| When we were seniors and our football team had lost Royce and Donald and all of those good players from the 1956 team. Eddie, Bo and I were the only ones left from all of the others that would have been in our class.(In elementary school we had: Bobrow Gunnels, Jax Baird, Fred Jenkins and several more) Kenneth Carter was drafted to play, but he had to learn a new rule every time the lined up because they didn't play football in Cross Roads, where he had been a basketball player.. The Athens sports reporter (Bill Speake) interviewed Coach Loggins, asking what he thought about the upcoming football season. When the answer hit the news that morning we read his answer, " I'll sure be glad when basketball season gets here!!" Now reflecting back, after doing some coaching in high school myself, I can understand his answer, but at the time our team was furious. Hoss Cope talked us into a cute scenario that proved to get us in trouble with Coach Loggins. Hoss suggested that every time we got a chance we should "dribble" the football. So, that day as we lined up to run out for passes, we would grab the football with one hand and dribble it. Coach Loggins soon took the wind out of our sails when we had to run wind sprints for about 30 minutes. No more dribbles. That week we had our first game of the season scheduled and Mabank was a heavy favorite. We were determined to beat Mabank and prove Coach wrong. (By the way Coach Farmer also helped punish us for our indiscretions). Coach Loggins and Coach Farmer devised a plan that had Eddie at fullback and Bo Johnson at halfback. The day after the game the headlines in the Athens paper read, "NOKES NO JOKE!!" That night Eddie threw a touchdown pass to Bo and kicked about a 50 yard quick kick, along with rushing for good yardage. We won 13-12 and it was a miracle. This was the last time Eddie ever played fullback or in the backfield. I suppose Coach saw that Eddie weighing 175 running behind me a hefty 125(stretching it) was not going to get it. We finished the season 4-6 and by today's standards we would have placed 3rd. Good enough for a playoff spot. |
| NOKES NO JOKE by Don Henderson |
| UPDATED "NOKES NO JOKE " |
| NOTE: *****THIS WAS WRITTEN SEVERAL YEARS AGO. FOR YEARS I LOOKED FOR THE ATHENS REVIEW ARTICLE: "NOKES NO JOKE" AND COULD NOT FIND IT. NOW IT HAS BEEN LOCATED, THUS AN ADDED STORY. |