Former UTC AD Harold Wilkes will be remembered forever

Jerry Arnold, Don Hill, John Green, and Harold Wilkes, members of the University of Chattanooga football team that defeated the University of Tennessee in Knoxville 50 years ago, are seen at Chamberlain Field on the UTC campus.
Jerry Arnold, Don Hill, John Green, and Harold Wilkes, members of the University of Chattanooga football team that defeated the University of Tennessee in Knoxville 50 years ago, are seen at Chamberlain Field on the UTC campus.

It was Easter at Harold Wilkes' house one year long ago, and the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director's children had just watched his mother accidentally sit on a baby duck, presumably killing it.

Only Wilkes wasn't going to give up on the duckling's life so quickly. Quickly stepping outside, he decided to try a little "mouth-to-bill resuscitation," as a friend later described it, on the softly feathered one.

And just like that, the duck was back to life, yet another example of Wilkes' compassion and concern for all of God's creatures.

A crowd of more than 200 filed into First Cumberland Presbyterian Church early Saturday afternoon to celebrate the remarkable life of Wilkes, who passed away at the age of 85 on Dec. 23, decades after he repeatedly breathed life into UTC athletics for more than 30 years, his roles changing from star football player to assistant football coach to head coach to AD.

His tangible impact is immeasurable. He was a part of the 1958 Mocs football team that defeated Tennessee in Knoxville. There was the 9-1 football season of 1968 when he was head coach, the lone loss coming to Ole Miss and some hot young quarterback named Archie Manning. There was the move from Division II to Division I and a spot in the proud Southern Conference. There was his deft touch at navigating Title IX.

"And the coaches he hired," former UTC sports information director Neil Magnussen noted after the memorial service. "Joe Morrison, Bill Oliver and Buddy Nix in football. Ron Shumate, Murray Arnold and Mack McCarthy in basketball. Sharon Fanning in women's basketball. The list goes on and on."

Nix, who later became the general manager of the Buffalo Bills, recalled Wilkes' sixth sense about whom to hire.

"We were interviewing trainers one time," Nix recalled. "And we'd just talked to someone who'd shown up in a three-piece suit, great résumé; I think he'd graduated from Harvard. Well, right about then, this guy in a pickup truck drives up for his interview. When he steps out of the truck he takes a chew out of his mouth and he's wearing cowboy boots.

"Coach Wilkes looks him up and down, smiles and says, 'This guy's going to have to do something really stupid to screw up this interview.'"

That guy, George McDowell, wound up being UTC's head trainer for 12 years.

Wilkes had been a prankster in his youth, having helped release 25 chickens into the hallways of Valley Head (Ala.) High School one weekend during his time as a three-sport star athlete there. In his later years, he bought a horse with Nix and then expected Nix to put a halter on the unbroken colt.

"He's promised to help if I got in trouble," Nix recalled. "But I'm cut up all over and he's just over there laughing."

This isn't to say Wilkes couldn't be tough as both a coach and an administrator.

Former player Rick English, who arrived from Boston in 1964 without much more than a silver dollar in his pocket, wrote in a tribute to Wilkes this past week: "He was hard nosed and some did not understand his demand of excellence from each and every one of us."

Shumate, who guided the Mocs to the NCAA Division II national title in 1977, recalled how Wilkes had once told him, "If I ever tell you, 'Let's go for a drive,' that's bad news."

Sure enough, years later, the title won, Wilkes walked by Shumate's office and told him they needed to go for a drive.

"We stopped at the dam," Shumate said on Saturday. "He told me there was a problem. He said somone had reported that (assistant coach) Rich Daly had bought a recruit a hamburger and a Coke. He said (assistant coach) Kevin Gray had bought a recruit a T-shirt. He said he'd been told I'd promised a kid I'd fly his mother to come see him play if he signed with us, and all of those would be violations."

Shumate met with his assistants. He said they admitted those scant violations but he denied the airline ticket story, saying he'd told the kid that his federal assistance money could be used to buy the ticket.

Shumate said Wilkes told him he'd have to fire Daly and Gray. When Shumate asked if Wilkes would spare them if he resigned, Wilkes said yes.

"I'm sorry it ended that way," Shumate said. "But Harold kept his word. He was a very good man. I was always so grateful for the opportunity he gave me."

They gave this very good man a fishing boat when he retired in 1989. He used it often. But he mostly hung out with his family, starting with the love of his life, Nancy, his childhood sweetheart; their two daughters, Paula and Jerri; and four grandchildren.

One of Jerri's children, Blake Wachtveitl, is now the baseball coach at Ooltewah High School because "I want to make him proud. He's why I coach."

Then there's Jerri daughter, Brooke Rongey.

Until she was 18, Rongey said her "Papa" never, ever got mad at her. Then one day she borrowed his truck and failed to bring it back in a timely fashion.

"He was really upset," she said. "I'd never seen him that way before. Five minutes later he called back, but I wouldn't answer the phone. He said he was sorry and he loved me. I saved that voicemail forever."

Which is how long the fond memories of Wilkes will remain for everyone fortunate enough to have known him.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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