November 16, 2023 • 45 mins
Paul Finebaum stops by to talk about covering Charles Barkley in high school and getting kicked by his high school gym teacher.
Blake Hogshooter, Pork Chop and Myka Nipple. All real names in high school football.
A cheating scandal that rocked Pittsburgh high school football.
Outdoor wrasslin' in Georgia.
Player smugglin' sodas in his high school football pants.
____
Hogshooter: https://x.com/DanLindbladTV/status/1722838311041974454?s=20
Myka Nipple: https://x.com/GridironFootbal/status/1723172879947186510?s=20
Pittsburgh scandal: https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/high-school-football/2023/11/12/wpial-football-game-plan-leak-west-mifflin-school-board-mark-yuhas-coach-rod-steele/stories/202311120103
Outdoor wrasslin': https://x.com/RhubarbBrown/status/1724857633222386040?s=20
Coffeetown team store: www.gocoffeetown.com/team-store
Submit your own high school football story: www.gocoffeetown.com/got-a-story
Twitter: @GoCoffeetown / YouTube: @GoCoffeetown / Instagram: @GoCoffeetown / Facebook: @GoCoffeetown / TikTok: @GoCoffeetown
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Go Fight, Win the show with all the
high school football stories you love. On this week's episode,
I'll speak with Paul Feinbaum. No, he did not play
high school sports, but he did cover some amazing athletes
coming up through the ranks to become the media personality
he is now. And he did get kicked by his
(00:20):
high school gym coach. And he tells us all about
that and everything in between. Plus some phenomenal high school
football names that have been brought to my attention by you,
our wonderful audience. And it's a burden. It's a burden
on my shoulders. And now that I've seen these names,
you've got to see him too. Also on this episode,
(00:42):
a reverse Connor stallions a team that may or may
not have supplied its game plan to another team. Little
Wally Butts and Bear Bryant going on perhaps And I
know it's not high school football, but high school wrestling
here in the state of Georgia is off the and
this is the greatest high school wrestling tradition that I
(01:04):
think exists in the entire country. So I'll dig deeper
into that. It's time for Go Fight Win. Drum up
the marching band, Let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It was just get the ball of Donna tug and
let that pudget up.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Ah, Yes, it is time for go, fight win. It's
a beautiful time of year here in November. And I
know that the bar for beautiful days in the month
of November is a low one, depending on where you
grew up and where you live. Now, there's still some
color on the leaves that are still on the trees
here in Georgia. And just like those leaves getting plucked
(01:49):
off one by one by the blustery winter, wins your
high school football team, the teams in your state's high
school football championship brackets and picked off one by one
as well, until at the very end there will be one,
just one shimmering star atop our tree. And then the
(02:11):
wind will blow that away too and ruin my metaphor.
But you know what I mean. You get the point.
It's a beautiful time of year here for the sport
that we all love, high school football. If you love
high school football, celebrated all year long, even after those
leaves blow off the trees, pick you up something nice
at the gocoffeetown dot com team store support Coffeetown Copperheads
(02:33):
varsity football with a cap, a mug, a T shirt,
a sweatshirt, a hoodie. It's all there for the taking
or buying. You can't take it. That would be illegal.
I don't even know how you would do it because
it's all virtual and online. But thank you for all
of those who've already done. So let's get started with
(02:53):
some things that I teased here. We'll start off with
the best high school football names that just came across
my desk right here at Go Fight Win Headquarters. Y'all
tag me on Twitter, currently known as X. In this
tweet right here, this guy named dan linnblad TV. What
(03:17):
does he cover? He covers high school football in the
state of Oklahoma, and he covers a fellow named Blake Hogshooter.
Blake Hogshooter elevated his play when the Bixby Spartans needed
him the most. His three touchdown performance against Jenks earn
(03:39):
him our Friday Night Lights Player of the Week for
Week ten. At Blake Hogshooter. This guy is the class
of twenty twenty five. Okay, so he's a junior six
four hundred and eighty five pounds has a thirty eight
point eight vertical jump four and a half second forty
(04:01):
yard dash state champ. This guy's got it all man.
Blake Hogshooter, best name I've ever seen in high school
football that I didn't make up myself. In Oklahoma's high
school football bracket still does include Bixby, and Bixby will
take on Norman in the quarterfinals this week. Blake Hogshooter,
(04:24):
if you're taking on any guys across the line from
you that have some tusks, they got some you know,
barbed wire hair across their backs, they haven't trimmed their
neck up in a couple of days, month of Sundays, Well,
I'll tell you most guys across the state of Oklahoma
(04:45):
might be a little intimidated by that mess. But Blake Hogshooter,
sure as he's standing there today, is not going to
be scared of any of that riff raff. Blake Hogshooter,
get it go, get yourself a state championship ring again. Well,
not long after Blake Hogshooter came to my attention, did
(05:06):
somebody alert me to a young fella by the name
of pork Chop Miller right up the road for me,
played for my rival high school Peachtree Ridge. I went
to Collins Hill. Shout out to the Collins Hill Eagles
that are still in the Georgia seven A state tournament. Well,
(05:26):
Peachtree Ridges too, and the lines will take on Mill Creek,
and Mill Creek's a fine team in their own right.
But pork Chop Miller, Let's see if I can get
this play up right here. I ran a quick Google
search on old pork Chop Miller again, a real name
that I did not make up as part of the
Coffeetown universe. Here and this play comes up right here.
(05:52):
Jalen pork Chop Miller throws a game winning touchdown to
his brother Jordan lamb Chop Miller. We got pork Chop,
We got lamb Chop all right. Look, I'm not an
expert in reviewing film, but I gotta reverse this. Look
at pork Chop in the gun. It's a big fella.
(06:15):
Lefty rolls out to his right and just hunks it
to Lamb Chop, the Chop brothers. How about pork Chop
and lamb Chop. There, So pork Chops in the state tournament,
Peace Tree Ridge, Blake, Hogshooter. Their paths will not cross,
thankfully for pork Chop Miller. But these are just some
(06:37):
elite names here, two of the best I've ever seen,
Honest to god, I've been doing this for a few
years now, where you know, this has been my lane,
and y'all tag me in some absurd and interesting names
I ain't never seen some like Blake Hogshooter and pork
Chop Miller in the same day. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
All right?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So this name came up in my own research on
Friday night, and this tweet is from grid Iron Football
with one L. Now, I'm gonna pull the tweet up
and give you a little bit of a warning here.
The show's normally a family show, all right, And I'm
just bringing up the tweet so y'all can see that
(07:21):
I didn't make this name up. I could have made
up Blake Hogshooter, you don't know. I'd like to think
that I've earned your trust by now, and that you'd
believe that I only present things here that are factual,
unless we have a pretense of you knowing that I
made it up. I didn't make up Hogshooter, I didn't
make up pork Chop, and I also did not make
(07:43):
up Micah Nipple. That's right. This guy's last name is
Nipple and he plays for Catholic PC. And let me
tell you his name is not PC. Okay, Michah Nipple,
(08:04):
m Yka n Ip, p l E. Cross referenced it.
I checked all the rosters that are out there for
Catholic PC, and you can see him here, number thirty three,
putting Catholic PC up forty two to nothing in their
(08:25):
opening round playoff game in the state of Louisiana. This
is from grid Iron Football. At grid Iron Football with
one L and Micah Nipple. I mean, this young man
right here, I don't know what he does with bullies.
(08:46):
I can tell you if he has made it this
far and he is still this good at football, then
he's probably a tough SOB MICHAEH. Nipple so cold he
can cut glass. That's Michah Nipple for you. My buddy
(09:09):
Ryan hall Uh pointed out here too that micha and
Nipple is helping Catholic PC milk a forty two to
nothing lead here. This story here is timely and it's true.
(09:32):
Y'all tagged me in it up. In Pittsburgh, West Mifflin
school board member accused of sharing game plan with football
playoff opponent. Now y'all know everything that's going on in
Michigan and Connor Stallions and allegations that they cheated and
stole signs and all that. Well, this is like a
(09:56):
reverse Connor Stallions got an inside leeper sell from Mifflin
who may or may not have shared some intel with
Elizabeth Forward High School. Elizabeth Forward is the name of
the school. It's not a person that I I guess
(10:18):
it's not a person that still exists. It is probably
someone that's passed on and that's who they named it.
They named it after Elizabeth Forward, or she was just
somebody that was very blunt. I don't know. Well, the
story here is not really like Connor Stallion's and that
(10:38):
someone was cheating and stealing signs. This is some old
school college football reference here for you. Wally Butts, the
former Georgia coach and at the time of this story
that ad of the Dogs was accused of sharing game
plan information with Bear Bryant before a game in sixties
(11:01):
and it went to court as a big trial, big
case and still you know, making some waves. Seth Emerson
just wrote a detailed piece about it for the athletic
and this is kind of like that. It's got some
flavors of that. You know, what was the motivation? You know,
Butts's name was cleared, he was found innocent, and Georgia
(11:26):
players to this day will still stand by him, stand
by that man's name. Well, Mike White here at the
Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote about Mark Uhas, a school board
member of the West Mifflin Area School District, who showed
up to Elizabeth Forward's practice the week of their playoff
(11:49):
game with West Mifflin. Well, guess what happened. West Mifflin
didn't win. Elizabeth Forward had several turnovers and one forty
two to twenty one. Well, here's where things get. A
little spicy head coach for West Mifflin, Rod Steele. What
(12:12):
a great name that is. We're talking about good names.
He accuses u Haas of purposely leaking West Mifflin's offensive
game plan because of a quote personal vendetta against Steel
and because Uhas wants to see Steele removed as coach.
U Haas was a volunteer assistant for Steel to Pass
(12:34):
for seasons at West Mifflin, and Steele said he did
not retain Uhas as a coach. Uha says he resigned.
Here's what Steele says. He's using his authority to come
at me because he wants me gone. He doesn't want
me to be successful, and he wants my job open.
It's a personal vendetta against me because I got rid
(12:55):
of him. Well, here's what actually happened. Uhas showed up
at Elizabeth Forward's practice unsolicited. That's just the way the
story goes. Elizabeth Forward head coach John DeMarco said there
was a brief conversation. Uhas claims he didn't like DeMarco's
attitude toward him, and Uhas got upset. The coach was
(13:18):
arrogant when he found out who I was, he had
an attitude. U Haas said. All I said was this
quote when they run the wildcat up your ass. I
wish I could be here to see it. There was
no playbook or anything like that. I mentioned the word wildcat.
Now the wildcat offense if you're not familiar, it involves
(13:41):
an offensive scheme where the quarterback doesn't take the snap.
Someone else that's skilled enough to do it go running
back wide receiver, pork chop they take the snap instead. Well,
uh Miflin. West Mifflin hadn't run the Wildcat all year,
so that would be some pertinent information for Elizabeth Ford
(14:04):
to find out. Well, why was Uhas at practice? He
claims that he had a business client that was across
the street, and he says it was stupid of him
to show up at practice.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Uh, this don't pass the smell test for me, and
not a lot of things in Pittsburgh do. And I've
been there. I'm just telling you it doesn't. You're not
going to pick up a lot of scented candles at
the Yankee Candle Company that just say Pittsburgh on them.
(14:46):
But this is remarkably smelly. U has just happens to
show up at practice, just happens to get in an
altercation and yell and cause a scene and then conveniently
the most relevant information he could drop at the practice.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Well. Coach Steele said the issue is now in the
hands of West Mifflin's superintendent, Jeffrey Souls, and he has
no hard feelings against Elizabeth Forward or Coach DeMarco. He
says it's very unethical and very low of a guy
who is an elected official who got votes from some
parents of our players to go over and do what
(15:29):
he did. That is an issue regardless of what happened
with Jujas. We turned the ball over five times, five times,
not three. That was the difference in the game, all right,
So a lot of things at work here. Does West
Mifflin turn the ball over five times? Whether or not
(15:50):
DeMarco and Elizabeth Forward know that they're running the wildcat.
Maybe they do. Maybe they do, but maybe they only
turn it over four times. Maybe they only turn it
over three. Maybe they don't turn it over at all.
You can't prove a negative here. What we can prove
is that Juhas should not have been at that practice.
(16:11):
And there's a little something fishy going on here. So
I'm gonna keep an eye on this, and I'm gonna
let y'all know if anything else comes out of it.
This has a thirty for thirty written all over it.
You've got a story of a disgruntled parent, and these
disgruntled parents are only getting worse. People, They're only getting worse.
(16:35):
Look no further than your kid's little league team. You
know the parent, You just thought of them. You just
thought of a specific parent when I said that, you
know you know what's coming. God bless these coaches for
putting up with this, because it's only getting worse. It's
coming to high school, it's coming to college. This wasn't
(16:58):
a parent who was complaining about playing time. This was
a parent who allegedly tried to tank his own team.
Spicy stuff up there in Pittsburgh. All right, last one
lot of high school football story. This is a high
(17:20):
school wrestling wrestling. Okay, I know we don't talk about
it much on here, but look at this. Look at
this and tell me it's not the coolest wrestling related.
I don't mean like professional wrestling. I mean like on
the Matt Greco Roman style wrestling. Tell me this isn't
(17:40):
the coolest wrestling thing you've ever seen. I wanted to
make it to this so bad, but I could not
get up to rock Mart. Rockmart, Georgia hosting a I guess,
a round robin try match against the Lafayette here in
(18:01):
Georgia's pronounced La Fayette and Cedar Town and rock Mart.
Look at this. This is from my guy, Rubarb Brown.
They got the matt outside outside, they got the string
lights overhead, the whole ring, surrounded by women and children.
They got their coolers, they got their energy drinks, they
(18:23):
got their other drinks, they got bags of Chick fil A,
they got a food truck. I mean, would you not
just die to spend an evening watching this and being
in a community like this. You got every school represented.
You've got these wrestlers over here waiting for the other
match to finish up, Lafayette waiting over there, and they're
(18:45):
black and orange. You got Cedar Town and rock Mart here,
the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets, a storied rivalry in
college football in the state, but also here on the
wrestling Matt this is beautiful, man. Happens every year, and
if I can make it next year, I will. I
(19:07):
will just be over the moon because this looks like
so much fun. Man at Rubarb Brown h r U
B A RB Brown photo credit to him. And it's
so cool. You got some tats here in the picture.
And this is just an amazing way to kick off
the wrestling slate in the state of Georgia. It's a
(19:29):
very proud, traditionally strong state for wrestling. It's no Iowa,
it's no Oklahoma, but wrestling's a big deal here in Georgia. Man,
don't doubt it. Here's another picture from last year that
I'm pulling up. And if you're missing this because you're listening,
(19:51):
just the find Go Fight went on YouTube. This is
under the lights here as the sun is going down,
rock Mart and Cedar Town right there in the town square,
under the string lights on the mat, beautiful man, and
as high school football winds down. Look, share whatever kind
(20:16):
of high school sports content you want to. There's certainly
always going to be a high school football flavor to
this show, even in February, even in March, whatever, We're
going to keep it going. But this is the kind
of stuff that I live for right here. This is
the kind of stuff that keeps communities together, keeps people
talking to people, real life people, and just getting out
(20:38):
of the house and enjoying life. Man. And that's ultimately
what this show is all about. So thanks Josh, thank
you for sharing that, and I hope that we can
all make it. You know, if you're close to Georgia,
let's go. Let's load up a van, load up a cooler,
and let's go heckle some kids on the mat respectfully.
Of course, next year for the rock Mark Classic, I
(21:00):
think that's what they call it they didn't see a
name the rock Mark Classic under the Lights. All right,
coming up, story shared with me about a well, a
high school football player that was a little thirsty. I'll
(21:20):
leave it at that, all right, back on the grind
here in the B block with the stories that y'all
sent in to me about your high school football career.
And this one came in before I even launched this
show years ago, actually, And the way this to typically
(21:41):
traditionally works is that I'll read your name and tell
people who sent the story in. I don't have that
permission this time around because it came in a while ago,
but you'll have to take my word for it that
it's true. I don't have time to make these up. Okay,
(22:02):
I have time to make up Coffeetown football games. But
I'm telling you right now, this is a true story
allegedly that someone sent in to me. The names will
be redacted because they don't have permission to share them.
But let's say this story came in from Roger. Okay,
Roger sent this story to me. And there's a couple
(22:26):
stories here, two and one two for one. And if
you have your own high school football stories that you
want to share. The submission portal is open over at
go coffeetown dot com link in this show's description for
you to share your own glory days. Larger than Life
seems too good to be true, but totally as high
(22:48):
school football stories. So here's from Roger. When I was
coaching our youngest son in football in Fayetteville, Arkansas, we
had a really good team. We had kid on the
team named Bill, who is quite a character, very heavy
and terrible athlete. We scored on a seventy yard play
(23:10):
and then made the extra point. In fable, all kids
must play one half offense and one half defense. I
was attempting to hide Bill at left guard, as my
son was the center, and I knew he would take
up bill slack. Anyway, the extra point is good and
(23:31):
the team runs off and Bill walks off. As he's
doing so, he pulls a twenty ounce doctor pepper out
of his pants and starts drinking it while walking off
the field. Alex and Charlie were bent over double. You
(23:54):
gotta really be trying to get that blood sugar on
the right level to be sipping on doctor peas during
a game, and to just be smuggled in in your jockstrap.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Who.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I don't know if I'd be angry at that if
I were a coach or a teammate or honestly just
respect respect it. You are claimbing to the top of
my respect charts number one respect power rankings list. Is
you guzzling down twenty ounces of doctor p after a
(24:32):
touchdown drive? Hydrat and Son. Here's one more from the
same fellow. Here he says, I played high school football
in Georgia. My sophomore year. We had a kid transfer
in named Malcolm Juno who played middle linebacker. After we
(24:54):
beat Milton in Week one, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported
Norcross unleashes new weapon on Milton and his name is
Malcolm Juno. Well, Malcolm had to quit the team when
the administration found out he was twenty one years old. Look,
(25:17):
it doesn't just mean more in the SEC. It just
means more in Georgia. High school football can't be putting.
Can't be putting twenty one year olds out there to
play ball. Manles, you know that's not the only time
that's happened to You know that happens every single year
(25:40):
somewhere across the United States. Someone comes into play that's
way too, dang old. But they're not all sipping Doctor
Pepper's during games. I'll tell you that. Speaking of it
just meaning more. This week's guest on Go Fight Win
(26:00):
doesn't require much of an introduction, but I'll give him
one anyway. It's Paul Fine Bomb.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
All right.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You can see him every weekday on the SEC Network
or listen to him on Serius XM radio and on
SEC Nation every Saturday morning in the fall. He is
Paul Fine bamb what's going on, Paul, How are you
doing today?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Well, it's doing great. I'm always always fun to come
into your little crib here see what's going on.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, if you're just listening, Paul is just nestled up
right beside me here. For this episode, we like to
just focus on great high school sports stories on this show. Here, Paul,
and I'll take you out of the college athletics world
for a few minutes here and let you walk down
memory lane. You actually went to two different high schools.
(26:50):
You started off at Christian Brothers and I don't know
if that's the name of a person or if it
was a group of people. And then you hit the
transfer portal and you went to White Station, do I
have that.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, it's interesting. Christian Brothers. It was run by a
group of a Catholic priests and it just it was
a school that wasn't far from where we lived, and
it was a particularly good school, and my parents wanted
me to have a good education. So my athletic career
there was fairly short lived. Wes the very first uh,
(27:26):
I think it was very I was. I was not
particularly athletic at that age. I became a little better,
and I'll tell you that story in a minute. But
uh so we were having pe class, I think on
the first Monday of the year, and the coach was
the head coach at Christian Brothers, a guy named Tom Knicks,
(27:46):
very famous coach, Hall of famer, you know the drill,
multiple state championships.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
We were I mean it was fairly tough. I mean,
I uh and I mean I was like getting I
mean there were some of my buddies were literally getting
up and throwing up, and I mean I was doing
something and he kind of walked over to me, and
I guess everybody he knew the names of everybody by then,
or maybe it was the second week and I was
(28:14):
doing pushups or something, and I was struggling, and he
started like kicking me. And you know, nowadays I would
have owned the high school. But back then, you just
did whatever they told you to do. And finally he
just said, you're an absolute disgrace. Fine, but I'm a
complete disgrace. He said in the CBHS had just lost
(28:36):
the opening game to it like a major rival, which
was an upset, and he said, you're as sorry as
my football team. And he just walked away. And I've
never by the way. Years later, after I started doing
what I'm doing, I was back in town and ran
into him and told him that story. And he was
very old man at the time. He died about four
years ago, and he got the biggest kick out of it,
(28:57):
because literally, right, Uh so that was I mean, I was.
I was a fan, but I wasn't much of an athlete.
And then I did leave. The reason I left not
to get too deep into the weeds here, but I
got a better offer.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Clearly, you know you had a better nil deal.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Uh, Sadly I didn't. Uh, it was it was a matter.
It was a matter of financial though. My dad died
in March of my tenth grade. Uh, Suddenly it was
he was obviously a very young guy. He was in
his forties. Uh, and we went from being middle class
(29:34):
to poor overnight. And uh, first thing that went I went.
Then I had to transfer schools, which was interesting though,
because I I ended up losing a lot of weight
in the aftermath of it and was a completely different
person than I had then. Uh so I I I'd
(29:55):
also taken almost every hard course you had to take
at a at Dicret Brothers School, So by the time
I got to a public school, I just socialized. I
mean there was nothing left for me to do, because
my senior year, I don't think I had I think
I was done at eleven fifteen in the morning. So
it was a it was a great two years of
(30:17):
of at White Station. I didn't go to a lot
of high school football games at that point because I'd
gone to all the games at Christian Brothers because you
had to. And I remember my last two years very finally,
and it opened up the door for the rest of
my life.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, what, I don't want to make light of that.
What what kind of impact did that have on who
you were and who you became and what you decided
to pursue professionally in your life.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Well, it's it's really interesting because you know, it's much
easier to talk about now, but for a long time
it wasn't you know people A young lady wants to
ask me. She was interviewing me. She said, well, what
was the you know, the biggest moment of your life?
And I related to losing a dad at fifteen. I mean,
there's just I know a lot of people go through it,
(31:06):
but it's shaped it was. It was that line of demarcation,
you know, what I would have done had he lived,
versus what I decided to do afterwards. And the truth
is I changed courses quite a bit. At that moment
where I went off to school at Tennessee, I was
(31:26):
thinking about law. It was something I always wanted to do,
and I was going to I was pursuing it until I, uh,
midway through college, saw a job off a volunteer reporter
position ad in the in the local in the school newspaper,
went down there and tried out for it. I guess
(31:48):
you know by now I probably got I got it,
and my life really changed at that moment, and I
started the newspaper deal and dove in pretty.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Deep before we move on here, Paul. You know a
lot of guests that come on, and we do talk
a lot about their their high school athletics, accolades. I
got to show you something. When I was doing some
research for this conversation, I found something that was a
little strange and I wanted to put it on your rata.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Oh hold on, you didn't You didn't talk to that
brunette from Memphis.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
I didn't talk to you.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I was trying to pedal that tell all book, did you.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I didn't talk to Janice or Cynthia or Marlene. Look,
this is on eBay, man, people have your nightteh two.
They got your nineteen seventy two and your nineteen seventy
three high school annual for sale for fifty bucks. Paul
on eBay, I.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
May buy it. That is one good looking young man
right there, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
And we get your senior one up here. I just
thought that was strange, you know, and I know that
you're a star here in the Southeast, but I didn't
know if if you understood that you've got the Paul McCarty,
I'll tell.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
You a funny story as long as we're in high
school here. Yeah, and I mean I was a nobody.
I mean as I that's the that's the senior prom picture.
I think, yeah, I was. I got involved in in
in local youth and and really started finding myself a
(33:28):
little bit, not not athletically, but uh. But so about
three or four years ago, somebody sent me something the
White Station High School did. One of these was that
fifty bucks too.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Because I'm fifty bucks, you can find them.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I think I'll skip the second one. By the way,
you remember you you remember that day. I didn't like
the way my hair looked. So they came out with
you know, the notable people that went to your local
high school. And I was reading it and I was devastated.
I came in second among the most notable people to
(34:08):
ever go to that high school, and I was I
was not beaten out by an athlete. I was beaten
out by an actress, Kathy Bates, And oh wow, what
was funny is I didn't even I never knew she
had gone to White's Station until that moment in time,
because she was about about eight years ahead of me.
(34:29):
But I took it. I took it in stride. It
could have been worse.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, I mean, you don't whether you agree with it
or not. I mean, you saw her in misery. You
don't want to take any chance. You are a writer,
after all.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It is so weird. Speaking of my high school, I
mean I truly. What's remarkable is I have never been
back to I mean, I guess you know the school
I grad. I have literally never stepped foot on that
campus since the day I left in my senior year.
And I have no idea you know why. They were
doing a reunion a couple of years ago, and I
(35:03):
considered going, and I don't know, it just it just didn't.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Too much paparazzi for sure.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah. I you know, you want to go to your
high school reunion and enjoy. You don't want to have
to be doing selfies all night.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yeah, that's that's true. The Life of Paul Fine bob
Let's pivot from your high school days. And you mentioned
starting off your media journey pretty early. What are some
coaches you covered, because you know, when you start out
in newspapers or news in general, it's pretty rare for
you to not cover high school football or high school
(35:40):
sports in some way, shape or form. Was there a coach,
Was there a team that sticks out to you from
early on in your career that was like, this is
the quintessential high school football stop along the way.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Well, I did cover high school football for one year, Wes.
My first job was in Shreveport, Louisiana, and you did
everything I'll give you. I'll give you one sample weekend.
I went to a high school game every Friday night,
and yeah it was. I mean, I've been the high
(36:16):
school games, but I've never covered one before, which is
pretty amazing that. You know, most people cover high school
football while they're in high school or college. I never did. Uh.
So I would go to a high school game on
Friday I usually cover, would go to then fly to
an LSU game Saturday morning. I was. I covered LSU
(36:36):
for the for the most part, and then Sunday, not
every week, but probably about every other week, I would
either go to Dallas or New Orleans to cover a
Saints or Cowboys game. And I have to tell you,
I've never matched that my first year. I've never quite
matched that, because, I mean it was pretty amazing for
a twenty two year old guy to be covering that
(36:59):
type of repre So it was. But probably the most
interesting thing that and coach you mentioned the most. I
cherish it to this day and a lot of people
may not. Maybe younger people won't recognize it, but anybody
a little bit older will I had the opportunity in
(37:20):
October of my first year covering college football to literally
spend the entire weekend with Eddie Robinson, who was the
head coach at Grambling. Yeah, the considered I mean, there
are those who argue he's the greatest coach of all time.
He doesn't get credit for it. He broke Bear Bryant's
record in the eighties and I got to cover him
(37:44):
he and I called him up one day and he
invited me down. So Grambling was about an hour from Shreveport.
It's right next to Rustin where Louisiana Tech is and
I rode a bus. You're talking about Glamour. I rode
the bus from rust and Louisiana to its to Bena, Mississippi,
(38:06):
which is in the Delta. Uh. It was about an
eight hour trip to cover the Grambling Mississippi Valley State game.
Mississippi Valley States had a few famous players and it
was it was riveting. It was, quite frankly, one of
the most interesting interesting things I did. A big story
on and he invited me to the final game of
(38:27):
the year, which was down in Miami against Famou the
Orange Blossom Classic at the at the Old Orange Bowl.
And the night before the game he asked me if
I want to go to a banquet and I went,
and after the banquet, the guest speaker was a famous Olympian,
maybe the most famous Olympian of all time. And afterwards
(38:49):
he took me up and introduced me to Jesse Owen.
Uh and I urge any young person to read about him, because, uh,
he over what he overcame in his life life growing
up in Alabama, standing up and being awarded gold medals
in nineteen thirty six in Berlin by Adolf Hitler. Yeah,
truly one of the greatest stories sports stories of all time.
(39:10):
And that I do. I have a picture of it,
of course, not because back then you didn't take pictures
like that.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
That's incredible, man, Like you said, that never never left you,
I can imagine. And that's just to me, you know,
I don't want to overemphasize it, but you never really
know where some of these high school stories will take you.
You look at it, you think it's just you know,
high school balls. It's just little old football programs, but
(39:37):
you never know who you're going to meet all the way, Paul,
I appreciate your time, man, And you mentioned Shreveport. This
kind of takes us full circle. The first best I
had on the show was Jacob Hester, who played for
evangel Christian And I don't know if you covered that program,
but they play some pretty good ball out there too. Man.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
No, they've had quite a few people run through there. No,
it was you know, I think in some ways maybe
that year, even though I was out of high school
in college, was it was more impactful. But you know,
I mean I remember high school for probably all the
wrong reasons, not for athletic reasons. I was a fan
(40:17):
of the local school, the local college where you know,
I remember those memories. But I think because I went
to two different high schools, it probably negated the normal
feeling that a lot of your viewers and listeners have.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Last one just a quick kind of fastball for you here.
It's easy to get caught up in high school rankings
and you hear, you know, the guys like arch Manning
that come along, and you've seen a million of them
by this point in your career. Who's the one guy
that you really did hear making waves in football that
you're maybe a little skeptical about. But by the time
(40:58):
his college and maybe even pro career done, you were like,
that guy actually lived up to the hype.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Yeah. I mean I did cover a lot of high
school by the way, in my early days of reporting,
I did a lot of a couple of investigative pieces
into high school. But the guy that I covered in
high school, and he wasn't that great. You know the story.
He was a basketball player and he wasn't particularly heavily recruited.
(41:31):
It really came down between before a Christmas tournament. Nobody
wanted him, and he outplayed the number one high school
player in the state at this particular Christmas tournament, and
suddenly everybody turned on to this overweight, clunky, chunky kid
(41:52):
from Leeds, Alabama. There he became Charles Barkley.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
And he owes you everything at this point is.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
He does I joke about it? Now? He was like
the he wasn't even the top five players in the state,
and he ended up going to Auburn because you know
they were They came in quickly once they saw him
out play this other guy. In the in the in
this Christmas tournament. My favorite Barkley memory not to get
(42:21):
way too off, the I covered Auburn basketball a little
bit his freshman year and there was a game in Houston.
They were playing the Fly Slam of jama I think
was the famous Houston teams in the early eighties, which
were in the National Championship Game a couple of times.
And about midnight, I got a knock on my hotel room.
(42:45):
I was staying at the same hotel as Auburn and
this is like nineteen eighty two or eighty three, and
it was a I think it was Dominoes. It was
a Dominoes pizza delivery guy. And I said, excuse me.
He said, I'm here for the deliver a pizza. And
then down the hall I see Barkley open the door.
(43:08):
He said, hey, down here, and I mean you heard
those you've heard those rumors. I saw it with my
own eyes. Guy. I like to eat Paul.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Thank you so much, man. As I mentioned every weekday
on the SEC Network three o'clock Eastern and SEC Nation
during a football season, did I miss anything.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You didn't And I don't think I answered it. One
question you asked me, but I had a blast.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
That's the way it goes, man, That's the way it goes.
The best questions are the ones I didn't ask. Appreciate
it man, Thank you, wes Hey, Paul Finebaum, thank you
so much. I know that you were not a high
school football, high school sports standout like a lot of
our guests are, but we don't hold that against you
(43:57):
because this show is not just about high school sports athletes.
It's primarily about high school sports stories. And my, oh my,
did Paul fine Bomb have some big fan of that guy,
and truly appreciate how he just looks out for people
that are in the storytelling business and he gives back
(44:20):
to him. He doesn't have to come on here. He
has really very little to gain from it other than
just catching up with me, and even then it's probably
he's probably in the red. But I do appreciate it,
and I appreciate y'all listening New episodes of Go Fight
wind Drop every Thursday, and we're continuing to grow, continuing
(44:43):
to build. Please hit like and subscribe to help us
do that. Leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review,
and the most important thing you can do above all
that stuff in the cyber world is just the word
of mouth. Just tell people that you love while you're
around the Thanksgiving dinner table next week, tell them, man
(45:07):
if y'all like high school football, you saw what that
knucklehead did over there in that game, Well, it's probably
gonna end up on Go Fight Win next week when
I tell Wes about it. That's the kind of stuff
we need. We need people that are out there in
the real world supporting high school football and high school sports,
caring for their own communities and just having a touchdoone
(45:28):
something that's not too serious, something that makes you laugh,
something that honestly, earnestly respects the culture and tradition of
what high school sports has always been about. That's go
fight Win, and I'm glad you're here. See you soon.
Welcome to Go Fight, Win the show with all the
high school football stories you love. On this week's episode,
I'll speak with Paul Feinbaum. No, he did not play
high school sports, but he did cover some amazing athletes
coming up through the ranks to become the media personality
he is now. And he did get kicked by his
(00:20):
high school gym coach. And he tells us all about
that and everything in between. Plus some phenomenal high school
football names that have been brought to my attention by you,
our wonderful audience. And it's a burden. It's a burden
on my shoulders. And now that I've seen these names,
you've got to see him too. Also on this episode,
(00:42):
a reverse Connor stallions a team that may or may
not have supplied its game plan to another team. Little
Wally Butts and Bear Bryant going on perhaps And I
know it's not high school football, but high school wrestling
here in the state of Georgia is off the and
this is the greatest high school wrestling tradition that I
(01:04):
think exists in the entire country. So I'll dig deeper
into that. It's time for Go Fight Win. Drum up
the marching band, Let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
It was just get the ball of Donna tug and
let that pudget up.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Ah, Yes, it is time for go, fight win. It's
a beautiful time of year here in November. And I
know that the bar for beautiful days in the month
of November is a low one, depending on where you
grew up and where you live. Now, there's still some
color on the leaves that are still on the trees
here in Georgia. And just like those leaves getting plucked
(01:49):
off one by one by the blustery winter, wins your
high school football team, the teams in your state's high
school football championship brackets and picked off one by one
as well, until at the very end there will be one,
just one shimmering star atop our tree. And then the
(02:11):
wind will blow that away too and ruin my metaphor.
But you know what I mean. You get the point.
It's a beautiful time of year here for the sport
that we all love, high school football. If you love
high school football, celebrated all year long, even after those
leaves blow off the trees, pick you up something nice
at the gocoffeetown dot com team store support Coffeetown Copperheads
(02:33):
varsity football with a cap, a mug, a T shirt,
a sweatshirt, a hoodie. It's all there for the taking
or buying. You can't take it. That would be illegal.
I don't even know how you would do it because
it's all virtual and online. But thank you for all
of those who've already done. So let's get started with
(02:53):
some things that I teased here. We'll start off with
the best high school football names that just came across
my desk right here at Go Fight Win Headquarters. Y'all
tag me on Twitter, currently known as X. In this
tweet right here, this guy named dan linnblad TV. What
(03:17):
does he cover? He covers high school football in the
state of Oklahoma, and he covers a fellow named Blake Hogshooter.
Blake Hogshooter elevated his play when the Bixby Spartans needed
him the most. His three touchdown performance against Jenks earn
(03:39):
him our Friday Night Lights Player of the Week for
Week ten. At Blake Hogshooter. This guy is the class
of twenty twenty five. Okay, so he's a junior six
four hundred and eighty five pounds has a thirty eight
point eight vertical jump four and a half second forty
(04:01):
yard dash state champ. This guy's got it all man.
Blake Hogshooter, best name I've ever seen in high school
football that I didn't make up myself. In Oklahoma's high
school football bracket still does include Bixby, and Bixby will
take on Norman in the quarterfinals this week. Blake Hogshooter,
(04:24):
if you're taking on any guys across the line from
you that have some tusks, they got some you know,
barbed wire hair across their backs, they haven't trimmed their
neck up in a couple of days, month of Sundays, Well,
I'll tell you most guys across the state of Oklahoma
(04:45):
might be a little intimidated by that mess. But Blake Hogshooter,
sure as he's standing there today, is not going to
be scared of any of that riff raff. Blake Hogshooter,
get it go, get yourself a state championship ring again. Well,
not long after Blake Hogshooter came to my attention, did
(05:06):
somebody alert me to a young fella by the name
of pork Chop Miller right up the road for me,
played for my rival high school Peachtree Ridge. I went
to Collins Hill. Shout out to the Collins Hill Eagles
that are still in the Georgia seven A state tournament. Well,
(05:26):
Peachtree Ridges too, and the lines will take on Mill Creek,
and Mill Creek's a fine team in their own right.
But pork Chop Miller, Let's see if I can get
this play up right here. I ran a quick Google
search on old pork Chop Miller again, a real name
that I did not make up as part of the
Coffeetown universe. Here and this play comes up right here.
(05:52):
Jalen pork Chop Miller throws a game winning touchdown to
his brother Jordan lamb Chop Miller. We got pork Chop,
We got lamb Chop all right. Look, I'm not an
expert in reviewing film, but I gotta reverse this. Look
at pork Chop in the gun. It's a big fella.
(06:15):
Lefty rolls out to his right and just hunks it
to Lamb Chop, the Chop brothers. How about pork Chop
and lamb Chop. There, So pork Chops in the state tournament,
Peace Tree Ridge, Blake, Hogshooter. Their paths will not cross,
thankfully for pork Chop Miller. But these are just some
(06:37):
elite names here, two of the best I've ever seen,
Honest to god, I've been doing this for a few
years now, where you know, this has been my lane,
and y'all tag me in some absurd and interesting names
I ain't never seen some like Blake Hogshooter and pork
Chop Miller in the same day. Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
All right?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
So this name came up in my own research on
Friday night, and this tweet is from grid Iron Football
with one L. Now, I'm gonna pull the tweet up
and give you a little bit of a warning here.
The show's normally a family show, all right, And I'm
just bringing up the tweet so y'all can see that
(07:21):
I didn't make this name up. I could have made
up Blake Hogshooter, you don't know. I'd like to think
that I've earned your trust by now, and that you'd
believe that I only present things here that are factual,
unless we have a pretense of you knowing that I
made it up. I didn't make up Hogshooter, I didn't
make up pork Chop, and I also did not make
(07:43):
up Micah Nipple. That's right. This guy's last name is
Nipple and he plays for Catholic PC. And let me
tell you his name is not PC. Okay, Michah Nipple,
(08:04):
m Yka n Ip, p l E. Cross referenced it.
I checked all the rosters that are out there for
Catholic PC, and you can see him here, number thirty three,
putting Catholic PC up forty two to nothing in their
(08:25):
opening round playoff game in the state of Louisiana. This
is from grid Iron Football. At grid Iron Football with
one L and Micah Nipple. I mean, this young man
right here, I don't know what he does with bullies.
(08:46):
I can tell you if he has made it this
far and he is still this good at football, then
he's probably a tough SOB MICHAEH. Nipple so cold he
can cut glass. That's Michah Nipple for you. My buddy
(09:09):
Ryan hall Uh pointed out here too that micha and
Nipple is helping Catholic PC milk a forty two to
nothing lead here. This story here is timely and it's true.
(09:32):
Y'all tagged me in it up. In Pittsburgh, West Mifflin
school board member accused of sharing game plan with football
playoff opponent. Now y'all know everything that's going on in
Michigan and Connor Stallions and allegations that they cheated and
stole signs and all that. Well, this is like a
(09:56):
reverse Connor Stallions got an inside leeper sell from Mifflin
who may or may not have shared some intel with
Elizabeth Forward High School. Elizabeth Forward is the name of
the school. It's not a person that I I guess
(10:18):
it's not a person that still exists. It is probably
someone that's passed on and that's who they named it.
They named it after Elizabeth Forward, or she was just
somebody that was very blunt. I don't know. Well, the
story here is not really like Connor Stallion's and that
(10:38):
someone was cheating and stealing signs. This is some old
school college football reference here for you. Wally Butts, the
former Georgia coach and at the time of this story
that ad of the Dogs was accused of sharing game
plan information with Bear Bryant before a game in sixties
(11:01):
and it went to court as a big trial, big
case and still you know, making some waves. Seth Emerson
just wrote a detailed piece about it for the athletic
and this is kind of like that. It's got some
flavors of that. You know, what was the motivation? You know,
Butts's name was cleared, he was found innocent, and Georgia
(11:26):
players to this day will still stand by him, stand
by that man's name. Well, Mike White here at the
Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote about Mark Uhas, a school board
member of the West Mifflin Area School District, who showed
up to Elizabeth Forward's practice the week of their playoff
(11:49):
game with West Mifflin. Well, guess what happened. West Mifflin
didn't win. Elizabeth Forward had several turnovers and one forty
two to twenty one. Well, here's where things get. A
little spicy head coach for West Mifflin, Rod Steele. What
(12:12):
a great name that is. We're talking about good names.
He accuses u Haas of purposely leaking West Mifflin's offensive
game plan because of a quote personal vendetta against Steel
and because Uhas wants to see Steele removed as coach.
U Haas was a volunteer assistant for Steel to Pass
(12:34):
for seasons at West Mifflin, and Steele said he did
not retain Uhas as a coach. Uha says he resigned.
Here's what Steele says. He's using his authority to come
at me because he wants me gone. He doesn't want
me to be successful, and he wants my job open.
It's a personal vendetta against me because I got rid
(12:55):
of him. Well, here's what actually happened. Uhas showed up
at Elizabeth Forward's practice unsolicited. That's just the way the
story goes. Elizabeth Forward head coach John DeMarco said there
was a brief conversation. Uhas claims he didn't like DeMarco's
attitude toward him, and Uhas got upset. The coach was
(13:18):
arrogant when he found out who I was, he had
an attitude. U Haas said. All I said was this
quote when they run the wildcat up your ass. I
wish I could be here to see it. There was
no playbook or anything like that. I mentioned the word wildcat.
Now the wildcat offense if you're not familiar, it involves
(13:41):
an offensive scheme where the quarterback doesn't take the snap.
Someone else that's skilled enough to do it go running
back wide receiver, pork chop they take the snap instead. Well,
uh Miflin. West Mifflin hadn't run the Wildcat all year,
so that would be some pertinent information for Elizabeth Ford
(14:04):
to find out. Well, why was Uhas at practice? He
claims that he had a business client that was across
the street, and he says it was stupid of him
to show up at practice.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Uh, this don't pass the smell test for me, and
not a lot of things in Pittsburgh do. And I've
been there. I'm just telling you it doesn't. You're not
going to pick up a lot of scented candles at
the Yankee Candle Company that just say Pittsburgh on them.
(14:46):
But this is remarkably smelly. U has just happens to
show up at practice, just happens to get in an
altercation and yell and cause a scene and then conveniently
the most relevant information he could drop at the practice.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Well. Coach Steele said the issue is now in the
hands of West Mifflin's superintendent, Jeffrey Souls, and he has
no hard feelings against Elizabeth Forward or Coach DeMarco. He
says it's very unethical and very low of a guy
who is an elected official who got votes from some
parents of our players to go over and do what
(15:29):
he did. That is an issue regardless of what happened
with Jujas. We turned the ball over five times, five times,
not three. That was the difference in the game, all right,
So a lot of things at work here. Does West
Mifflin turn the ball over five times? Whether or not
(15:50):
DeMarco and Elizabeth Forward know that they're running the wildcat.
Maybe they do. Maybe they do, but maybe they only
turn it over four times. Maybe they only turn it
over three. Maybe they don't turn it over at all.
You can't prove a negative here. What we can prove
is that Juhas should not have been at that practice.
(16:11):
And there's a little something fishy going on here. So
I'm gonna keep an eye on this, and I'm gonna
let y'all know if anything else comes out of it.
This has a thirty for thirty written all over it.
You've got a story of a disgruntled parent, and these
disgruntled parents are only getting worse. People, They're only getting worse.
(16:35):
Look no further than your kid's little league team. You
know the parent, You just thought of them. You just
thought of a specific parent when I said that, you
know you know what's coming. God bless these coaches for
putting up with this, because it's only getting worse. It's
coming to high school, it's coming to college. This wasn't
(16:58):
a parent who was complaining about playing time. This was
a parent who allegedly tried to tank his own team.
Spicy stuff up there in Pittsburgh. All right, last one
lot of high school football story. This is a high
(17:20):
school wrestling wrestling. Okay, I know we don't talk about
it much on here, but look at this. Look at
this and tell me it's not the coolest wrestling related.
I don't mean like professional wrestling. I mean like on
the Matt Greco Roman style wrestling. Tell me this isn't
(17:40):
the coolest wrestling thing you've ever seen. I wanted to
make it to this so bad, but I could not
get up to rock Mart. Rockmart, Georgia hosting a I guess,
a round robin try match against the Lafayette here in
(18:01):
Georgia's pronounced La Fayette and Cedar Town and rock Mart.
Look at this. This is from my guy, Rubarb Brown.
They got the matt outside outside, they got the string
lights overhead, the whole ring, surrounded by women and children.
They got their coolers, they got their energy drinks, they
(18:23):
got their other drinks, they got bags of Chick fil A,
they got a food truck. I mean, would you not
just die to spend an evening watching this and being
in a community like this. You got every school represented.
You've got these wrestlers over here waiting for the other
match to finish up, Lafayette waiting over there, and they're
(18:45):
black and orange. You got Cedar Town and rock Mart here,
the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets, a storied rivalry in
college football in the state, but also here on the
wrestling Matt this is beautiful, man. Happens every year, and
if I can make it next year, I will. I
(19:07):
will just be over the moon because this looks like
so much fun. Man at Rubarb Brown h r U
B A RB Brown photo credit to him. And it's
so cool. You got some tats here in the picture.
And this is just an amazing way to kick off
the wrestling slate in the state of Georgia. It's a
(19:29):
very proud, traditionally strong state for wrestling. It's no Iowa,
it's no Oklahoma, but wrestling's a big deal here in Georgia. Man,
don't doubt it. Here's another picture from last year that
I'm pulling up. And if you're missing this because you're listening,
(19:51):
just the find Go Fight went on YouTube. This is
under the lights here as the sun is going down,
rock Mart and Cedar Town right there in the town square,
under the string lights on the mat, beautiful man, and
as high school football winds down. Look, share whatever kind
(20:16):
of high school sports content you want to. There's certainly
always going to be a high school football flavor to
this show, even in February, even in March, whatever, We're
going to keep it going. But this is the kind
of stuff that I live for right here. This is
the kind of stuff that keeps communities together, keeps people
talking to people, real life people, and just getting out
(20:38):
of the house and enjoying life. Man. And that's ultimately
what this show is all about. So thanks Josh, thank
you for sharing that, and I hope that we can
all make it. You know, if you're close to Georgia,
let's go. Let's load up a van, load up a cooler,
and let's go heckle some kids on the mat respectfully.
Of course, next year for the rock Mark Classic, I
(21:00):
think that's what they call it they didn't see a
name the rock Mark Classic under the Lights. All right,
coming up, story shared with me about a well, a
high school football player that was a little thirsty. I'll
(21:20):
leave it at that, all right, back on the grind
here in the B block with the stories that y'all
sent in to me about your high school football career.
And this one came in before I even launched this
show years ago, actually, And the way this to typically
(21:41):
traditionally works is that I'll read your name and tell
people who sent the story in. I don't have that
permission this time around because it came in a while ago,
but you'll have to take my word for it that
it's true. I don't have time to make these up. Okay,
(22:02):
I have time to make up Coffeetown football games. But
I'm telling you right now, this is a true story
allegedly that someone sent in to me. The names will
be redacted because they don't have permission to share them.
But let's say this story came in from Roger. Okay,
Roger sent this story to me. And there's a couple
(22:26):
stories here, two and one two for one. And if
you have your own high school football stories that you
want to share. The submission portal is open over at
go coffeetown dot com link in this show's description for
you to share your own glory days. Larger than Life
seems too good to be true, but totally as high
(22:48):
school football stories. So here's from Roger. When I was
coaching our youngest son in football in Fayetteville, Arkansas, we
had a really good team. We had kid on the
team named Bill, who is quite a character, very heavy
and terrible athlete. We scored on a seventy yard play
(23:10):
and then made the extra point. In fable, all kids
must play one half offense and one half defense. I
was attempting to hide Bill at left guard, as my
son was the center, and I knew he would take
up bill slack. Anyway, the extra point is good and
(23:31):
the team runs off and Bill walks off. As he's
doing so, he pulls a twenty ounce doctor pepper out
of his pants and starts drinking it while walking off
the field. Alex and Charlie were bent over double. You
(23:54):
gotta really be trying to get that blood sugar on
the right level to be sipping on doctor peas during
a game, and to just be smuggled in in your jockstrap.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Who.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I don't know if I'd be angry at that if
I were a coach or a teammate or honestly just
respect respect it. You are claimbing to the top of
my respect charts number one respect power rankings list. Is
you guzzling down twenty ounces of doctor p after a
(24:32):
touchdown drive? Hydrat and Son. Here's one more from the
same fellow. Here he says, I played high school football
in Georgia. My sophomore year. We had a kid transfer
in named Malcolm Juno who played middle linebacker. After we
(24:54):
beat Milton in Week one, the Gwinnett Daily Post reported
Norcross unleashes new weapon on Milton and his name is
Malcolm Juno. Well, Malcolm had to quit the team when
the administration found out he was twenty one years old. Look,
(25:17):
it doesn't just mean more in the SEC. It just
means more in Georgia. High school football can't be putting.
Can't be putting twenty one year olds out there to
play ball. Manles, you know that's not the only time
that's happened to You know that happens every single year
(25:40):
somewhere across the United States. Someone comes into play that's
way too, dang old. But they're not all sipping Doctor
Pepper's during games. I'll tell you that. Speaking of it
just meaning more. This week's guest on Go Fight Win
(26:00):
doesn't require much of an introduction, but I'll give him
one anyway. It's Paul Fine Bomb.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
All right.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
You can see him every weekday on the SEC Network
or listen to him on Serius XM radio and on
SEC Nation every Saturday morning in the fall. He is
Paul Fine bamb what's going on, Paul, How are you
doing today?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Well, it's doing great. I'm always always fun to come
into your little crib here see what's going on.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, if you're just listening, Paul is just nestled up
right beside me here. For this episode, we like to
just focus on great high school sports stories on this show. Here, Paul,
and I'll take you out of the college athletics world
for a few minutes here and let you walk down
memory lane. You actually went to two different high schools.
(26:50):
You started off at Christian Brothers and I don't know
if that's the name of a person or if it
was a group of people. And then you hit the
transfer portal and you went to White Station, do I
have that.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, it's interesting. Christian Brothers. It was run by a
group of a Catholic priests and it just it was
a school that wasn't far from where we lived, and
it was a particularly good school, and my parents wanted
me to have a good education. So my athletic career
there was fairly short lived. Wes the very first uh,
(27:26):
I think it was very I was. I was not
particularly athletic at that age. I became a little better,
and I'll tell you that story in a minute. But
uh so we were having pe class, I think on
the first Monday of the year, and the coach was
the head coach at Christian Brothers, a guy named Tom Knicks,
(27:46):
very famous coach, Hall of famer, you know the drill,
multiple state championships.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
We were I mean it was fairly tough. I mean,
I uh and I mean I was like getting I
mean there were some of my buddies were literally getting
up and throwing up, and I mean I was doing
something and he kind of walked over to me, and
I guess everybody he knew the names of everybody by then,
or maybe it was the second week and I was
(28:14):
doing pushups or something, and I was struggling, and he
started like kicking me. And you know, nowadays I would
have owned the high school. But back then, you just
did whatever they told you to do. And finally he
just said, you're an absolute disgrace. Fine, but I'm a
complete disgrace. He said in the CBHS had just lost
(28:36):
the opening game to it like a major rival, which
was an upset, and he said, you're as sorry as
my football team. And he just walked away. And I've
never by the way. Years later, after I started doing
what I'm doing, I was back in town and ran
into him and told him that story. And he was
very old man at the time. He died about four
years ago, and he got the biggest kick out of it,
(28:57):
because literally, right, Uh so that was I mean, I was.
I was a fan, but I wasn't much of an athlete.
And then I did leave. The reason I left not
to get too deep into the weeds here, but I
got a better offer.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Clearly, you know you had a better nil deal.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
Uh, Sadly I didn't. Uh, it was it was a matter.
It was a matter of financial though. My dad died
in March of my tenth grade. Uh, Suddenly it was
he was obviously a very young guy. He was in
his forties. Uh, and we went from being middle class
(29:34):
to poor overnight. And uh, first thing that went I went.
Then I had to transfer schools, which was interesting though,
because I I ended up losing a lot of weight
in the aftermath of it and was a completely different
person than I had then. Uh so I I I'd
(29:55):
also taken almost every hard course you had to take
at a at Dicret Brothers School, So by the time
I got to a public school, I just socialized. I
mean there was nothing left for me to do, because
my senior year, I don't think I had I think
I was done at eleven fifteen in the morning. So
it was a it was a great two years of
(30:17):
of at White Station. I didn't go to a lot
of high school football games at that point because I'd
gone to all the games at Christian Brothers because you
had to. And I remember my last two years very finally,
and it opened up the door for the rest of
my life.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah, what, I don't want to make light of that.
What what kind of impact did that have on who
you were and who you became and what you decided
to pursue professionally in your life.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Well, it's it's really interesting because you know, it's much
easier to talk about now, but for a long time
it wasn't you know people A young lady wants to
ask me. She was interviewing me. She said, well, what
was the you know, the biggest moment of your life?
And I related to losing a dad at fifteen. I mean,
there's just I know a lot of people go through it,
(31:06):
but it's shaped it was. It was that line of demarcation,
you know, what I would have done had he lived,
versus what I decided to do afterwards. And the truth
is I changed courses quite a bit. At that moment
where I went off to school at Tennessee, I was
(31:26):
thinking about law. It was something I always wanted to do,
and I was going to I was pursuing it until I, uh,
midway through college, saw a job off a volunteer reporter
position ad in the in the local in the school newspaper,
went down there and tried out for it. I guess
(31:48):
you know by now I probably got I got it,
and my life really changed at that moment, and I
started the newspaper deal and dove in pretty.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Deep before we move on here, Paul. You know a
lot of guests that come on, and we do talk
a lot about their their high school athletics, accolades. I
got to show you something. When I was doing some
research for this conversation, I found something that was a
little strange and I wanted to put it on your rata.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Oh hold on, you didn't You didn't talk to that
brunette from Memphis.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
I didn't talk to you.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I was trying to pedal that tell all book, did you.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I didn't talk to Janice or Cynthia or Marlene. Look,
this is on eBay, man, people have your nightteh two.
They got your nineteen seventy two and your nineteen seventy
three high school annual for sale for fifty bucks. Paul
on eBay, I.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
May buy it. That is one good looking young man
right there, isn't it?
Speaker 1 (32:56):
And we get your senior one up here. I just
thought that was strange, you know, and I know that
you're a star here in the Southeast, but I didn't
know if if you understood that you've got the Paul McCarty,
I'll tell.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
You a funny story as long as we're in high
school here. Yeah, and I mean I was a nobody.
I mean as I that's the that's the senior prom picture.
I think, yeah, I was. I got involved in in
in local youth and and really started finding myself a
(33:28):
little bit, not not athletically, but uh. But so about
three or four years ago, somebody sent me something the
White Station High School did. One of these was that
fifty bucks too.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Because I'm fifty bucks, you can find them.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I think I'll skip the second one. By the way,
you remember you you remember that day. I didn't like
the way my hair looked. So they came out with
you know, the notable people that went to your local
high school. And I was reading it and I was devastated.
I came in second among the most notable people to
(34:08):
ever go to that high school, and I was I
was not beaten out by an athlete. I was beaten
out by an actress, Kathy Bates, And oh wow, what
was funny is I didn't even I never knew she
had gone to White's Station until that moment in time,
because she was about about eight years ahead of me.
(34:29):
But I took it. I took it in stride. It
could have been worse.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yeah, I mean, you don't whether you agree with it
or not. I mean, you saw her in misery. You
don't want to take any chance. You are a writer,
after all.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
It is so weird. Speaking of my high school, I
mean I truly. What's remarkable is I have never been
back to I mean, I guess you know the school
I grad. I have literally never stepped foot on that
campus since the day I left in my senior year.
And I have no idea you know why. They were
doing a reunion a couple of years ago, and I
(35:03):
considered going, and I don't know, it just it just didn't.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Too much paparazzi for sure.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah. I you know, you want to go to your
high school reunion and enjoy. You don't want to have
to be doing selfies all night.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yeah, that's that's true. The Life of Paul Fine bob
Let's pivot from your high school days. And you mentioned
starting off your media journey pretty early. What are some
coaches you covered, because you know, when you start out
in newspapers or news in general, it's pretty rare for
you to not cover high school football or high school
(35:40):
sports in some way, shape or form. Was there a coach,
Was there a team that sticks out to you from
early on in your career that was like, this is
the quintessential high school football stop along the way.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Well, I did cover high school football for one year, Wes.
My first job was in Shreveport, Louisiana, and you did
everything I'll give you. I'll give you one sample weekend.
I went to a high school game every Friday night,
and yeah it was. I mean, I've been the high
(36:16):
school games, but I've never covered one before, which is
pretty amazing that. You know, most people cover high school
football while they're in high school or college. I never did. Uh.
So I would go to a high school game on
Friday I usually cover, would go to then fly to
an LSU game Saturday morning. I was. I covered LSU
(36:36):
for the for the most part, and then Sunday, not
every week, but probably about every other week, I would
either go to Dallas or New Orleans to cover a
Saints or Cowboys game. And I have to tell you,
I've never matched that my first year. I've never quite
matched that, because, I mean it was pretty amazing for
a twenty two year old guy to be covering that
(36:59):
type of repre So it was. But probably the most
interesting thing that and coach you mentioned the most. I
cherish it to this day and a lot of people
may not. Maybe younger people won't recognize it, but anybody
a little bit older will I had the opportunity in
(37:20):
October of my first year covering college football to literally
spend the entire weekend with Eddie Robinson, who was the
head coach at Grambling. Yeah, the considered I mean, there
are those who argue he's the greatest coach of all time.
He doesn't get credit for it. He broke Bear Bryant's
record in the eighties and I got to cover him
(37:44):
he and I called him up one day and he
invited me down. So Grambling was about an hour from Shreveport.
It's right next to Rustin where Louisiana Tech is and
I rode a bus. You're talking about Glamour. I rode
the bus from rust and Louisiana to its to Bena, Mississippi,
(38:06):
which is in the Delta. Uh. It was about an
eight hour trip to cover the Grambling Mississippi Valley State game.
Mississippi Valley States had a few famous players and it
was it was riveting. It was, quite frankly, one of
the most interesting interesting things I did. A big story
on and he invited me to the final game of
(38:27):
the year, which was down in Miami against Famou the
Orange Blossom Classic at the at the Old Orange Bowl.
And the night before the game he asked me if
I want to go to a banquet and I went,
and after the banquet, the guest speaker was a famous Olympian,
maybe the most famous Olympian of all time. And afterwards
(38:49):
he took me up and introduced me to Jesse Owen.
Uh and I urge any young person to read about him, because, uh,
he over what he overcame in his life life growing
up in Alabama, standing up and being awarded gold medals
in nineteen thirty six in Berlin by Adolf Hitler. Yeah,
truly one of the greatest stories sports stories of all time.
(39:10):
And that I do. I have a picture of it,
of course, not because back then you didn't take pictures
like that.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
That's incredible, man, Like you said, that never never left you,
I can imagine. And that's just to me, you know,
I don't want to overemphasize it, but you never really
know where some of these high school stories will take you.
You look at it, you think it's just you know,
high school balls. It's just little old football programs, but
(39:37):
you never know who you're going to meet all the way, Paul,
I appreciate your time, man, And you mentioned Shreveport. This
kind of takes us full circle. The first best I
had on the show was Jacob Hester, who played for
evangel Christian And I don't know if you covered that program,
but they play some pretty good ball out there too. Man.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
No, they've had quite a few people run through there. No,
it was you know, I think in some ways maybe
that year, even though I was out of high school
in college, was it was more impactful. But you know,
I mean I remember high school for probably all the
wrong reasons, not for athletic reasons. I was a fan
(40:17):
of the local school, the local college where you know,
I remember those memories. But I think because I went
to two different high schools, it probably negated the normal
feeling that a lot of your viewers and listeners have.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Last one just a quick kind of fastball for you here.
It's easy to get caught up in high school rankings
and you hear, you know, the guys like arch Manning
that come along, and you've seen a million of them
by this point in your career. Who's the one guy
that you really did hear making waves in football that
you're maybe a little skeptical about. But by the time
(40:58):
his college and maybe even pro career done, you were like,
that guy actually lived up to the hype.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
Yeah. I mean I did cover a lot of high
school by the way, in my early days of reporting,
I did a lot of a couple of investigative pieces
into high school. But the guy that I covered in
high school, and he wasn't that great. You know the story.
He was a basketball player and he wasn't particularly heavily recruited.
(41:31):
It really came down between before a Christmas tournament. Nobody
wanted him, and he outplayed the number one high school
player in the state at this particular Christmas tournament, and
suddenly everybody turned on to this overweight, clunky, chunky kid
(41:52):
from Leeds, Alabama. There he became Charles Barkley.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
And he owes you everything at this point is.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
He does I joke about it? Now? He was like
the he wasn't even the top five players in the state,
and he ended up going to Auburn because you know
they were They came in quickly once they saw him
out play this other guy. In the in the in
this Christmas tournament. My favorite Barkley memory not to get
(42:21):
way too off, the I covered Auburn basketball a little
bit his freshman year and there was a game in Houston.
They were playing the Fly Slam of jama I think
was the famous Houston teams in the early eighties, which
were in the National Championship Game a couple of times.
And about midnight, I got a knock on my hotel room.
(42:45):
I was staying at the same hotel as Auburn and
this is like nineteen eighty two or eighty three, and
it was a I think it was Dominoes. It was
a Dominoes pizza delivery guy. And I said, excuse me.
He said, I'm here for the deliver a pizza. And
then down the hall I see Barkley open the door.
(43:08):
He said, hey, down here, and I mean you heard
those you've heard those rumors. I saw it with my
own eyes. Guy. I like to eat Paul.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Thank you so much, man. As I mentioned every weekday
on the SEC Network three o'clock Eastern and SEC Nation
during a football season, did I miss anything.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You didn't And I don't think I answered it. One
question you asked me, but I had a blast.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
That's the way it goes, man, That's the way it goes.
The best questions are the ones I didn't ask. Appreciate
it man, Thank you, wes Hey, Paul Finebaum, thank you
so much. I know that you were not a high
school football, high school sports standout like a lot of
our guests are, but we don't hold that against you
(43:57):
because this show is not just about high school sports athletes.
It's primarily about high school sports stories. And my, oh my,
did Paul fine Bomb have some big fan of that guy,
and truly appreciate how he just looks out for people
that are in the storytelling business and he gives back
(44:20):
to him. He doesn't have to come on here. He
has really very little to gain from it other than
just catching up with me, and even then it's probably
he's probably in the red. But I do appreciate it,
and I appreciate y'all listening New episodes of Go Fight
wind Drop every Thursday, and we're continuing to grow, continuing
(44:43):
to build. Please hit like and subscribe to help us
do that. Leave a comment, leave a rating, leave a review,
and the most important thing you can do above all
that stuff in the cyber world is just the word
of mouth. Just tell people that you love while you're
around the Thanksgiving dinner table next week, tell them, man
(45:07):
if y'all like high school football, you saw what that
knucklehead did over there in that game, Well, it's probably
gonna end up on Go Fight Win next week when
I tell Wes about it. That's the kind of stuff
we need. We need people that are out there in
the real world supporting high school football and high school sports,
caring for their own communities and just having a touchdoone
(45:28):
something that's not too serious, something that makes you laugh,
something that honestly, earnestly respects the culture and tradition of
what high school sports has always been about. That's go
fight Win, and I'm glad you're here. See you soon.
Host
Wes Blankenship
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