Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9411030030
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITE|
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The most famous member of this sports-minded family is the late Bob McLelland, former sports editor for the Roanoke World-News and a member of the Hall of Fame for Roanoke College and the Virginia High School League.
Louis McLelland, Bob's younger brother, will be inducted this weekend into the University of Memphis athletic Hall of Fame.
If the name of that school sounds unfamiliar, that's because it was known as Memphis State University until this year. When Louis McLelland, now a resident of Matthews, N.C., outside of Charlotte, played football for the Tigers, Memphis State was a member of the NCAA's small college ranks challenging powers from the Southeastern Conference.
Picture a rainy Saturday in the fall of 1951 in Nashville, Tenn., when the Tigers played Vanderbilt University, led by quarterback Bill Wade. This was 12 years before Wade guided the Chicago Bears to a National Football League championship before anyone had dreamed up the name Super Bowl.
It was a simpler era. McLelland was a 170-pound defensive and offensive end. When Memphis State played East Central Oklahoma and schools like that, McLelland played only defense. When the Tigers challenged Vandy, Mississippi State or Ole Miss, he played both ways in an era when two-platoon football was coming back after a one-year hiatus.
At Vandy that year, Bob McLelland got his first peek at his younger brother playing college football.
``It rained all day,'' recalls Louis' wife, JoAnn.``His mother [Minnie] and Bobby drove from Roanoke. Mrs. McLelland wore white gloves and a white hat. She sat there [through the rain] in them for the whole game. Lou was tickled, because his mother was there.''
It was only the second time in college that Louis McLelland's mother saw him play. ``She didn't go to high school games, because she didn't want to see her little boy get hit,'' McLelland says. ``Daddy [Bob Sr.] went to games, but it wasn't like today, when parents go to everything their kids do.''
McLelland, 65, was a star at Jefferson High School under the legendary Rudy Rohrdanz. ``We should have won the 1948 state championship,'' McLelland says. ``We let John Marshall [of Richmond] beat us in the rain [in the semifinals].
``We were so cocky. We thought it was just a question of how much we'd beat them. They blocked a punt, got a safety, and it started to rain. We got beat 2-0 and never got to play Hampton in the state championship game.''
McLelland went to North Carolina State for football and was captain of the freshman team in 1949. He and another former Jefferson player, Ralph Dangerfield, didn't like it in Raleigh.
``We hitchhiked back to Roanoke, but my dad put us in a car and drove us right back there,'' McLelland says.
Still, the two wouldn't stay. N.C. State coach Beattie Feathers tried to convince his budding stars to remain. When he figured that it wasn't to be, Feathers called a former Tennessee teammate, Ralph Hatley, who was then coach at Memphis State.
Hatley was more than willing to take the two, and they were more than ready to go. ``I had just finished spring practice with N.C. State, and Memphis State was just starting theirs,'' McLelland recalls.
NCAA transfer rules weren't as strict as they are today about requiring athletes to sit out a year. ``We were in shape, and we tore spring practice up. They thought we were the greatest,'' McLelland says.
All this was standard procedure in the late 1940s.
``A lot of us came from other schools. We had a bunch of outstanding people. We weren't outlaws, because we all got a degree,'' McLelland says.
``They had a 6-foot-4, 230-pound split end who could run like a deer. He had transferred from Kentucky. He had gone there as a fullback. At Memphis State, he had hurt his knee and wouldn't block anyone. So they played me [instead], because I was a good blocker. I was playing the equivalent of tight end.''
McLelland's transfer was a good move in more ways than one. He met his wife, a student at Memphis State, and they were married the next year. He played three years for the Tigers and made the Williamson All-American team, which was for players from smaller schools.
McLelland was named most valuable player and best lineman by his teammates. He made the all-opponent teams of the Southeastern Conference teams that Memphis State played.
After Memphis State, he joined the armed services and played football for another Hall of Fame member, Al Davis, a pro football immortal as a coach, owner and player.
McLelland isn't the first of his generation to be so honored by Memphis State. Percy Roberts, another lineman who might not have had the credentials McLelland had, was previously honored.
What does he think about being a Hall of Famer just like his older brother?
``I'm excited and tickled pink," he says. "I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of friends.
"Bobby would have been very, very excited by it. But that was another life, a good thing to remember. I don't live in the past, but I'll admit I've thought of the old times since I was notified that I made it.''
by CNB