Tribute to Tennessee High School Football Coaches

NOTE: Graham Clark played played football at Dobyns Bennett H. S. (Class of 1973). He played football at Emory & Henry (Class of 1977). His head coaching career was at Chilhowee, VA (1980-1981) and Kingsport Dobyns Bennett (1993-2017).

We always had a great rivalry with Oak Ridge during my long career at Dobyns Bennett. It seems like great stories came about anytime we played Oak Ridge. I've got a handful of them, but I think my favorite one was in 2006.

If you've ever been to a game at Oak Ridge, you know how intimidating it can be for the visiting team. They bring their team onto the field through the stands. Train whistles are going off, sirens are going off, people are throwing babies up in the air over at Big Ed's Pizza, and they wait until you come out on the field and you're standing on the sideline and here this commotion takes place.

So I told our coaches, "We're not going out until they go out." I went over to where our players up on the hill there, "Hey guys, we're not gonna go out tonight until Oak Ridge is already on the sidelines."

The players asked why. I told them, "Cuz it makes them mad if we go out second. They want to intimidate you with all their noise and parade-like entrance onto the field and we're just not going down there right now. Just find yourself a spot over here on the hill and grab a seat. Once they go down, then we'll go down."

Well, that was about 7:20. We stood up for the national anthum and sat back down, waiting for them to take the field. 7:25 passed, then 7:30 and 7:40 and they still hadn't taken the field. Finally, about 7:45, someone started the sirens and here comes the team down through the stands and onto the field. Then we run down the hill and jog over to our sideline.

Oak Ridge starts the game off with a five yard delay of game penalty for not coming out on time. Their coach (Stanton Stevens) asked the refs why we wern't penalized, too. The official explained, "It's the home team's responsibility to start the game on time."

Stanton told me later that the officials came into his locker room about 7:40 and told them they had a five-yard delay of game penalty. If they were not on the field in five minutes, they'd have a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, and if they were not on the field in five minutes from there, the game would be forfeited to Dobyns Bennett. I knew the rule. We played very well that night and were up 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. We eventually won, 33-10.

After the game, an Oak Ridge reporter asked me if, in my wildest dreams, did I think this game would be like this. I told him my wildest dreams didn't have anything to do with football, but no, I really didn't think this game would be like this.