Quite A few Great Ones

I have had  a great privilege during my broadcast career to cover many players who went on to greatnesss.  Many of them at the time while I was covering them you could tell they were headed for more days on ball fields or basketball courts.

Kelvin Bryant and  Dominque Wilkinsall went on to great pro careers.  There was one that I had the chance  to cover once but at the time I had no idea that what I was telling the community  was the first step to the Hall Of Fame..

The time was the fall of 1975. The Ahoskie radio station for the first time  was going to carry a couple of Chowan Junior College football games on the radio. Chowan under the direction of Jim Garrison was developing into a power house in the Junior College ranks.  Back then Chowan was a good place to go if you were a good athlete but not strong in the class room.  Spend two years at Chowan graduate and then spend two years  at a D-1 school.

The second game that we carried was a weekday afternoon I think a Tuesday and the freshman team from N C State was on campus in Murfreesboro.  Obviously Chowan was full of Freshman and Sophomores while the Wolfpack had all freshmen.

Before the game was over  Chowan had won the game but not before a skinny back from High Point had riddled the Braves for 264 yards rushing.  The next Saturday that skinny freshman was on the varsity at NC State and before his college career was over Ted Brown had become the all time leading rusher in the history of the ACC.  He is still the all time leading rusher.

Yesterday Ted Brown  was named to the College Football Hall Of Fame.  I can't remember if that game at Chowan was his first college game or not.  It was my second college game in the booth.  Ted Brown spent I think eight years in pro football where he was great at catching passes out of the back field.

One of the things that I really like about sports is at any game you might see someone that you had no idea could do it play  the the greatest games of their life.  Then from that point on they play that way all time time.  Ted Brown didn't make the varsity until the season was under way.  Today he is on the way to the  Hall Of Fame.  We never know when any event starts that on this particular day we might be getting ready to watch greatness at work.  That's why I keep going.  You never know what future holds for some of these athletes.