Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi • Page 25

1 Kinard just takes C-Monday. August 25, 1980 Cfre ClatjOtl'LCDgCr 3 Bruiser Kinard, right, was Ole Miss' first All-SEC player, playing both offensive and defensive tackle. When he returned to coach under John Vaught, he produced many more All-SEC players, including guard Don Dickson in 1962. life these days easy "We loved New York said Midge, "but we always said we'd settled down when we started a family. We'd been married nine years before our oldest son was born.

We must have drug him back and forth 15 times that last year." 1 'kah'mtmaa 1 Minimum! OHN Vaught had been the head coach at Ole Miss for one season when Kinard was added to the staff. It was the beginning of what Vaught liked to call the Ole Miss Continued From Page 1C they ask about the leather-helmet days of football. "I still see some football out there," he says of the Ole Miss Rebels. "I was out there just yesterday. Bur they weren't doing anything.

They're still in shorts." There was a tone of disappointment in his voice when he said that, because, in Bruiser Kinard's day, there was little time for loosening up in shorts. He was from the rock 'em, sock 'em school of football. As a high school freshman at Rolling Fork, he played in every game. As a sophomore at Jackson Central, he knocked the star running back on his pants and picked up the nickname "Bruiser." As a tackle at Ole Miss from 1935-37, he averaged playing 55 minutes a game and one year played nine 60-minute games. As a pro with the old Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees, he made All-Pro in six of nine seasons.

"Pro football was real fine," said Kinard. "They make a lot more money now than then. I made $1,974 my first season in 1938, but that was a lot of money back then." Kinard had been drafted out of Ole Miss by the Brooklyn Dodgers of the old National League. But he wasn't so sure he and his wife wanted to pack up and move to New York. After all, they had been married since their senior year in high school.

And she had worked at various campus jobs to make ends meet while Bruiser played football and earned a degree. Buster Poole, who graduated a year ahead of Kinard, had played one season of pro ball, and he convinced Bruiser to give it a try. "He said, 'Go ahead and play. You'll like recalled Kinard. "And he was right.

I did like it I only weighed about 210 pounds then, but I was lucky. I had enough ability to offset my size. And my speed was a lot better than any of the linemen." He played both offense and defense and, with one exception, always at tackle. "We were playing the Giants at the Polo Grounds, and we had an end who couldn't remember the plays," said Kinard. "He kept saying, 'Bruiser, what do I do on this Finally, the coach put me at end, and I caught a touchdown pass.

It really surprised me when he put me at end, but he said I knew all the plays anyway." Like the other years of his playing career, there was an unusual flair to Kinard's pro days. His most historic tackle was just a routine stop on a kickoff against the New York Giants. But the date was Dec. 7, 1941, and the moment the announcer said "Bruiser Kinard made the tackle," the broadcast was interrupted with the flash announcement that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Bruiser dropped football for a stint in the Navy but came back in 1944 to work in a shipyard and continue his pro career with the New York Yankees of the old All-American Conference.

"They said, 'You're in good shape, you don't have to he recalled. "So I didn't even practice. I just showed up for the games." In the fall of '47, he had a talk with Tad Smith, then the Ole Miss athletic director. Smith offered him a job as assistant football coach. He joined Johnny Vaught's staff in 1948.

football family. In his autobiography, Rebel Coach, Vaught wrote: "I know without any doubt whatsoever that Ole Miss football is more of a family affair than at any other institution in the country." There were 30 sets of brothers to play football at Ole Miss, including the Kinards, who had young Billy zs a halfback in the mid-50s. The coaching staff was also very close. "I always go to work with the feeling that no one on the staff will ever leave Ole Miss," Bruiser is quoted as saying in Rebel Coach. And Vaught wrote in the next paragraph, "We were all very close like one big family There are bonds which can be created in a family situation which can not be equalled in any other setting.

By the same token, these enormous ties can create animosities known in no other setting. If the first bond is ever broken, then all those animosities spill out. They range from who got the most cookies as a kid, to who got the first car. In a sense, that's what happened at Ole Miss. The family grew for more than 20 years, enjoying amazing success until Vaught stepped aside as coach in 1971.

Bruiser was named athletic director, and he hired younger brother Billy to be the head coach. But the family wasn't the same. There were disgruntled members. And, finally, after the third game of the '73 season, Vaught returned as coach replacing Billy and as athletic director, replacing Bruiser, who became assis- tant dean of students. Bruiser stayed at that post until he retired in January of 1978.

You may ask Bruiser about those events, but he will not comment. Again, only those members of a family really know what happens when the bonds begin to break. They are the only ones who know the extent of the hurt and the temperature of the feelings that follow. And they are the ones best suited to make judgements on the situation. But, if you talk with Midge and Bruiser about Billy, you can see there was a special relationship between the two brothers more like father-son, than brother-brother.

"I always tell Billy I was in the family before he was," said Midge. "Bruiser and I were married six days before he was born. We've always had Billy. When we came back here, first, we had Billy in college and then our two sons. But Billy isn't like Bruiser.

He has a temper." Says Bruiser, "I think my brother was ik -If ALUMNI $58.95 WiJ $62.95 way today, although he is more than helpful with inquiries about his career. When someone compliments him, he says, "Well, thank you so much." When you ask about certain areas of the past, his eyes glisten, and he jumps right in with his story. "The big change I notice in college football is they pass a lot more," he said. "When I played it was mostly running." He said there were several reasons for Ole Miss' success in the '50s and '60s. "We had a great recruiting program," he explained.

"Also, we had a great university. It had so many courses to offer recruits. And Vaught always prepared so well." It would seem that Kinard would have been especially close to his players. He was married during his playing days and, therefore, could relate to their problems. "Vaught had a rule against players being married and having cars," he said.

"Of course, some did get married. If anybody had problems, they came to me. I stayed real close to the players, but I worked them real hard in practice, and some didn't like it." Kinard reserves comment on the current Ole Miss football program: "Steve Sloan is nice fellow," he says. "He's doing a good job." Naturally, he has a different view of his stint as athletic director. He says he pushed for stadium expansion back in 1971, but it never came until this year.

He says he matched Ole Miss in inter-sectional games with Texas Baylor, South Carolina and Notre Dame in hopes of giving the school national exposure. "A lot of people don't know it," he said, "but Notre Dame had agreed to play us the second game (in 1985) in New Orleans." The two-game series came as a result of his friendship with Moose Krause, the Notre Dame athletic director. Krause is just one of several acquaintances from his old pro days who stay in touch. Bryon R. "Whizzer" White, the U.

S. Supreme Court Justice who once played at Detroit, is another. The late Jock Sutherland, Bruiser's coach with the Dodgers, was another close friend. Twice in his years as an assistant at Ole Miss, the pros offered head-coaching jobs. The Boston Patriots made the first bid.

"They offered me a three-year contract and the money was in the bank when we went up there," he said. "But my oldest son didn't like it." In 1964, the New York Giants dangled another offer, but he turned it down because he thought he was going to be the next coach at Ole Miss. Despite the disappointments, he says he has no regrets, other than not winning a championship as a professional. "It's all been fine," he says. And so, he stays quietly out north of town, a living embodiment of the past at Ole Miss, and one of the greatest players in the history of football.

FIT YOUR LIFESTYLE These handsome Florsheim handsewn ALUMNI are for the young and the young at heart. Each features comfortable gold leather atop a durable rubber sole. Perfect for the good life you lead. MAIL OR PHONE ORDERS CALL 969-9998 FLORSHEBM SHOE SHOPS? American Express cards welcome along with most major credit cards FROM those chapters that have been written about his career, you get the impression that Bruiser has always been a man of few words. He certainly appears to be that iuii W.lf Will 1 1 111 II JIM 4.1 IMJiMimillM WIWHWIM III IBII 11 THIS WEEK'S SPECIALS iiPGoodrich Money flowing into program Vandy closeup Coach: George Maclntyre, Miami, '61 (won 19, lost 24, tied O).

Last year: Won 1, lost 10 (SEC 0-6, last place). Basic offense: Veer. Basic defense: 5-2 4-3. Returning lettermen: 38. Starters returning: 7 offense, 6 defense, 0 specialist.

Players to watch: Linebacker Andrew Coleman, offensive guard Loie Hudgins, offensive tackle Ken Hammond, tight end Flavious Smith flanker Wa-mon Buggs, running back Terry Potter. Newcomers to watch: Nose guard Pat Saindon, running back Lucius High. Prediction: Last. IKK ROTATION $5Q jJ FRED PANCOAST He failed at Vandy Tonight is FAN APPRECIATION NITE u9r Ft Mets vs. Arkansas Travelers DFGcodrich A1 AJS eel Preview of the Eastern Divison Playoffs Game Time 7:30 p.m.' Smith-Wills Stadium it Concession Specials ir lir Souvenir Specials I Al! sc-Ufum mmw rnn K(M0 7 Save $18 10 Regularly $78 00 US Molt American Cars Continued From Page lC fore I can stand up here and say we're going to be a team that will challenge for the Southeastern Conference championship," Maclntyre said.

"No question about it. I don't think anybody on our team or anybody involved in Van-derbilt football will make that statement. "But we will make this statement. We're going to be a whole lot tougher mentally and physically. We're going out to win every game we go into.

I do not believe our kids felt that way last year." In its first season under Maclntyre, a former aide to Steve Sloan here and at Ole Miss, Vandy won only once last year, 13-3 over Memphis State. The 1-10 ledger snapped a string of three straight 2-9 seasons that had brought about the end of Fred Pancoast's tenure as Commodore coach. Not since Pancoast's first season 1975 have the Commodores won a Southeastern Conference game. The league losing streak is at 24 entering this fall, and odds are favorable for it to reach 30 by the time Vandy finishes up against Tennessee Nov. 29.

Not that Vandy is completely devoid of talented players. It's just that there isn't enough of them. "We probably have 25 players who could play for other people," Maclntyre said. "But we don't have 50." One visiting Skywriter put it this way: "At Alabama, they bring four of their good players to the press conference. At Vandy, they bring their four good players." Maclntrye, however, is confident that is changing.

He is very pleased with the results of his first full recruiting campaign last winter. "Our freshman class is very exciting," he said. "We probably have the best group of linemen in one group thai I can ever remember being at Vanderbilt at one time. Eight or nine have the potential to be outstanding." The problem is that many of them are being counted on to contribute right away, as soon as the season opens Sept. 13 with a visit to Maryland.

They are needed especially in the defensive line as starters or backups in three slots and in the defensive backfield in two positions. "We need to have freshman help there immediately," Maclntyre said. "We can't treat them like freshmen and hope they help us by the fourth or fifth game. We need them to help three weeks from today." And three years from today, too. "I see in this freshman class If we can keep them together and get them to keep Improving I see a class that can go on and be a good class," Maclntyre said.

"But we've got to back them up with another good class." That rarely has been done here. Some say it can't because of Vandy's tough academic reputation and its lack of athletic glitter. It was pointed out that even with expansion to 41,000 seats, Vandy's stadium will seat less than half of that at nearby Tennessee. How, Maclntyre was asked, can you compete with that? "Has it ever been tried before?" Maclntyre said. "That's what I want to know.

Has it ever been tried before? I will tell you this. All those other schools you're talking about, when we go to a player house and taik about an education, how can they Compete with ours?" A familiar line, too. But a pretty good one. i We install new Iront disc pads and new reof drum b'Ohe Immgs Pepock front wheel beanngs and lotquelo specs Machine fear arums Bteed ana refill brake svsiom Additional charge for machining ro'ors p'us new seals and springs it needed Call for an appointment Tune-ups shocks mu'flers whei alignment Oil and lubrication and Ot conditioning service also available Offer expires August 30, 1980 Master Charge, BankAmerlcard, American Express, Diners Club, Carte Blanche, local financing available. Offers as shown at B.F.

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