Teammate Dick Schmalz reminisces about Auburn great Terry Beasley

Teammate Dick Smaltz reminisces about Auburn great Terry Beasley

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
Welcome back to Sports Talk nine ninetyfive Randy Kennedy in the Threaded Fasteners studio.
Glad you guys are with us.We got the Senior Bowl coming up
on Saturday, the seventy fifth AnnualSenior Bowl, and that makes this appropriate,
especially appropriate to talk about right now, the passing of one of the
all time great Senior Bowlers and nineteenseventy two member of the game, Terry

(00:27):
Beasley, one of the top playersin Auburn history, passed away this week
at the age of seventy three.Let's remin this a little bit here and
have some good memories to talk aboutwith Dick Smaltz, a great player on
those early seventy Auburn teams as well. Dick, thank you so much for
being with me. Man, it'smy pleasure. Randy, thank you for
inviting me. So let's talk aboutTerry Beasley, your teammate. You and

(00:50):
Terry Beasley on the outside catching passesfrom Pat Sullivan. Man, when I
just bring up the names, Auburnfans are kind of go through the roof
of excitement just remembering that era ofAuburn football. Yeah, I have an
awful lot of fond memories myself,uh you know, tempered with with the
sadness that Pat and Terry are notwith us any longer, but but but

(01:12):
still some off some awful good memories. So let's talk about the threesome.
I guess you knew Terry. Youknew Pat before you knew Terry, and
then you guys got brought Terry intothe fold and became the group at Auburn
just talked to him about those relationships. Well, I was the last one
invited to the party. But uhuh, Pat and I went to John

(01:34):
Carroll High School together. I wasI was one year ahead of him,
and so I got to Auburn ayear ahead of him. And of course
this was back in in the olddays when freshmen were not allowed to play
varsity. So my freshman year,it was it was the best injury I
ever I ever had. I hurtmy knee and had to have surgery and

(01:57):
missed spring training. So I wasred shirted. Which the significance of that
was that I got to play mythree varsity years with Pat and and Terry's
three varsity years and so so uhit you know, it's kind of a
dream having somebody like Pat as aas a quarterback and having somebody like Terry

(02:17):
to take the heat from for obviousreasons. Uh. You know, I
can't cannot say enough about how fortunateI felt to be in that position.
Do you remember your very first impressionof Terry Terry Beasley, Do you remember
seeing him for the first time ordid his reputation preced him. Well,

(02:38):
his reputation definitely preceded him. Ofcourse this was this was way before the
days of of of the internet,so I didn't have that. I mean,
there's a lot of you know,probably every four and five star that
Auburn is recruiting. I know betternow than I did know about Terry before
he got to Auburn. My firstkind of introduction to to Terry we were

(03:02):
on the practice field and someone broughta radio out, uh, and the
coaches were listening to the Auburn Alabamafreshman game. That that Pat, you
know, Auburn fell behind and Patand Terry came back and beat Alabama.
And Uh, I still remember theexcitement of Jeane Lorendo, who was the

(03:25):
offensive coordinator and who had who hadrecruited Pat and and and Terry his his
his excitement was palpable. Uh,you know, fond memories of little things
like that. But then, ofcourse when I met Terry, Uh,
I was, I was. Iwas very impressed. You know, Terry

(03:47):
was much heralded. Uh and Iwas, I was. I was nowhere
close to being a starter then,but uh he he he was. He
was nice to everybody. It wasobvious. He was very very confident,
but he he was cocky without beingoffensive about it. Do you remember seeing

(04:10):
a first play You're like, wow, that guy's different Terry Beasley. Well,
the first play that I will alwaysremember is the first game of the
season, our sophomore year, ofthe very first pass, you know,
Pat Pat launched it along past toTerry. And the significance was not in

(04:32):
whether it was completed or not,which it was not, but the significance
what everybody remembers that that that wasa sign of things to come. And
you know that was the sign ofcoach Jordan God bless him. Uh.
You know, he he would hewould much rather run the ball, but
that was a sign that he recognizedwho he had on his team then and

(04:58):
he was going to take full advantageof it. There's been a lot written
about that first There's probably been morewritten about about an incomplete pass than probably
a lot of the past completions thatthey had over the years. I was
going to say, that's got tobe the most famous incompletion in Auburn history.
I mean, you hear people stilltalk about it all the time.

(05:21):
Yeah, I have no doubt.I have no doubt. That's absolutely incredible.
We're talking to Dick Smaltz, awide receiver for the Auburn Tigers in
the early seventies, played with PatSullivan and the recently deceased Terry Beasley,
who passed away at the age ofseventy three this week. So the offense

(05:41):
that you guys ran, what youthought you were going to run coming out
of John Carroll versus what you ranwas it? Was it very different?
I mean, was that kind ofthe transition of the Auburn offense? Well,
well, I think I think thearrival of Pat and Terry was an
to trans you know, to transitionthe offense to something entirely different than than

(06:04):
we had been used to. Butbut I think coach Jordan and obviously Coach
Lorendo and the team really really tookto it. Like the proverbial duck to
water. Yeah, no question aboutit, no doubt about it. How
about game wise games that you rememberthat you were involved with, and obviously
Terry Beasley involved with anything, Anyparticular games stand out for you. Well,

(06:31):
the one that stands out to mewas probably the most significant one of
my of my career, as aswell as Pat and Terry's, you know,
because that was the nineteen seventy oneAuburn Georgia game that we played in
Athens. The one that that peoplehave said is the one that Pat you

(06:55):
know, secured his Heisman trophy hopesand that game kind of kind of when
when I'm asked by people, whatyou know, what's your memory of Terry?
You know Terry obviously you got toremember the speed and you got to
remember the strength. And Terry caughttwo touchdown passes that day. One of

(07:16):
them he caught with with his famousover the outside shoulder catch that that he
was already I think seven or eightyards behind the nearest defender, and the
other one he caught Pat Pat hithim in a in a short crossing pattern
and two defenders hit him at thesame time, and he bounced off of

(07:40):
him and then outran everybody to theend zone. And and that kind of
you know to me, that thatuh, that typifies Terry's Terry's strength as
a receiver. And then of coursehe he had he had the unbelievable ability
to be at full speed after afterthree or four steps. And but he

(08:01):
also had the ability to cut ona dime as as the saying goes,
So he you know, being anold, old old receiver. One of
my pet peeves is watching games andthe receivers don't run precise routes like and
and maybe that's the new way todo it, and I just hadn't heard
about it yet. But Terry was. He he was fast enough and quick

(08:24):
enough and maneuverable enough. He ranhe ran very precise routes, which which
I mean for him to be asfast as he was plus to run as
precise a route as he did,it was not fair to the defense.
Dick. I just hear over andover and in Terry Beasley's passing, have

(08:45):
heard it over and over again aboutjust his toughness as a receiver too.
Can you talk to that, Ohhe was, I mean just just his
from his whole career, you know, just just what I mentioned about one
of his one of his catches againstGeorgia, he was hit simultaneously by two
defenders I think one linebacker and onedefensive back, and and it didn't even

(09:11):
phase him. He he just bouncedoff, didn't even stagger him. He
bounced off and he was five stepsdown toward the gold line before anybody realized
that he was still on his speedrunning. So I mean, to me,
that typifies how how he played thegame. And I you know,
and obviously what what none of usknew then the negative effects of being knocked

(09:35):
out or being hit it in thehead. I mean, he was,
he was. I mean, Idon't I don't know of anybody that that
was any tougher or who could havedone a better job. And it,
you know, it's bittersweet to thinkabout something that we all thought was a
good quality that ended up, youknow, really hurting him in later life.

(09:56):
Yeah, that dramatic comeback win overAlabama Knight teen seventy. I think
it was Alabama's Tommy Wade, whowas a very good player for the Crimson
Tide, and I think, uh, you know, according to reports,
knocked out Terry like knocked him outcold and then eventually Terry comes back into
the game. And again, likeyou said back then, that's like you
couldn't be more praiseworthy for doing thatsort of thing, to go back into

(10:18):
the game exactly exactly that that itwas. It was just a different time.
Yeah, and you know, wemade a lot of mistakes. I
used the week collectively. It wasnot just me, Yeah, Terry,
but but you know, the medicalpeople didn't know, and the coaches didn't
know, and so it you know, what happened happened, and so we're

(10:43):
left to, you know, too, to regret a lot of that.
Yeah, I agree with you completelyon a On a funnier note, I
think you have to regret going onthat Bob Hope All American show. I
got it just last night. Youknow, when I heard about this news,
it was so sad, and Iwent back and looked up some of
those Bob Hope shows and there's TerryBeasley chotting trotting out to some corny Bob

(11:09):
Hope joke for being an All American. But I just remember, as a
kid, dick, how much thatmeant to me to watch that and then
be like, oh wait, Iknow that guy. That's Terry Beasley.
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah,that that was funny. That's a laugh
a laugh when I think about it. Yeah, Pat Sullivan out there as
well ed Mari and Narrow was onthat same team that year, and uh

(11:33):
yeah, a whole bunch of guys. Uh. Anyway, it's a it's
fun to sit back and think aboutso how much and back in those days
early seventies, when you know,when when college football was obviously very big
even back then, how much ofa celebrity was Terry Beasley, you know,
big man on campus. Oh,of course he got h it would

(11:54):
have been it would have been hardfor Terry and Pat who had been any
bigger celebrities than than they were.I mean, and of course that was
again before before the internet. Souh, there's no telling what kind of
what kind of what their fame andcelebrity would would have been. And you

(12:15):
know, with the benefit of theinternet and and there's really no telling how
much they would have gotten in uhn I l mm hmm, yep,
there's no question. Yeah, Dick. I can remember as a as a
kid watching and I remember Pat Sullivangetting his hiinsman on the day before the
Iron Bowl, like he's sitting inBirmingham in a hotel room or something getting

(12:37):
the heisman, and and back thena lot of people were saying, you
know, Terry Beasley deserves part ofthat heisman. But it's just crazy to
think about that Pat Sullivan won theHeisman before playing in the Iron Bowl.
Do you remember all of that andhow that all went down? Oh,
yeah, yeah, we were.I think Pat was actually was actually watching

(12:58):
it, you know, Pat wasthen he had a couple of married teammates,
and I think Buddy Davidson and uhmaybe maybe a couple a couple of
the coaches. They were either ineither in Pat's apart, Patent Jean's apartment,
or maybe in uh Danny and DebbieSpagner's apartment. I'm not really sure,
but but the rest of the teamwas was in the TV room at

(13:24):
Sewell Hall, you know, theathletic dorm. And obviously when they made
made the announcement, we didn't evenhear him say Pat Sullivan. They said
from Auburn University. And then Imean the whole the whole room erupted and
I don't know how we knew todo it, but we all went over

(13:45):
to the memorial Coliseum, and Patand his entourage came over there too,
and it was just, you know, Pat, Pat and Jean were sitting
sitting on a couch and and uh, everybody, the whole team, I
don't know how many people there.We were all all standing around, smiling,
and Pat was saying all the thingsthat he always said, you know,

(14:07):
deferring credit to to this person andthat person, and you know,
he said, I feel like Ineed to give one arm of this to
so and so and and one legof this to so and so. And
you know, that's that's just theway Pat was. And he didn't do
it in a cheap kind of way. He did it in a in a
very sincere way. It's just,you know, that's just I mean,

(14:31):
I know you're you're asked, you'reasking me about Terry, but it's kind
of number one, it's kind ofhard to talk about Terry without talking about
Pat and and so that's why I'mmaking so many comments about Pat. But
no, there's no question. Butit was just, you know, it
was just I just, even afterall these years, I get a really

(14:52):
warm feeling thinking about that whole HeismanTrophy experience thing. And you know,
some people have have said that,you know that that's what cost us the
Iron Bowl, but I what,uh, I disagree. What what cost
us the Iron Bowl was that BillOliver, one of the greatest defensive minds

(15:13):
in the game of football, hadbeen at Auburn coaching at Auburn for I
think five or six or seven years, and that was the first year that
he went back to Alabama, whichis which was his alma mater. And
I mean, he probably knew ouroffense as well as we did. And
and you know it, it's likeyears later in nineteen ninety two, I

(15:39):
guess it was. I made abet with an Alabama fan when Alabama was
playing Miami, and I think Alabamawas maybe a two touchdown or ten point
underdog, and I said, I'lltake Alabama straight up. And he thought
he he had he had he hadstolen my money. And afterwards, I

(16:00):
said, no, I'm not goingto take you money. It wasn't a
fair bed. He said, why. I said, because Bill Oliver did
to us what the same thing thathe did to Miami. So I didn't
think there was any hope that Miamiwas going to win. Wow, that's
such a good start. So soI don't. I mean, it really
kind of wrangkles me a little bitwhen people say that that Pats Heisman Trophy

(16:23):
cost us the arm Bowl, becausenothing could be further from the truth.
Talking to Dick Smaltz, he playedwith Pat Sullivan and of course Terry Beasley,
who passed away this week at theage of seventy three. Dick,
I know your former Auburn player,but also a guy who follows the program
closely as an Auburn fans. I'mgoing to ask you this, whether it's
fair or not, I think TerryBeasley is a Mount Rushmore Auburn football player

(16:48):
along with the three Heisman Trophy winners. What do you say to that when
I make that statement, Well,if Terry's not, I don't know who,
and I don't mean anything personally againstanybody, but I think Cherrarry from
fifty two years ago is one ofthe very few people who could if you
picked him up out of nineteen seventyone and put him in twenty twenty four,

(17:12):
Terry could not only play, buthe could be one of the stars
of today's game. And I think, especially with the coming back of the
mobile quarterback, I think I putPat in that category two. And there's
not a whole lot of people thatyou can say that about and Terry.

(17:32):
I mean, there's probably not awhole lot of people today who are as
fast as Terry, and certainly whohave the toughness and the strength of Terry.
I mean, I know the gamehas changed, and I think with
Terry's physical qualities, he could easilyhave changed to where he would be still

(17:56):
a star today. So yeah,when they when they when they build the
Mount Rushmore, I think Terry shouldbe honest. Well, I'm glad somebody
as informed as you didn't make mefeel stupid with that. So thank you
for that, Dick. I appreciateit. I appreciate that. Hey,
uh so, Terry drafted in thefirst round of the forty nine ers didn't
have a whole lot of pro success. Do you think that was from based

(18:18):
on injuries at Auburn and the youknow, the concussion issues you had.
Do you think that was the mainreason for that? Oh, there there's
no doubt. And and you knowTerry's concussions were were publicized more than his
other injuries, but he but hehad a bad knee injury too that I
think I think held him back someat San Francisco. Mm hmm, yeah.

(18:41):
Uh, and I think I'm youknow, looking back, I think
probably the concussions had already started tohave an effect on him and on his
life. So you know, uh, there's no telling, but but I
mean it's it's you know, youwant somebody to uh, you know,
one of your heroes, and eventhough he was a teammate, he was
still one of my heroes. Youknow, you want your heroes to play

(19:03):
forever. But it just wasn't tobe. Yep. Well, Dick Malts
very humble about his own ability.Seven touchdowns in nineteen seventy one and forty
four catches, so not a slouchat all playing with Pat Sullivan and Terry
Beazy, who passed away this week. Terry Beesy is one of the all
time great players. Two of thetop eight receiving yards seasons in Auburn history

(19:27):
still belonged to Terry Beasley more thana half a century later. It's just
amazing, Dick. I'm so gladyou could come on and we could have
a good time reminiscing and remembering oneof the all time greats at Auburn,
Terry Beasy. I can't thank youenough. Man. Thank you. Let's
catch up again sometime. Okay,Well, Randy, thank you. I
can't thank you. And forgiving methis opportunity. I really appreciate it.

(19:49):
There you go. That is DickSmaltz, an excellent receiver in his own
right with the Auburn Tigers in theearly seventies, playing with Pat Sullivan and
Terry Beazy, who passed away thisweek at the age of seventy three.
It's appropriate to talk about this,obviously with this recent passing, but also
Terry Beasley, a nineteen seventy twoSenior Bowl member here during Senior Bowl Week

(20:10):
in Mobile. This is Sports Talkninety nine, TOY five