Johnny Majors vs Vanderbilt - 1956

#12
#12
orangefloyd said:
Not disagreeing but I remember when was John was asked who should have won the Heisman that year he said Jim Brown. I don’t think they gave it to black players then.
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John told me that he sat on that for 30 years. The setting for him saying that was; Paul Horning was interviewing John. He said, "John, admit it, you thought you should have won the Heisman in 56 instead of me." To which John replied, "No, I thought Jim Brown should have won it."

That puts things in an entirely different light when he said that.
 
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#15
#15
OldVol said:
John told me that he sat on that for 30 years. The setting for him saying that was; Paul Horning was interviewing John. He said, "John, admit it, you thought you should have won the Heisman in 56 instead of me." To which John replied, "No, I thought Jim Brown should have won it."

That puts things in an entirely different light when he said that.
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"Adios kazooz, Paul!"
 
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#16
#16
HalfullVol said:
did JM even weigh a buck fifty?

tough little son of a gun
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Guys were a lot smaller back then. It really wasn't until vitamins became a "thing" for kids and nutritional diets became a focus in the late 50s / early 60s that kids started getting a lot bigger. Also most players played both offense and defense. When they said they played sixty minutes they meant it. Honestly, I don't think one could do that at 300+.

Two-platoon football didn't really hit until the early 60s and didn't trickle down to high school until the late 70s..

Just for instance, Charlie Rosenfelder was an All-American Guard at 235 and the legendary Chip Kell weighed in at 250. I don't recall where I saw it but "Big" Doug Atkins played at about 250 as well.

My freshman year at Catholic I weighed in at somewhere around 200 and was the third or fourth biggest guy on the team.
 
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#18
#18
For you young whipper-snappers out there the formation Tennessee is running is the Single Wing.

The line was End-Guard-Center-Guard-Tackle-Tackle-End.

single-wing-offense-formation.jpg

https://footballadvantage.com/single-wing-offense/

A friend of mine, the late great Rod Harkleroad, claimed to have been the last single-wing center at UT. He graduated in 1966.

St, Joseph's in Knoxville ran the single wing during my 8th grade year in 1970. Ergo, I may well have been one of, if not the last, single wing center in Tennessee.
 
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#20
#20
While the formations are much tighter than now, I noticed in the video how close the officials are to the action.

Re single wing in TN, South Pittsburg High School ran the single wing into the early1990s. In-laws are from Gordonsville and then as now, they would invariably run into South Pittsburg in the Class A playoffs.
 
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#21
#21
TNREADER said:
While the formations are much tighter than now, I noticed in the video how close the officials are to the action.

Re single wing in TN, South Pittsburg High School ran the single wing into the early1990s. In-laws are from Gordonsville and then as now, they would invariably run into South Pittsburg in the Class A playoffs.
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I figured as soon as I wrote that somebody would be running the single wing last season or somesuch. Maybe I can modify it to say "last single wing center in Knox County." Heh.
 
#23
#23
OneManGang said:
I was wandering down a rabbit-hole of Tennessee vids on YouTube and found this gem.



"Attack! Attack! Attack! And remember, always have fun!"

Words to live by.

We miss you, Coach. RIP
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Thanks for sharing. I hope Coach Heup creates one play or series each year to honor those days. Some kind of announcement of the entry of the single wing platoon would be great, and putting up your graphic on the jumbotron(s) would be neat as well.

I did not see Johnny play, my first single wing VOL tailback hero was Glenn Glass a few years later and watched the transition to the T formation in my formative years.

I have shared before, but I had to go to Huntland a few months back for the funeral of my favorite uncle by marriage who was a backfield mate with Johnny back in the day. The latest picture of Majors I saw was one of the two of them engaged at a table at a reunion there not to far back from the local paper.

Oddly enough, in the small world category, when I moved back to God's country 15 years ago my home is about 7 miles from Johnny's neighborhood of choice twice and less than 2 miles from my parents, who I lost in 09' and 10', last home. Hate I never met him.

Thanks again.
 
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