Woodlawn by Todd Gerelds

Author:Todd Gerelds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Howard Books

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.

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