WHEN FALL PRACTICE got under way at Glynn Academy on August 17 with the dreaded two-a-
days, more than 60 prospects showed up. A lot of optimism dominated the football team's
dressing room, especially among those who had defied the blistering heat of Brunswick's
summer to stay physically prepared.
"It's a good thing,” George said of the summer workouts he and Tullos conducted, “because
Henderson beat the crap out of us at practice. He worked our behinds off. It wasn't anything for
us to run 100 40-yard sprints after practice, but it paid off. The truth is, once the season began
and the fourth quarter came, we planned to be ready."
On the practice field behind the Prep Building, the field looked dry and brittle beneath the blazing
summer sun. It had more bare spots than grass showing. By the time two-a-days began, the
wide-open space was little more than a constant plume of dust rising from the roasted earth.
Temperatures were in the 90s and the humidity just as high when the players reported that first
morning for fall practice. The first day was actually the easiest, with much of the morning spent in
orientation sessions.
Henderson had everyone drop to a knee in the middle of the practice field, and said flat out,
“We're going to win the state championship this year, and there is not a spot on this team for
anybody who isn’t willing to do what it takes to get there.”
The players were told what was expected of them, what was expected of the season, and given
an expanded dissertation of what was included in Henderson's letter regarding the season. They
were told that the goal for the 1964 campaign was the state championship.
In the afternoon, coaches timed the players in the 40-yard dash and had the boys run more than
most of them had ever run in their young lives.
Fall football practice was never easy. It didn't matter how well a player had trained over the
summer, the two-a-days were killers. But compared to today's standards, the heat wasn't as
much an issue back in 1964 as it might have been to players coming along 45 years later.
That was because kids spent most of their days out of doors in the 1960s and the decades that
came before, and were more accustomed to the heat. In 1964 and the years prior, kids worked
outside during the summer months and they played sports and games outside. Back yards
existed for outdoor games – spring, summer, fall or winter.
Teenagers in 1964 did not have Play Stations, Nintendo's, Wii games, or X-boxes. There were
no video games to keep kids in the house. It was also very rare for a kid to have his own
television set in his or her bedroom. Most families had one TV and that was in the living or family
room, and there were only three channels in Brunswick and no remote control to change stations
from one to another.
There were also no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet, and therefore no chat
rooms. MTV did not exist. It wasn't even a gleam in anyone's eye. What kids back then did have
was an outdoors they could play in, and that was what they did for fun.
Still, by the time that first week was over, half the prospects that had showed up on the opening
day were gone.
“It was tough, believe me,” said Hutchinson. “If you weren't getting your jaw jacked by Chickie's
forearm or your helmet knocked off trying to tackle Tullos head on, you were having to run miles
of sprints each day.”
The practices were a constant chorus of two words – “move” and “run.” “Move, move, move,” the
coaches would yell, like drill instructors at basic military training. “Run, run, run.” It was their job.
The players moved, and they ran, but despite the heat, the gnats, the excessive hitting, and the
challenging wind sprints, enthusiasm ran high among the regulars. Defensive coach Woodruff
had a saying that he liked to use anytime a play was being run: “Let's go to war,” he would say to
his defense. And, more often than not, there would follow an aggressive clash of helmets,
shoulder pads and forearm shivers.
It was the same on offense, where the team relied on a few simple plays, just plain, hard-nosed
football that they ran over and over again, until Henderson was satisfied that everyone knew
what his role would be on that play when it was called.
“I don't think anyone expected us to put on a flashy offense,” said Liles. “Since Jane Macon,
Coach Henderson had always been more of a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust-type guy. We
would pound the line with Tullos again and again and again until eventually we wore the defense
down or Johnny or Tash would break a long one. One thing was certain, we believed we would
be in better shape than any team on our schedule. We also felt that if a game came down to the
fourth quarter, we were going to be the better team. That was something that became apparent
once the season started.”
Chapter 41
AFTER THE FIRST week, the team, at least those who remained, was battered, sore, and
exhausted, but motivation wasn't hard to find. The coaches barked orders at an alarming
volume. And through it all, Henderson saw a team that continued to fight, despite aching muscles
and weary bodies.
Jack Symons had played on the B-team the previous year. He was a 185-pound rising junior
lineman and no stranger to two-a-days, but the fall practices of 1964 was an experience like no
other.
“You'd fight gnats in the morning, go over plays and technique drills, and then you'd run,” he
said. “When the morning practice ended, you'd go home and take a shower and crash, then get
up and eat, and go back for the afternoon session. The mornings were the worst of the two
sessions. It was so humid, you couldn't breathe, but the running was worse in the afternoon. I
don't think any of us who stayed through the entire fall practice minded the hitting, but we had
never had to run like Henderson ran us that August. Most of the guys who came out couldn't cut
the two-a-days. These were hot, miserably hot days, and those god-awful gnats made them
even worse, but nothing we had ever done before, on any level, compared to the running.”
Chapter 57
FOR THE FIRST time since coach C.M. Page installed the T-formation in the 1940s, the Terrors
sported a new look on both sides of the football.
In the first half against Aquinas, the down-hill, power-running from the I-formation proved to be
nearly unstoppable. Only turnovers stopped potential scoring drives.
But it was the defense that fans were talking about. Working from a scheme that featured five
down linemen backed by two linebackers and two upbacks playing close to the line of
scrimmage, Glynn had smothered the Shamrocks' offensive efforts in the first half. Aquinas' T-
formation was no match for Woodruff's 5-4.
In the third quarter, Glynn got its offense clicking. It started from its 49-yard line with Van Dora
and Tullos sharing the running chores on the series, much as they had on the first scoring drive.
The big play in the series was one that caught the Shamrocks by surprise – a look-in pass to
Mavromat that was good for nine yards and gave the Red Terrors a first down at the Aquinas 9.
Two attempts by Tullos netted four yards, setting up a third down and five for the score. Van
Dora got it easily. He scooted around left end with George and Avra blocking inside and danced
untouched into the end zone. This time, George's PAT was good, giving Glynn a 13-0 lead. The
third period came to an end moments later.
It stayed 13-0 until midway through the fourth quarter when, with the football on the Glynn 36,
Van Dora tried to catch the Shamrocks napping again but missed on a pass across the middle.
On the next play, he sent Tullos off Reichenbach's right shoulder. The big tackle buried the
defender in front of him, and Tullos shot into the secondary, where an Aquinas defensive back hit
him but bounced off the hard-running tailback and slid backward through the muddy turf. Avra,
coming from the left side, took out the two Shamrock safeties and Tullos easily galloped
untouched downfield to complete the 64-yard touchdown run. Again, George converted and
Glynn led 20-0.
The Red Terror's final score came when Aquinas fumbled on its 13-yard line. After a first-down
run failed to gain, Tullos carried nine yards to the Shamrock four on the second play. From there,
Van Dora scored on a quarterback sneak and George tacked on his third extra point to make it
27-0. That was the way the game would end, with a victory in the boggy confines left by the tail
end of a hurricane.
Reichenbach celebrated with a dance at midfield like an inebriated circus bear. Then, he took off
running and did a belly flop on the muddy field, sliding several yards on the slick surface. It was a
great start to what he knew was going to be an equally great season.
WHILE HE WAS happy with the win, Henderson knew the Aquinas game was not a true test for
the Red Terrors. Glynn won because the Shamrocks could not manage any offense in the slop
left behind by Dora.
On the flip side, he was sure the offense he had installed during the spring was the right
formation for his team.
Tullos had rambled for 170 yards on 21 carries during the course of the dismal afternoon,
showing no lingering signs of the ankle injury that had slowed him against Moultrie.
Van Dora ran for 101 yards on 14 carries against the out-manned Aquinas defenders, and
completed four of 12 passes for 35 yards, with Mavromat being on the receiving end of three
aerials for 27 yards.
On the other side of the football, Glynn's defensive unit held Aquinas to just two first downs, and
63 total yards.
“Glynn's defense was outstanding ,” reported the Savannah Morning News the next morning.
“The Red Terrors' heavier line poured through several times to ruffle the Shamrock backfield and
their relentless pass rushing doomed the highly touted Irish air attack.”
The Savannah paper also lauded George's extra-point efforts, pointing out, “Chickie George
booted three conversions out of four tries in difficult wind conditions.”
Although it hardly seemed to exert itself against the Shamrocks, Glynn Academy had rolled up an
impressive 308 yards in total offense by the time the dank afternoon was over. What Henderson
took back to his office from the Aquinas game was, despite the three fumbles, Hinson's offensive
line had dominated.
Also, Woodruff's defensive line had proven to be quick, and downright nasty. Could it show the
same intensity against a much-stronger Richmond Academy? Just how good was Glynn
Academy?
The answers to those questions would come the following Friday when the Terrors clashed with
the Musketeers in Augusta. This was the game that had been written in chalk on the blackboard
in Henderson's office in June. Unless the sky fell or the sun burned out, it was generally accepted
that one of the two schools would emerge as the team to beat in Region 2-AAA.
Chapter 79
WHEN THINGS WERE at their darkest, when no one wanted to believe, when even ardent fans
began hanging their heads, they learned something about this group of Red Terrors: When their
backs were against the wall, that's when they were at their best.
After being pushed around by the boys from Wayne County throughout much of the first half, the
Terrors defense held the Jackets to 39 yards – all on the ground – after intermission.
Led by Reichenbach, Robinson, Avra, Symons, Woolley, Mumford, Cox, and Gordon, Glynn's
defensive line stifled the Jackets' running game. When it appeared Jesup might get through the
initial barrier of Glynn's down linemen, they were met with crunching tackles delivered by
Mavromat and George.
It was here, when the idea that Glynn Academy's chances of making the playoffs for a second
straight year became a practicality, that the forest trembled and trees could be heard falling, and
awed adversaries knew hell was coming, and it was wearing Red and White.
All the running in two-a-days, the multiple times players had to run through new plays because
their numbers were limited, all that became worthwhile when the Red Terrors went into the fourth
quarter.
After both teams traded punts to start the fourth period, Van Dora launched another Terrors'
drive when Jesup kicked to the Glynn Academy 35 with eight minutes left to play in the game. A
five-yard penalty pushed Glynn back to its 30, and on a first-down run, Van Dora was pinned for
no gain.
Tullos banged off tackle behind the blocking of Reichenbach for 10 yards, and Van Dora
connected with George on a pass that netted two yards. It was fourth-and-three at the 42, and
time was starting to become a factor, an adversary.
Once again, Henderson elected to put the outcome of the game on this offense. On fourth down,
Tullos burst over left guard where he ran smack into a street mugging, but somehow came out
the other side of the gang, and went six yards for a first down at the Glynn 49.
On the next play, Van Dora squirmed for eight more yards inside Yellow Jacket territory to the
Jesup 43, bringing up a second-and-two. Tullos then carried four straight times: nine yards for a
first-and-10 at the Jacket 34, three yards to the Jesup 31, seven yards and a first down at the
Yellow Jacket 24, and five yards to the Jesup 19.
Tippins picked up one yard on a reverse to the 18, making it third-and-four. Van Dora went back
to Tullos and the senior tailback responded with a four-yard pickup for another first down at the
Jesup 14. Another carry by Tullos netted two yards down to the Yellow Jacket 12-yard line. Van
Dora then followed the blocking of Goss, Robinson, Reichenbach, and Mavromat around right
end for 11 yards, diving for the flag at the corner of the end zone. He came up short, and was
knocked out of bounds one yard shy of the goal line.
On the next play, Tullos went into the end zone standing up. The Glynn Academy bench erupted.
Players were jumping around hugging their teammates. And then, with the outcome of the game
riding on his strong right leg, George came in and kicked the extra point. Glynn Academy had
tied Jesup, 14-14, and put an indelible stamp on the remaining games of the 1964 season.