Sometimes coaches deserve to be bad mouthed but not players. After all, coaches are teachers. It is their job to bring a kid up in the way he or she should go and to make a man (or woman) of him (or her). I remember in the fifties in the days before Bear Bryant, there was a coach with the name of “Ears” Whitworth at Alabama. I can’t remember “Ears” Whitworth ever winning a game at Alabama, and this was when the great, legendary quarterback of the Green Bay Packards was playing his college football. I remember Coach Whitworth being badmouth plenty of times, and he probably deserved it, although what I knew about football at the time would likely have fit into a thimble on a very tiny finger. Although I don’t remember him ever winning a game at Alabama, I don’t remember Bart Starr ever being bad mouthed a single time, and he went on to become a truly great player at Green Bay under one of the greatest coaches of all time. My point is that sometimes it is all right to bad mouth a coach and a teacher, especially when a sorry coach or teacher is involved because coaches and teachers have a greater responsibility of training the next generation. It is never okay to bad mouth an innocent kid or teenager, who knows nothing but who may very well have truly great talent when it is properly nourished and trained. Innocence is truly golden when properly led, trained, and directed to greater things, but a truly great teacher is even more golden when he (or she) take their respective responsibility seriously and seeks out the hidden talent in the young kids that have been sent to them to teach.

Once I remember hearing tales told by our Uncle Buck, who had gone to watch Alabama play, I believe, Mississippi State in Tuscaloosa, I think, because he wanted very much to see Bart Starr play. Alabama, as usual, lost the game badly, But I remember Uncle Buck describing Bart Starr’s passes in glowing terms. This was my first time of ever hearing some one’s passes described as a bullet. I remember Uncle Buck describing Starr’s passes as being truly like a bullet, very hard, straight, and true to their mark; but, at the same time, Starr had no receivers who could catch them. Well, Starr did have receivers who could catch his “bullet-like” passes at Green Bay, and he went on to become a great quarterback. Those were the days when the best football often occurred in the discussions and bull sessions after the game than ever occurred on the field itself.

Gee Whiz! I didn’t know that Albert Elmore was Bart Starr’s back up quarterback at Alabama. That shows how much I kept up with Alabama football in the fifties. Uncle Buck may have mentioned Albert Elmore in giving his report on the Alabama\Mississippi State game, but I totally missed it if he did. The fact is that I knew George Millard, but I never really knew Albert.