‘There’s no hero like the first hero’
By Tom Mattingly
There’s no hero like the first hero, the saying goes. The passage of time cannot erase the memories that begin at a young age and continue across the years.
Throughout the years, schoolboy football fans have had their share of heroes.
For Knoxville East High School graduates David Lawson and his “best friend,” Rev. David McMahan, their first and lasting heroes wore orange and white and played on the 1956 SEC Championship University of Tennessee football team. Shields-Watkins Field was the place to be, and Vol football players were the toast of the town.
Tennessee All-American wide receiver Buddy Cruze, No. 86, and Heisman Trophy runner-up John Majors, No. 45, earned the lion’s share of fans’ attention and admiration from across the years.
That love and admiration became abundantly clear when their friends and media members gathered on March 21, 2013, in a back dining room at the Captain’s Galley at Exit 417 off I-40.
It was an emotional and heartwarming time for everyone as memories of the 1956 campaign flooded the room like rushing waters. Tears flowed from many of the participants, arriving in many cases before anyone knew they were coming.
For his part, McMahan was in the midst of fighting a courageous battle against Stage 4 lung cancer, and while his words often came with great difficulty, they were heartfelt and moving.
Majors was a true son of Middle Tennessee, who was twice given the chance to impact the fortunes of his home state university. The first chance came as a player from 1954-56, then as head coach from 1977-1992. Those opportunities led to his 1987 induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Majors, claimed equally by the Middle Tennessee towns of Lynchburg and Huntland and known in his collegiate days as “Drum” or “Solid Gold Cadillac,” would become one of the most beloved players in Tennessee history. He was SEC player of the year in 1955 and 1956 and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 1956.
One of the finest athletes in Knoxville prep history, Cruze was a local football and basketball star, moving to East High School after Knox High closed in the early 1950s and spending a year at SMU.
Lawson and McMahan lived and died with the Vols dating to their earliest memories. They painstakingly and lovingly assembled a scrapbook honoring their heroes and that special 1956 season.
Lawson said McMahan did “99.9%” of the work, calling his effort a “work of art.”
Whoever did what, the finished product was a marvel to behold, telling the story of that season from start to finish.
Starting with the opening game against Auburn, McMahan pasted the essential facts of each game, pictures, DyerGram and newspaper clippings on wide-ruled notebook paper. That document that survived the 57 intervening years, despite the problems people often face in holding on to such important “stuff.”
Majors and Cruze, then in their 70s, engaged in friendly banter discussing those long-ago days on campus, playing for head coach Bowden Wyatt.
“When Buddy and I get together, it’s hard for either of us to get a word in edgewise,” said Majors. “My ego never gets out of control when Buddy’s around.”
When Majors mentioned running the run-pass option out of the single-wing, Cruze wryly noted that John “threw it end over end, and I had the option to catch either end.”
Each man claimed credit for the other earning All-American honors, Majors talking about throwing the ball, Cruze talking about catching it, and the debate focusing on the passes being perfect or the catches being exceptional.
“Buddy Cruze is a real hero,” said Lawson, with some considerable emotion in his voice and the recollection that Cruze’s family had once bought the Lawson’s family home on Castle Avenue in East Knoxville. “I have a hard time saying it, but I don’t know what else to say.”
He then looked at Majors and said the same thing, praising Majors for his Tennessee career and taking time out to call and see how McMahan was doing health-wise a few years back.
At the end of it all, the day was really all about McMahan, as his life and example passed in review. He was, as someone noted, a fan in the best sense of the word. “Today is a tribute to the life he’s led and his determination,” said Lawson, leading a toast to his buddy.
EPILOGUE: Since that day in 2013, Cruze, Rev. McMahan, and Majors have passed on. Lawson is still with us and treasures the memories they each engendered. Those were indeed special moments, then and now. It was a vintage time, not soon to be forgotten by their friends and families.
