RIP true VFL Joe Graham

#6
#6
Great to read the Czonka story where he showed up and said that Neumhoff hit did hurt but reminded us they did score on the next play. I was sitting in the Gator Bowl the day it happened watching a Syracuse team with TWO future Hall Of Fame backs lose to the Vols! (Floyd Little) And the next year the Vols were competing for the national championship and I feel about the same for this years team and prospects for the future!
 
#8
#8
RIP VFL

I wonder if he was coaching Cornersville when we (Huntland) played them in 80,81, and 82? The old Duck River Valley Conference, Single A.
 
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#9
#9
Great to read the Czonka story where he showed up and said that Neumhoff hit did hurt but reminded us they did score on the next play. I was sitting in the Gator Bowl the day it happened watching a Syracuse team with TWO future Hall Of Fame backs lose to the Vols! (Floyd Little) And the next year the Vols were competing for the national championship and I feel about the same for this years team and prospects for the future!

I was in about the 5th row in the bleachers about 10 yards from the collision. Still remember the sound, sounded like the crack from a gunshot.
 
#10
#10
I was at the Gator bowl that day at the end of my first quarter at UT.I was down the side line at the other end at the twenty.The sound was loud,but ,seeing Czonka's head snap down to his chest ,I thought Paul had killed him.We won,that day,but,as you said,Czonka AND Floyd Little in that backfield,made a great win for our Vols.
 
#13
#13
RIP VFL

I wonder if he was coaching Cornersville when we (Huntland) played them in 80,81, and 82? The old Duck River Valley Conference, Single A.

I believe he was. Who all was in the Duck River? Huntlland, Cornersville, Chapel Hill, Eagleville, Cascade and Moore County? The Lincoln County schools were consolidated in 1979, so they weren't in it.
 
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#14
#14
No. Coach Graham was the O and D-line coach at Columbia Central during those years. I graduated from Columbia Central in 1980 and saw him probably 15 years later at an event in the school and he was still teaching at Central then. He went to Cornersville much later than the 80's when Ray Stocstill was the head coach. Coach Stocstill was a LB/QB coach at Central when I was there as well. He passed in 2019.

These are real tears. I loved Coach Graham. He was a real mentor to me and one of the reasons I chose the University of Tennessee when I was looking at schools back in the late 70's. I will never forget watching the 1970 UT highlights narrated by John Ward every Friday before the Alabama game in Coach Graham's health classes and our pick up basketball games in P.E. Joe Graham was a hell of a man.

Joe Graham.jpg
 
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#15
#15
No. Coach Graham was the O and D-line coach at Columbia Central during those years. I graduated from Columbia Central in 1980 and saw him probably 15 years later at an event in the school and he was still teaching at Central then. He went to Cornersville much later than the 80's when Ray Stocstill was the head coach. Coach Stocstill was a LB/QB coach at Central when I was there as well. He passed in 2019.

These are real tears. I loved Coach Graham. He was a real mentor to me and one of the reasons I chose the University of Tennessee when I was looking at schools back in the late 70's. I will never forget watching the 1970 UT highlights narrated by John Ward every Friday before the Alabama game in Coach Graham's health classes and our pick up basketball games in P.E. Joe Graham was a hell of a man.

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Thanks for the clarification. That's certainly late 70's, early 80's coaching attire, LOL. I remember Coach Jim Cartwright; he was big buds with my high school coach, Walter Bouldin. The first game I started at QB was my sophomore year when we went to Columbia Central about the 5th game of the season. Columbia had a linebacker named John Pointer, who signed with Vandy and was 1st Team All SEC his senior year. They also had a defensive tackle that signed with Tennessee, but I can't remember his name. I think he got hurt early in his career and never played. They beat the hell out of us; two of our guys got concussions, and Pointer gave me a painful "hip pointer" when he sacked me in the end zone for a safety. Somehow we managed to win the game...........7-2.
 
#16
#16
I believe he was. Who all was in the Duck River? Huntlland, Cornersville, Chapel Hill, Eagleville, Cascade and Moore County? The Lincoln County schools were consolidated in 1979, so they weren't in it.

Huntland, Chapel Hill (Forest), Cascade, Moore County, St Andrews (Sewanee), Flintville for a while (before my time), and yes Spring Hill was Single A back then.
 
#17
#17
Thanks for the clarification. That's certainly late 70's, early 80's coaching attire, LOL. I remember Coach Jim Cartwright; he was big buds with my high school coach, Walter Bouldin. The first game I started at QB was my sophomore year when we went to Columbia Central about the 5th game of the season. Columbia had a linebacker named John Pointer, who signed with Vandy and was 1st Team All SEC his senior year. They also had a defensive tackle that signed with Tennessee, but I can't remember his name. I think he got hurt early in his career and never played. They beat the hell out of us; two of our guys got concussions, and Pointer gave me a painful "hip pointer" when he sacked me in the end zone for a safety. Somehow we managed to win the game...........7-2.
Ray Hawkins signed with Tennessee
 
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