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October 24, 2009

Doug Hawley: Broadricks enjoy visit to 'The Point'

By Doug Hawley

With so much focus on prominent major college football teams, it is refreshing to consider those performers who represent the total college experience. Ray Broadrick, a retired probate judge of Whitfield County, observed such activity with his wife Pat earlier this month at the hallowed grounds of West Point Academy in West Point, N.Y., where he watched Army play Vanderbilt.

“There was a full house of more than 40,000,” Broadrick said. “You could feel the spirit the whole time. Part of the corps marched together into the game. I think they stood the whole time.”

Although Broadrick is a proud Southeastern Conference fan, he got swept up in the spirit of the spirited Black Knights and their faithful.

“I started out pulling for Army,” he said. “It was hard not to, though I was sitting on the Vandy side. A lot of the Vandy fans lived in the New York area.”

Broadrick, a gregarious man who gained acclaim as “wittiest” of his Dalton High senior class, had separate photos of himself taken with the Black Knight and Army mule mascots.

“I talked to a lot of the corps,” Broadrick said. “They were all so sweet and kind. There are about 1,000 girls now among the 5,000.”

Army, a 10-point underdog, kicked a field goal in overtime to win the game, 23-20.

“Vandy was more physical and had better personnel overall,” Broadrick said. “However, Army outplayed them. They played hard the whole time.”

With the challenges those Black Knights can expect to face in their military careers, they are learning from their college experiences to stare down long odds.

In the game program, Mel Kiper Jr., representing ESPN, said: “There is nothing like being at Michie Stadium on the banks of the Hudson River with the leaves changing during the third weekend in October. The scenery is incredible. And how about the inspiration drawn from being at such a historic landmark? You see the statues of MacArthur, Patton and Eisenhower. Then on game day morning, you have the pleasure of witnessing the Cadet Parade. And how about when the cadets sing ‘On Brave Old Army Team?’ That is an unbelievable moment.”

Michie Stadium was cited by Sports Illustrated as the 20th century’s No. 3 sports venue behind only Yankee Stadium and Augusta National.

Thumbing through the game program, one can see no Army players with long hair or earrings — a tradition going back to the academy’s beginning. That’s refreshing.

Although Army would not scare any major college football power on the field today, it confidently would fare well against any opponents in the classroom.

A trip to visit a relative in Massachusetts created the opportunity for Broadrick’s rare observance of college football outside the South. (Georgia, which traditionally ranks among the top states for college football recruits, has six players at Army and 15 at Vanderbilt. Most come from the Atlanta area.)

“I wanted to see a game in the East,” Broadrick said. “I started plugging up the games. Yale was playing Dartmouth the same day at the Yale Bowl. That was Plan B.”

Everything did not go according to plan.

“On the way to Newport, N.Y. where we were staying, we got on the New York Freeway,” Broadrick said. “Big mistake. We went 34 miles out of the way.”

On game day, Doc Blanchard became only the fourth Army football player to have his number retired (No. 35). The chiseled 6-foot, 208-pound fullback from South Carolina, who was bigger than many linemen of that 1944-46 era, was acclaimed as Mr. Inside. The fleet-footed Glenn Davis was known at the same time as Mr. Outside. Each earned the Heisman Trophy as the country’s top player — Blanchard in 1945 and Davis in 1946.



Write to Doug Hawley at Dhawley@optilink.us.

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