Caldwell said, "We had good athletes. That was a tribute to Scrappy. He knew how to find good players and coach them to be better. Chattanooga wouldn't have a football program if it weren't for Scrappy."

Caldwell's own Scrappy story?

"It was the last practice of two-a-days before the Tennessee game," he said. "I looked up in the press box and the cameras filming practice had been taken down, so I figured it was almost over. I'd taken off my helmet, pads and shoes when Scrappy ordered the starters back onto the field. Naturally, my teammates had decided to hide my helmet and shoes. So I'm just standing there and Scrappy yells, 'Caldwell, do you plan to play barefoot against Tennessee on Saturday?'"

English, who arrived at UC as a walk-on, believes a single play in one of those two-a-days earned him a roster spot.

"The biggest reason I came to Chattanooga was (former Moc) Charlie Long, who was playing with the Boston Patriots of the AFL," English said. "Before I came down, he told me that the best way to make the team was to pick out the best player and get in a fight with him at practice.

"So I'm going against Henry Sorrell one day in drills and he runs over me, then steps on me. He just killed me. But the next time I faced him in that drill I got in a fight with him. After they pulled us apart, one of the assistants said, 'Who is this English guy? He must be nuts.' But I made the team."

Fifty years is a long time to remain close. Especially when they arrived from such opposite ends of the country.

"Truman and I lived next to each other in the football dorm," Schaller recalled. "Joan called one day and Truman answered. He came to my room and said, 'There's some girl on the phone for you, but I couldn't understand a word she said.'

"Then I get on the phone and Joan asks, 'Who was that guy? I couldn't understand a word he said.'"

Yet it somehow worked. The team's eight seniors -- Jerry Harris, Jimmy Denton, Steve Coleman, Jim Tanara, Glenn Stowe, Ron Eisaman, Jack Procter and Caldwell -- provided leadership. Scrappy coached. They all bonded, then went their separate ways for 40 years, moving into education, business, coaching and the military.

"Jack Proctor and Jimmy Denton were both in the Marines in Vietnam," Caldwell said. "They both got shot down, but they both survived."

Added English: "We had a great bunch of men on that team."

Now that great bunch of men will reunite to recall the past, enjoy the present and hope for a blessed future together. They'll even welcome former Chattanooga Times and Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Jay Searcy to the festivities, figuring that English would never pick a fight with someone who once bought ink by the barrel.

Said Ronnie Wade, the team's punter: "I walked out of UC with a diploma in one hand and my wife, Bea, our homecoming queen, in the other. What could be better than that?"

Not much. Unless it's reliving it all over again with your best friends and teammates 50 years later.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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