Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 29, 1995 TAG: 9509290017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BIG STONE GAP LENGTH: Medium
Newspaper headline writers pulled out the alliterative stops when they used to call Edd Clark ``The Stonega Stallion.''
Jim Riggs, who coached Clark at Appalachia High back in the 1960s, had another way to identify him.
``I'm 80 years old, and I've either played or coached football since the 1930s, and Edd Clark was the best high school football player I ever saw,'' Riggs said.
Clark's sister Betty Jones, whose son Thomas of Powell Valley High has developed into a player of such caliber as to evoke memories of Clark, saw yet another side of the unforgettable running back.
``He was just a great guy.'' she said. ``He may be my brother and I do love him, but I've never heard anybody who had anything negative to say about Edd Clark. Not yesterday, not today, and not tomorrow.''
You could also call him a hero.
On March 30, 1986, Clark was on a family vacation at Boynton Beach, Fla. It was Easter and Clark and one of his children, Jamar, were swimming in the ocean.
Suddenly, some screaming was heard. Two children were flailing desperately in the water. According to the stories that made their way to the rest of the family back in Virginia, Clark sent Jamar to shore.
Then, Clark took off after the two kids. The first one he reached and pulled to safety. The second, he returned for and also saved.
But on that second foray into the rough water, Clark got into difficulty. Clark was a big man, so big in his thighs and rear end that he often didn't even bother putting his thigh pads in his football pants. But on this occasion, in the early spring surf and undertow in Florida, Clark couldn't find the strength to save himself. He was 35.
When Clark was the fullback in Riggs' T-formation power backfield, he did things people couldn't believe. Clark rushed for 5,908 yards and scored 566 points, most of that on 86 touchdowns. The yards, points, and touchdowns were fourth in their respective categories on the state's all-time list.
``He very rarely played more than half a game,'' Riggs said. ``No telling how many points Edd Clark would have scored had we left him in there.''
Clark was fast enough to run away from people and big and strong enough to run over them. Purdue University gave him a scholarship, but football and a new wife and baby distracted him from schoolwork, and he was soon back home. He gave Appalachian State a try a bit later, but that didn't work out either.
So he returned to Wise County to drive a truck. He would go on to father 10 children - ``He was always a ladies' man,'' Betty Jones said.
Two of the boys, Willie Stuart and Lamar ``Radio'' Stuart were recent standout football players at Appalachia.
Some considered it a tragedy that Edd Jones never made it to the football big time, but Thomas Avery Jones, the father of the current Powell Valley star, saw it differently.
Jones grew up with the Clarks in the tough Wise County coal camp called Stonega.
``Edd was always very humble,'' said Jones, one of the halfbacks in the same Bulldogs backfield as Clark. ``The day of a game, we'd take the bus home and then have to hitchhike back to school for the game.
``We were often late getting to the high school. The fastest way to get to the high school would be to cross the football field. But Edd insisted we walk around to the back of the school and not across the football field. He just didn't like to attract attention to himself.
``Edd was very happy. You know, that might have just been the thing that he really wanted to do, drive that big rig.''
by CNB