Rawlston retiring after colorful Soddy-Daisy P.A. career

photo John Rawlston announces the lineup before the game between Soddy-Daisy and Cleveland Friday at Soddy-Daisy High School.

At the conclusion of Soddy-Daisy's football game tonight against Bradley Central, John Rawlston intends to call it quits.

Well, sort of.

Rawlston, the enthusiastic and home-grown public-address announcer at Soddy-Daisy football games for the past five decades, plans to turn over the microphone to someone else.

"It's my last football game -- unless we get into the playoffs," he said. "I'm giving it up. Fifty years is about enough. I hate it, but I think I need to turn it over to somebody else."

He said he'll still attend football games in the future, and it would only be right.

Rawlston is a walking chronicle of Trojans lore dating to his first year at Soddy-Daisy High School as a freshman in 1944.

Few will remember that before the school was opened the original idea was for it to be called Daisy-Soddy High. Rawlston remembers, saying only that a lot of folks in "Soddy" raised enough cane to have it changed.

But don't let him hear you call it "Soddy." It's Soddy-Daisy, and he'll quickly tell anyone who says otherwise the whys and wherefores.

He has served the school through a dozen football coaches including, chronologically, Harland Burnett, Jon Keene, Robert Smith, current Hamilton County schools superintendent Rick Smith, Bob Sanders, Jack Daniels, Bill Price, Glen Ryan, Tom Weathers, E.K. Slaughter, Kevin Orr and now Justin Barnes.

"I've seen everybody that played for them since back in the (19)60s," he said. "There are so many to remember, but the one I remember most is Tim Neighbors, who died of leukemia. He'd come back from a treatment and wanted to play football. Doctors told his parents it wouldn't make any difference, so they let him play.

"In a game against Hixson -- they were leading by a point -- we threw him a 10-yard pass and I think every player on Hixson's team tried to tackle him. He still scored. He was something else. Tim will always stick out because of his dedication and desire to play."

The other player who immediately came to his mind was Robert Smith, a tremendous running back for the Trojans who once held most of the rushing records at the University of Chattanooga. Smith, after serving as the Trojans football coach, later returned to the school as its principal.

Maybe it was that sense of loyalty Smith displayed for the community and the school that touched Rawlston, himself a former two-way football player for the Trojans. In his 50 years behind the microphone, Rawlston missed just four football games -- two for family reasons and two while he recovered from a lawnmower accident. He worked at DuPont and was known for working double shifts or taking vacation days so he could be at the Trojans' games.

Over the years he also did basketball and baseball.

"He's been the voice of the Soddy-Daisy Trojans for 50 years, and he's as loyal as they come. He's probably the last of the old school when we moved from the old school to the current school," Soddy-Daisy athletic director Steve Henry said. "Loyal is probably the key word when you describe him."

Rawlston said he didn't want to walk away but added that he felt it was time.

"It's hard to walk away. I don't want to but I feel like I need to," he said. "I don't believe I'm able to do as good a job now as the players and fans need and deserve. I'm just a little bit prejudiced, but I think Soddy-Daisy has the best fans a team could have. We haven't always had the winning records, but the fans have always been there win or lose."

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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