Tribute to Tennessee High School Football Coaches

NOTE: Ken Colquette played football at Grundy County High School (Class of 1965) and Tennessee Tech (Class of 1969). He started his head coaching career at Bridgeport, AL and also served as head coach at Marion County (1980-1996), Vidalia, GA (1997-1999), Grundy County (2002-2003) and Sequatchie County (2012-2014).

My second coaching stint in the early to mid ‘70s was as the defensive coordinator and head track coach at Dougherty High School in Albany, GA. We played a very competitive schedule that included teams like Valdosta, Moultrie and Tifton.

As the DC, I required everyone on the football team who wasn’t playing baseball to be part of the track team. I had a huge track team, probably about 40 players in all. Another requirement was that everyone on the team (300 pound linemen included) had to run the mile event.

The previous fall, we had a player who had messed up his knee late in the season. His name was Acie Howard. He was a small linebacker who was about 5’8” and 185 pounds. I mention this because even with his injury, Acie ran the mile that day, probably with 100-150 fans in the stands.

When it was time to run the mile that day, my starters (the stars) lined up at the start-finish line and my left-overs lined up about five yards behind them.

After the regulars finished the race, the rest of the guys still had one more lap to run. Dragging way behind them was Acie. So I walked out on the edge of the track and told him he was done, that he’d had enough and that the race was over. Well, he never acknowledged me. He just kept going - the only runner still out there on the track with another quarter mile to go.

The rest of the team saw this and they all ran with him through the infield, yelling at him and encouraging him all the way around that track. When he got within 100 yards of the finish line, everybody in the stands were standing up, clapping their hands and chanting Acie, Acie, Acie.

I was, too, but had to walk off and be beside myself because I started crying. That was almost 50 years ago and it still gets to me. The next year, we were really, really good. We were family and I think that’s part of the reason why. It pulled the team together. Acie had a great senior season the next fall. We were the only team that beat Thomasville that year and they went on to win a state championship.