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  Thomas Tandy Gerelds grew up on the East Side of Birmingham. He was a multisport athlete, and was a part of winning teams from an early age. His Little League baseball teams at Wahouma Park were always competing at a high level. His American Legion Pony League team played in a national tournament. Gerelds played football and baseball at Woodlawn High School and was talented enough to letter multiple years in both sports. During Gerelds’s freshman season in 1956, the Colonels went 10–0 in football under Coach Kenny Morgan. That season, Woodlawn shut out seven opponents and outscored its competition 219–26 in 10 games. The Colonels slipped to 5–4 in Gerelds’s sophomore season and then went 7–2–1 when he was a junior. During his senior season in 1959, the Colonels finished 5–5 under first-year coach Johnny Howell.

  Gerelds wasn’t the most physically gifted athlete, and he certainly wasn’t the biggest player on the football field or baseball diamond. Gerelds was strong and quick, but he was only five-foot-eight. It didn’t take his coaches long to figure out they would have a difficult time finding anyone who was more competitive. Gerelds could really hit a baseball, and he was tough and wasn’t afraid to make a tackle in football.

  Gerelds did have a very strong arm, and his all-around baseball skills were good enough to draw the attention of scouts from Major League Baseball teams, including the New York Yankees. His dreams of playing in the major leagues came to an end, however, after he was hurt during spring football practice in 1958. While playing running back, Gerelds attempted to score a touchdown by diving over the top. Someone clipped his feet, sending him headfirst into the ground. Gerelds extended his arm to break his fall and badly injured his shoulder. Even though his shoulder got stronger, he ultimately needed surgery to repair it, and his arm was never the same.

  Even with an injured throwing arm, Gerelds was able to finish his baseball career at Woodlawn High. In 1960, he enrolled at Auburn University. He worked busing tables in the athletic dorm cafeteria and joined the baseball team as a nonscholarship player. As a sophomore in 1962, Gerelds hit .222 in nine at-bats for the Tigers. The next season, after new coach Paul Nix awarded Gerelds a scholarship, he hit .270 with six RBIs, helping Auburn finish 17–8 and win a Southeastern Conference championship. The Tigers played in an NCAA District 3 Tournament in Gastonia, North Carolina, losing to West Virginia 2–1 and Florida State 4–3. As a senior in 1964, Gerelds was one of Auburn’s best players, hitting .303 with one home run and 23 RBIs.

  But Gerelds’s hitting record wasn’t the most significant event in his life in 1964. That year, he met an Auburn freshman, Debbie Johnson, who would soon become his wife. Debbie first noticed Tandy when she was a fourteen-year-old freshman at Woodlawn High. She was the youngest girl in her class because she’d skipped a grade in grammar school. She was a cheerleader and was spunky, outgoing, and strong-willed. Her best friends were Tandy’s sister Marsha and his cousin Patsy Emerson. During a sleepover for the Sigma Tau Sorority at the Gereldses’ house, Debbie noticed Marsha’s older brother, who was a senior at Woodlawn. At Debbie’s request, Marsha asked Tandy if he had any romantic interest in her friend. “That little Johnson girl?” Tandy said. “She’s just a kid.”

  “That was it, and I never said a word about it the next four years,” Debbie said.

  Five years later, Tandy noticed Debbie on the Auburn campus during her freshman year in 1964. Debbie was dating another boy at the time, but when Patsy told her that Tandy had asked about that “little Johnson girl,” she agreed to let him have her telephone number. Tandy called her a few days later and asked her out. Debbie was supposed to be going to a concert on campus with her current boyfriend, but she canceled (she told the boy she couldn’t leave her dorm hall because she was being punished for participating in a water balloon fight) and went out with Tandy instead.

  They skipped the concert out of fear that Debbie’s boyfriend might be there, and instead went to a local ice cream drive-up that was something of an Auburn institution. The place was nicknamed “The Flush” because of its unfortunate actual name, Sani-Freeze. It was a popular hangout for students who needed a break from their studies. Debbie had a good time with Tandy, and then she broke the news to her current boyfriend a few days later—she’d met the man she was going to marry. Over the next few weeks, Tandy and Debbie spent as much time together as they could and then headed back to Birmingham for Christmas break.

  “It was one of those things where you just knew it was that person. But I didn’t know how he felt,” Debbie said, “so I had to play it cool.”

  Once back home, Tandy and Debbie visited with older friends, many of whom were already married. Tandy took a temporary job to make extra Christmas money, and Debbie spent a lot of time with her grandparents. Tandy had a habit of always acting immediately on what he believed—right then, in the moment. It could be a great thing, but it could also give way to seemingly rash decisions. This time, Tandy believed Debbie was the girl who was supposed to be with him forever. During one of their dates over the holidays, Tandy asked her, “Hey, I don’t have to work on Christmas Eve. You want to get married?”

  “Yes, I do,” she said.

  “I knew the first time I kissed him that he was the one for me,” Debbie said. “I felt it in my heart.”

  More than anything, Debbie wanted a normal family life. She’d grown up in a dysfunctional home: her father was an alcoholic and was abusive to her mother, who abused painkillers. Police were called to Debbie’s home a lot, but her mother refused to throw her father out. On many nights, Debbie lay in her bed awake, praying that her father wouldn’t come home drunk. When Debbie’s father was sober, she enjoyed being around him. They listened to baseball games and horse races together on the radio. But most of the time, she stayed in her room to avoid him when he was drinking.

  “I thought if I was really smart, my daddy would quit drinking,” Debbie said. “I thought if I made the cheerleading squad, my daddy would quit. I thought if I was elected to the student council, he’d quit. But no matter what I did, he couldn’t quit drinking.”

  Debbie’s parents were married for fifteen years until her mother finally had enough. She filed for divorce and moved to California. Debbie’s grandparents bought her parents’ home, and Debbie decided to live with her grandparents so she could stay at Woodlawn High School. Her best friend, Diane Massey, lived across the street, and the Masseys’ home had often been a refuge for Debbie when her father was drunk or her parents were fighting. Debbie’s aunt and uncle lived down the street.

  Debbie’s grandfather Otis Hammett was a coal miner, and her grandmother Ruby was a homemaker. Her grandparents were strict and old-fashioned, but they loved her dearly and provided her with a stable home. Debbie attended church with them at 66th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, where she invited the Lord into her heart when she was twelve years old. She still remembers the church hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” playing as she accepted the invitation to become a Christian and walked to the altar with her heart pounding.

  On Christmas Eve 1964, Tandy and Debbie drove across the state line to Trenton, Georgia, where they were married in a courthouse. Their friends Judy and Dan Hunt went with them and served as witnesses. Tandy wore a green corduroy suit; Debbie wore a white wool outfit and a tiny hat with a veil. When Tandy told his parents that he was getting hitched, his mother gave him a package of new underwear.

  Once Tandy and Debbie arrived at the courthouse, they filled out the required paperwork and were sent to a lab for blood tests. Tandy noticed that most of the women in the lab were expecting. He said loud enough for everyone else to hear, “She’s not pregnant! She’s not pregnant!” When it was their turn to exchange vows, the judge joked with Debbie: “Did you have to hunt long to find him?” implying that she was out of Tandy’s league and could have done better. Tandy was twenty-two; Debbie was eighteen. A few weeks later, they realized they could have been married in Alabama, where the state age requirement was eighteen years. In hindsight, Debbie remembered, “It was more ex
citing to go across state lines to get married.”

  After returning to Birmingham, Tandy called his mother and told her he was officially married. His mother told him that they had allowed his younger sister to open Christmas presents without him there. Then she asked if he and Debbie wanted to come over and play board games with them. Tandy and his new wife were spending their wedding night at the Birmingham Motel on Highway 278, so he told his mother they’d see them on Christmas morning.

  After the holidays, the couple returned to Auburn, where Tandy finished his bachelor’s degree in education. When it was time to start searching for a job, Tandy initially thought he might go into sporting goods sales. But then he settled on teaching and coaching. As luck would have it, Woodlawn High School had an opening for an assistant football coach and science teacher. He applied for the job, aced the interview, and was offered the position. After Tandy graduated from Auburn in May 1965, he and Debbie returned to Birmingham, and he went to work at his alma mater. Tandy knew he’d received a big break. He was starting his coaching career at one of the top high school programs in Alabama and would be working for John Lee Armstrong, an up-and-coming coach.

  Armstrong, who’d played baseball and football at Howard College in Birmingham, was about to begin his first season as a head coach. Tandy set out to become the best coach he could be by learning as much as he could from Armstrong, and he and Debbie settled into married life. At times, it was a little bit awkward for her because the seniors on Tandy’s football team were only two years younger than she was. Many of them were her close friends when she was still attending Woodlawn.

  “Do you want us to call you Debbie or Mrs. Gerelds?” the players asked her.

  “I don’t know,” she told them. “Let me ask Tandy.”

  Led by halfback Larry Helms, the Colonels started the 1965 season with a 3–0–1 record and were ranked as high as No. 8 in the state in Class 4A. But then the Colonels lost four of their last five games, including a disappointing 20–14 defeat against rival Banks High School at Legion Field. After Armstrong’s first season at Woodlawn High, he surprisingly left to become head coach at Howard College, which by then had changed its name to Samford University. Tandy worried that Woodlawn’s new coach wouldn’t keep him as an assistant. Debbie was expecting their first child, and he didn’t want to be looking for a job.

  Woodlawn High officials hired Bill Burgess, the assistant coach of their rival Banks High, to replace Armstrong, and Burgess agreed to keep Tandy on his staff. Burgess was a Birmingham native; he’d attended Jones Valley High School and played fullback and linebacker at Auburn. Tandy was grateful that Burgess kept him on staff. Debbie gave birth to Jessica Tandy Gerelds on May 17, 1966; their son, Todd, was born two years later and then a daughter, Jill, in 1972.

  Coach Burgess and his wife, Gaynell, taught Tandy and Debbie about the importance of family. In the coaching profession, Burgess told them, your loved ones might be your only supporters when things aren’t going well. Tandy liked to joke that most people don’t have critics watching their work from bleacher seats every week. He knew that his coaching decisions and the product he put on the field were going to be scrutinized and that he would ultimately be judged by the games’ outcomes.

  Burgess created a true family atmosphere among the coaches, their wives, and children. Families attended practices and games together. In fact, coaches’ wives and players’ parents volunteered to pick up Debbie and her kids during the first few seasons because she still hadn’t learned to drive. The coaches’ families spent time together after games to eat, laugh, and enjoy one another.

  With the coaches spending so much time at school, the wives ran the houses. They bathed and dressed the kids, loaded them in cars, and then drove them to the stadium to watch games. The routine was the same every week, and it wasn’t always easy. The wives and children sat in the bleachers and listened to people who didn’t know anything about football criticize their husbands and fathers. The families were there for each other and helped one another manage the craziness. Debbie and Tandy would learn that the friendships forged through such times of stress, fun, frustration, and growth were the kind that lasted forever. Football season meant long hours of work and stress at school for their husbands. With their husbands spending so much time at school and on the practice field, the wives bonded together to support each other.

  Burgess’s tenure had a rocky start, as the Colonels went 3–6 in 1966 and 1–7–1 in 1967, with their lone victory in his second season coming against Phillips High School 14–12 at Legion Field. The next season, Woodlawn performed a little bit better, finishing 3–6. Even though the first few seasons were frustrating under Coach Burgess, the Colonels were well positioned to have a competitive team in 1969.

  Colonels halfback David Langner and his brother Scott were both going to be seniors, along with Greg Gantt, who was one of the best kickers and punters in the state. The Colonels won their first eight games in 1969, scoring 40 points or more in five contests. After beating Ensley High 17–7 at Legion Field on November 7, Woodlawn was undefeated and ranked No. 5 in Class 4A going into its regular season finale against rival Banks High. The Colonels defeated the Jets 28–20 at Legion Field and finished the regular season with a perfect 10–0 record. They played Lee High School of Montgomery in the first round of the state playoffs, falling 28–13 at the Cramton Bowl. It was a disappointing finish, but there was little doubt the Colonels had finally turned the corner after a string of mediocre seasons.

  After the Colonels finished 4–6 in 1970, Coach Burgess resigned to become head coach at Oxford High School in Oxford, Alabama. Over the next 14 seasons, the Yellow Jackets went 106–42–1 and reached the playoffs eight times. In 1985, Burgess was named the head coach at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama, which competed at the NCAA Division II level. In 1992, he led the Gamecocks to a Division II national championship. He and Gerelds remained close friends over the years.

  After six seasons as an assistant coach at Woodlawn High, Gerelds was elevated to head coach before the 1971 season. He had proven to be a more than capable leader while coaching Woodlawn’s B-teams. He guided the Colonels to three city B-team championships and a four-year record of 26–4–1. He also coached the school’s baseball team (one of his pitchers was Doyle Alexander, who went on to win 194 games in 19 seasons in the major leagues) and worked with all other sports except track. City schools leaders overwhelmingly endorsed his hiring.

  “We are extremely pleased to have as fine a coach as Coach Gerelds already on the Woodlawn staff and in a position to take over the head coaching duties,” city schools athletics director Bill Harris told The Birmingham News. “Coach Gerelds is a fine young coach. He is a very hard worker, and a head-coaching job is what he’s been working for. He is well liked by the athletes at Woodlawn and by the people in the Woodlawn community, and we know he will do an outstanding job.”

  Burgess also endorsed the promotion of his former assistant and good friend.

  “I hated to leave Woodlawn,” Burgess told the News. “But I’m happy that it provided the opportunity for Tandy to move up. We have worked closely together here, and I can’t think of a better person to fill the position. Much of any success we might have had at Woodlawn can be directly attributed to the work of Coach Gerelds and the other assistants here. I have all the confidence in the world in Tandy’s ability, and I feel very strongly that he will give Woodlawn an athletic program that the school and the community can be proud of.”

  One of Gerelds’s first decisions as head coach was hiring Jimmy Williams, an assistant football coach and track coach at Phillips High School. Assistants Jerry Stearns and Jim Price would soon join his staff as well.

  “We have some good kids here at Woodlawn, and I hope we can continue to give Woodlawn students and fans the type of program they have become accustomed to during Coach Burgess’ time here,” Gerelds told the News. “We hope to continue the program Coach Burgess has built, and anythi
ng we do here will be due to a great extent to the groundwork Coach Burgess did when Woodlawn football was at a low point.”

  In his first season, Gerelds would have to replace the nucleus of his team’s high-powered offense. The Colonels had to replace four seniors who left to play for Southeastern Conference schools—fullback Rick Harbuck (Auburn), quarterback Bobby Parks (Mississippi State), end Rick Meadows (Alabama), and end Gordon Robbins (Georgia). With much of his firepower gone, Gerelds knew he would have to change the way the Colonels were going to play on offense. Instead of being a pass-happy team, Woodlawn would have to beat opponents with toughness and a strong running game.

  “We’re going to have to run the football,” Gerelds told The Birmingham News shortly before the 1971 season. “We can’t expect to start out with the passing game we ended up with last year, because it was a mighty fine one. We really don’t know what we’ll have right now. But we’ve got some good kids and it’s really up to them. They’ve got a hard job ahead of them. But if it can be done, they’re the type of kids who can do it. Certainly, we’ll be trying to improve the 4–6 record of last year. On paper, we’re not as good, but I believe our attitude will be much better.”

  Gerelds also wasn’t sure what to expect from his defense, even with top tacklers Bubba Holland and Kirk Price coming back. Jerry Stearns joined his staff shortly after graduating from Livingston State College in Livingston, Alabama. Stearns didn’t have any coaching experience, but he was recommended by one of Gerelds’s close friends. Shortly after hiring him, Gerelds brought Stearns into his office and put him in front of the chalkboard.

  “I’m going to draw an offense on the board, and I want you to draw up a 50 defense and any adjustments you would make,” Gerelds said.