Football from Gold Star alumnus gifted to MC Archives
[Editor’s Note: The following story was written by alumnus and Professor Emeritus Dr. John Nichols ’65, who, in coordinating the donation of an old football to Maryville College’s Archives, learned much more about a team and two former students. Our thanks to Dr. Nichols for his efforts to share the story of a Gold Star alumnus.]
This is a short story, but it has taken 83 years to tell.
It is a story with two themes: A sports artifact returned to MC and to the one who earned it; and a Maryville College sports hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for his country in World War II.
In the academic year 1938-1939, Maryville College’s football team had a record of 4 wins, 5 losses and one tie. MC beat Carson-Newman College in its last game, 7 to 0. A senior lineman and team captain by the name of Obie Jenkins ’39 was presented with the honorary season game ball, apparently for his overall consistent tough play for the entire season. Coaches said of Obie that he always gave his “best in grit and fight.” The ball was signed by his teammates and coaches.
I tried to think of an MC player who fit the term “Best in grit and fight.” During my many years of watching MC football, just to get an idea of what Obie represented, one person comes to my mind. Although there are several who meet this level, it is Clinton Abbott ’65. Clint played football at Friendsville High School before enrolling at Maryville College. In an MC game one night, in the rain and mud, Clint had a broken arm with a cast. In a play he would get his arm stepped on, or kicked; he would cry while holding his arm and beg the coach not to take him out. While at the sidelines, he would beg the coach to put him back in while holding his arm and crying, “Put me back in, Coach, put me back in.” Clint was a lineman just like Obie. Clint gives me a personal picture of what Obie might have been like.
Obie, his parents and grandparents were farmers in the Louisville area. While records are unable to find, it is documented that he played high school football at Everett High School and was on Maryville College’s football and wrestling teams from 1935 until 1939. At MC, he majored in mathematics.
Also in the fall of 1938, Betty Jean Felix of Knoxville enrolled as a freshman at Maryville College. She possibility chose MC because her very popular uncle, E.E. McCurry ’34, was proctor of Carnegie Hall from 1920 to 1959. She soon began dating a football player named Obie Jenkins.
Obie gifted Betty Jean with the honorary game football for the MC 1938 football season, complete with signatures from the team members and coaches.
The following year Betty returned to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee. She continued to speak of the fun she had at Maryville College throughout her life. Betty Jean and Obie would lose touch eventually, but she held onto this precious memento for decades.
After graduation, Obie joined the Army/Army Air Forces and served in the Pacific theatre. A first lieutenant with the 499th Bomber Group, 878th Bomber Squadron, he was killed in action on April 14, 1945, when the B-29 he was co-piloting suffered damage by enemy fire while on mission to Tokyo, Japan, and crashed. He was 28 years old. Obie’s military record is available through the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association.
Confirmation of his death by the United States government came years later. In 1949, Obie was finally laid to rest in Maryville’s Grandview Cemetery.
Betty Jean met and married Herschel Morrison, and the union lasted 73 years. She passed away at the age of 97 in Mobile, Ala., in 2019.
Recently, as Betty Jean’s daughter, Martha Jean “MJ” Montgomery, was examining her mother’s estate, she came across this one-of-a-kind football given to Betty Jean 83 years earlier and decided that Maryville College’s Archives should take possession of this piece of history. This football, along with the signatures of the players, will be a treasure in the College’s Archives.
Said alumna and Archivist Amy Lundell ’06: “We thank the family of Betty Jean and Herschel Morrison for donating this signed football to the Maryville College Archives. Something as simple as a signed football provides a physical connection to the stories of Lt. Jenkins and all of our World War II Gold Stars. It is through artifacts such as this that we can teach future generations the stories of our veteran alumni so that they are not forgotten.”
On this Memorial Day, we are happy to honor one of our own. Obie Jenkins walked the sidewalks of Maryville College, lived in Carnegie Hall and attended classes in Fayerweather, Anderson and Thaw halls, just as thousands of other MC alumni did.
Not only is his football now with us, his spirit is, too, and we will be forever be thankful for his ultimate sacrifice for us and our country.
Several people have helped me seek answers, and I want to thank them. They include MJ Montgomery, daughter of Betty Jean Felix; Kevin Bell, Obie Jenkins’ great nephew; Melinda Rust of the Blount Library; Randy Lambert ’76, former basketball player, coach, and athletic director at MC; and Jim Renfro Jr., whose father was on the 1938 team with Obie.
