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  “Our defensive unit has held us together through the last couple of games, while our offense has been sputtering,” Gerelds told The Birmingham News. “We’ve got to start doing a lot of things better than we’ve been doing them.”

  In a 20–6 victory over Ramsay High School on September 29, Nathan intercepted three passes and made two open-field tackles that might have prevented the other team from scoring two touchdowns. He was quickly becoming one of the best defensive backs in the state. The Colonels took an early 20–0 lead over the Rams, but then once again sputtered on offense in the second half.

  On the first Friday night of October, the Colonels faced their toughest challenge so far against undefeated Huffman High School, which was ranked No. 7 in the state. The Colonels had climbed to No. 6 in the state rankings, but Gerelds wasn’t sure his team was good enough on offense to challenge the Vikings.

  “Last year Huffman had some good players and some more with a lot of potential,” Gerelds told the News a few days before the game. “This year those great players are back, and the others have realized their potential with a year of experience. In short, they have outstanding athletes at every position. We take a lot of pride in our defense here at Woodlawn, but with the balanced, powerful offense Huffman has, we know we’re going to have to go about 110 percent on every down. I picked Huffman to be No. 1 this year before the season started, and I still feel that way. I see no weaknesses.”

  Gerelds’s concerns about the Vikings proved to be prophetic, as the Colonels struggled to do much of anything against Huffman until the fourth quarter. After falling behind 14–6, Woodlawn was in position to get back into the game. Hammock threw a bomb toward the end zone for tight end Scott Humphries, but the ball was deflected and intercepted by cornerback Don Saab. The play seemed to take the wind out of the Colonels’ sails, and the Vikings easily drove for another touchdown to secure a 20–6 victory.

  After suffering their first defeat of the season, Woodlawn bounced back for a 20–12 victory over West End High at Legion Field the next week. Ronnie Garzarek was the hero, after he picked off the ball on an option play and ran it back 65 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. In the closing minutes, the Lions were driving for a chance to tie the game, but Nathan tipped a pass that was intercepted by Holland.

  With a 5–1 record, the Colonels’ playoff chances came down to their annual rivalry game against Banks High School at Legion Field on October 20. The Banks-Woodlawn game was annually the biggest contest in high school football in the city. The Jets were 7–0 and ranked No. 1 in the state. They’d outscored their opponents 207–42 and were averaging 29.6 points per game behind sophomore quarterback Jeff Rutledge.

  “I hope it means as much to us, but the way we looked in practice Monday, I just don’t know,” Banks High coach George “Shorty” White told the News three days before the game. “It just didn’t seem like Woodlawn’s week. We’ve played a lot of good teams so far this season, and have been fortunate enough to beat them. But I hope our kids don’t fall into the trap of thinking this is just another good team. It’s Woodlawn, and that makes it a real game in an average year. This year isn’t average. They’re above average, and they’ll play like it.”

  On a chilly night at Legion Field, the Colonels proved to be no match for the Jets. Banks High went ahead 7–0 on Rutledge’s touchdown pass to Steve Grefseng on a fourth-and-14 play. After the Colonels were forced to punt, Jets tailback Johnny Gunnels scored to make it 14–0. Then Gunnels scored again early in the third quarter to give Banks High a 21–0 lead. Woodlawn finally scored on Hammock’s 55-yard touchdown pass to split end Steven Washington, but it proved to be too little in a 27–6 loss. Gunnels and teammate Rodney Johnson combined to run for 208 yards, and Woodlawn’s offense couldn’t do enough to keep up.

  Losing to Banks High seemed to completely deflate the Colonels, who lost two of their final three games to finish the 1972 season with a 6–4 record. It was a one-game improvement over the 5–5 finish in Gerelds’s first season in 1971. But for Woodlawn High to join the ranks of the city’s best high school teams, Gerelds knew his offense was going to have to be a lot better.

  Fortunately, Gerelds had a solution. He was going to move Nathan to tailback the next season—if he could persuade “Chicken Big” and, more important, his mother, to do it.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  1973 SEASON

  When Wales Goebel spoke to the Colonels in the gymnasium on the third night of their preseason camp, he offered the players and coaches a few words of encouragement. After watching the Colonels practice three times a day during preseason camp, Tandy Gerelds knew he needed whatever help he could get. The Colonels were still racially divided, and their differences were preventing them from becoming a good team.

  During three weeks of practice the previous spring, Gerelds moved star safety Tony Nathan to tailback, after having a long heart-to-heart conversation with his mother. Louise Nathan initially resisted the idea but eventually agreed to allow the position change because Gerelds promised to protect her son. “You coached him last season,” Gerelds told her. “I’m going to coach him this year.”

  Louise Nathan wasn’t the only person Gerelds had to win over. Woodlawn High’s players immediately recognized that Nathan could be a dynamic running back. But a few of Woodlawn’s white players weren’t excited about the possibility of an African American becoming the star of the team. Gerelds altered his offense to feature Nathan’s running abilities—ditching the Wing-T offense for the I-formation.

  Nathan broke off long runs the first couple of times he touched the ball during spring practice. He effortlessly made would-be tacklers miss, and no one could slow him down. The white players also didn’t like the fact that Nathan would be replacing a white player in the backfield. During his first few practices as a running back, some of Nathan’s teammates refused to block for him. But then senior fullback Mike Allison, one of the team captains, spoke up.

  “Mike said we were a team, and needed to work together,” Nathan said. “He was a senior and everybody listened to him.”

  However, Allison’s speech proved to be nothing more than a Band-Aid. During the Colonels’ preseason camp at Woodlawn High School, the white and black players were as divided as ever. Gerelds knew they would have to come together as one unit if they were going to be more competitive in 1973. That’s why he agreed to allow Goebel, a complete stranger, to speak to his players on the third night of camp.

  “They tell me that y’all are ranked dead last in the polls this year,” Goebel told the players. “That means the experts think you’re the worst team in the city. No matter what they say about you, if you go out there and practice and give everything you’ve got and play 110 percent and hold nothing back, God will bless you. I’m not saying you’ll win every game or be successful on every play, but if you play for the glory of God and can look in the mirror after practice and say, ‘I’ve given everything I have,’ God will bless you.”

  After Goebel addressed the team, it wasn’t long before Gerelds and his coaches started noticing changes in their players. Off the field, the white players were starting to socialize with the black players, and vice versa. Gerelds watched players of different races walking down the hallways of the school, laughing and joking with each other. Black players were sitting with their white teammates in the cafeteria. After most of the players answered Goebel’s invitation to become Christians, racial boundaries began to blur.

  “They started respecting each other and seeing each other as people, and not only football players and white kids and black kids,” defensive coordinator Jerry Stearns said. “They became teammates and friends, and that bond between all of them was something special. They started going places together and were around each other more. Instead of the black kids being in one location and the white kids in another, they started interacting with each other. That led to them trusting each other. When you have kids who trust each other and like each other, it’s going to make
a difference in how they respond.”

  On the field, however, the Colonels still had plenty of issues to address. They weren’t as bad as Goebel might have believed—in fact, they were considered a dark-horse candidate for a city championship—but there were still plenty of concerns about Woodlawn High’s team heading into the ’73 season.

  The main concern was Nathan’s health. He received quite a baptism during preseason camp. Nathan was one of the players who accepted Jesus Christ in the gym on that hot, muggy night, but he didn’t exactly remember doing it. He had suffered a concussion earlier in the week and didn’t remember much of anything after his mother dropped him off at the school for the start of the weeklong camp. On one of the first plays of the first scrimmage, Nathan was tackled and hit the back of his head. He returned to the huddle and ran the ball on the next play—and hit his head again. When the offense broke its huddle for the next play, Nathan just stood there.

  “They said I had a great time at camp, but I don’t remember it,” Nathan said. “I remember my mom dropping me off, getting slammed to the ground, and then my mom picking me up. I lost a whole week of my life, which is a scary thing. I accepted Christ that night, but I don’t remember it. I had to make that walk again.”

  Because of lingering symptoms of the concussion, Nathan was kept out of contact drills for the final three weeks of preseason camp. Nathan had never played tailback in a game, and Gerelds was worried about him missing so much practice. Not only would Nathan’s conditioning be hampered, but he would also miss valuable reps in getting used to running with the ball. Gerelds was also concerned that his African American star would be a target for other teams. Coach Gerelds knew there were probably plenty of white players on opposing teams who would love to have a shot at hitting Nathan, especially if he was as good as the coaches believed he would be. Allison and Peyton Zarzour had already been instructed to help protect Nathan on the field. If opponents tried to take cheap shots or late hits, Allison and Zarzour were supposed to be there to protect him.

  Nathan’s health wasn’t the only concern for the Colonels. Besides losing star defensive players Bubba Holland and Kirk Price, who were now freshmen at Auburn University and the University of Georgia, respectively, Woodlawn also had to replace departed starting quarterback Jimmy Hammock. Senior Ronald Mumm, who played sparingly the previous season, was the heir apparent. But Mumm didn’t look like the answer early in preseason camp.

  “This might be the worst team in Woodlawn High School history,” Stearns said.

  Gerelds and Stearns couldn’t tell that to Hank Erwin, their new team chaplain, who was a tightly wound ball of energy and enthusiasm. He spent most of his time talking to the players about faith, while trying to convince them that they could accomplish anything if they devoted their lives to Jesus Christ and made an all-out commitment to serving Him. During a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting shortly after the 1973–74 school year started, Erwin issued a challenge to the players.

  “Why don’t you give your season to Christ and play for His glory and just see what happens?” Erwin said. “Who knows? It could be beyond your wildest imagination.”

  Much to Erwin’s surprise, the players agreed and dedicated the season to glorifying God.

  “It answered a prayer that I had been carrying with me for three or four years,” Erwin said. “I saw what an improvement Christ made in me and then saw what it could do for a few members of my team when I was playing baseball at Troy State. I’d carried around a dream, wondering what would happen if an entire team committed to Christ. It was like the Lord was telling me, ‘Here is your chance. You have an entire team committed to Christ. Let’s see what happens.’ ”

  The Colonels opened the season against Ensley High School at Legion Field on September 7. Woodlawn High’s previous season ended with a 20–6 loss to the Yellow Jackets, and their opponent was supposed to be even better this year.

  “We face probably the strongest team in the city on Friday night, and it will be a strong test for our players,” Gerelds told The Birmingham News. “Ensley has nearly all of their starters back [and] are a predominantly senior club. We expect to field a fine team that will improve with experience.”

  After the Colonels went through their pregame warm-ups, Gerelds reluctantly allowed his new team chaplain to give a pregame speech to the players. Gerelds might have been more eager to allow it if Goebel had been there to make the address. Erwin was new to the ministry and Gerelds fondly called him “Rookie.”

  As the players and coaches gathered around Erwin in the locker room, he told them: “Bow your heads. Let’s pray.”

  Then Erwin tightly clutched the newspaper he was holding in his hand.

  “No, you know what? Before we pray I have something to say,” Erwin said.

  “Do we still bow our heads?” Stearns asked.

  “No. Well, yes,” Erwin said, as he stumbled for words. “First no, until I finish. Then yes.”

  “So right now?” Stearns asked.

  “Not right now,” Erwin said. “I’ll tell you when, Jerry.”

  Erwin took a deep breath, gathered his thoughts, and then addressed the players.

  “The Birmingham News believes something about this team. They believe you’ll only win two games; that this season is the death rattle of a school barely able to stay alive. They believe tonight will be an embarrassment. What about you? What do you believe?”

  Now Erwin was pacing in the locker room and getting louder. He even tossed aside a baseball bat he was using to help him keep his balance on the leg he’d injured in college.

  “You see, I believe your fate is not determined by some newspaper reporter any more than mine is by some doctor that told me I’d never walk again,” Erwin said. “Because those people ­haven’t seen what I’ve seen. They don’t know what I know. I believe God honors those who honor Him. I don’t know what’s going to happen this year, but I believe it will be something we will remember for the rest of our lives. I believe it will be undeniable.

  “I guess what I’m asking you here today, right here, right now is, will you believe with me?”

  By the time Erwin was finished, the players were clapping in unison. It grew louder and louder as they lined up to take the field.

  “Believe with me!” Erwin shouted.

  The team members shouted back in unison, “We believe!” They continued to clap as they ran onto the field.

  Gerelds’s concerns about Nathan missing so much practice time came to fruition early in the game. The Colonels drove deep into Ensley territory on their opening drive, but Nathan fumbled and the Yellow Jackets recovered. Fortunately, a holding penalty wiped out an Ensley touchdown run, and then Woodlawn’s defense held on fourth down. In the second quarter, the Yellow Jackets had the ball at the Colonels’ three-yard line. On fourth down, though, Allison charged into the backfield and threw the ball carrier for a nine-yard loss. It was a scoreless tie at the half.

  Even though Woodlawn’s offense struggled to move the ball, like it had during much of the previous season, the Colonels were excited about how they’d played in the first half. Erwin was even more excited. He’d paced the sideline for two quarters as he tried to figure out what he’d say to the players at halftime.

  “This is a little indication of what God can do,” Erwin told them. “But remember—it’s not you. It’s God showing you what He can do through you.”

  In the third quarter, Nathan returned a punt 42 yards to set up Buzz Walsh’s 29-yard field goal, which gave the Colonels a 3–0 lead. The Yellow Jackets were seemingly moving the ball at will on offense, but Woodlawn’s defense bowed its neck when it needed to most. The Colonels recovered a fumble in the third quarter and then intercepted a pass in the fourth.

  Trailing 3–0 late in the game, Ensley took possession with just under four minutes left. The Yellow Jackets started their final drive at their 25-yard line, and then marched 75 yards in 13 plays. Quarterback David McKinney scored on a two-yard run
with one minute, 52 seconds left to give Ensley a 7–3 victory. It was a bittersweet defeat for the Colonels in their opener. The Colonels didn’t do much of anything to alleviate Gerelds’s concerns about his offense; they picked up only seven first downs (just one in the second half) and finished with 149 yards of offense.

  Once the Colonels loaded the bus to make the short drive back to Woodlawn High School, Erwin climbed into a front seat with Gerelds. The players were quiet in the locker room after the game, and now Erwin could hear a pin drop on the bus. “You better say something to them,” Gerelds said. “Their hopes and dreams have been crushed.”

  Erwin took a couple of minutes to gather his thoughts and muster the courage to address the dejected players. Then he stood up and looked down the dark, quiet bus.

  “Now, fellas, I want you to understand that with every commitment to Christ there is a test to find out whether you are trying to use Jesus as a rabbit’s foot or a lucky charm, or whether you really mean what you say—that you’ll play for the glory of God regardless of the outcome,” Erwin said. “This is a test to see your real motive. Did you really want Christ to be glorified, whether you won or lost, or were you using Him as a rabbit’s foot or lucky charm? He has to be the Lord of all Lords. Are you totally bought in?”

  From the back of the bus, Erwin heard somebody shout, “I’m bought in.” Someone else said it and then another. Within a few minutes, the entire mood on the bus changed. Dejection and sadness were replaced by excitement and energy.

  “Although we suffered a loss, we saw such a transformation that we knew we were going to win some games and possibly even win a championship,” offensive lineman Reginald Greene said. “After that game, everybody got better and better.”