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Bill Wade: Vanderbilt Football Legend 8/25/2004 by Bill Traughber In part two of his Commodore History Corner column, Nashville historian Bill Traughber recalls an interview with Vanderbilt football great Bill Wade. This interview between this writer and Bill Wade was first published in 1999. Long before professional football came to Nashville, a few Nashvillians came to professional football. Few were more celebrated than former Vanderbilt quarterback Bill Wade, who came up through the ranks at Nashville schools before going to Vandy and finally to the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears. Wade was born Oct. 4, 1930 in Vanderbilt Hospital and was one of two sons of former 1921 Vanderbilt football captain, William J. Wade, Sr. Wade began his athletic career at Woodmont Grammar School where he played the guard position. The most memorable experience at Woodmont was the first game he would play at Vanderbilt’s Dudley Field. His team played another grammar school as the halftime entertainment of a Vanderbilt game. He prepped at Montgomery Bell Academy after receiving a scholarship to the seventh grade. “MBA was the vital aspect of my total life,” Wade said from his Nashville home. “I walked to school almost everyday. We played the forerunner to the Clinic Bowl. We had played Isaac Litton at the first of the year and beat them, and I think they went through the rest of the season undefeated. They more or less challenged us to play at Vanderbilt Stadium. “So we played a game after the season was over against Isaac Litton. It was a super game. We had a large crowd, probably the largest high school crowd in the history of Nashville up to that point in 1947. Three touchdowns were scored in 22 seconds on the clock. We scored and kicked off to them, and Kenneth Duke ran the ball all the way for a touchdown. They kicked off to us, and Billy Joe Earhardt ran it all the way back for a touchdown. That was the headlines in the newspaper the next day.” MBA lost the rematch to Litton with Wade playing mostly at tailback. Occasionally, he played quarterback, usually in special formations to confuse the defense. When MBA was winning in a rout on two occasions, Wade followed his coach’s instructions by catching the ball on a punt and kicked it back to them. During his high schools days Wade would go over to Dudley Field to throw and kick the football for fun. The 15 year-old kid gained the attention of certain by-standers, by tossing the ball 50 to 60 yards. The kid had been noticed. As a versatile athlete, Wade also was a pitcher on the MBA baseball team. Vanderbilt’s head football Red Sanders offered Wade a football scholarship, he accepted without hesitation. He was practically raised on the campus, witnessing numerous games with his father as a youngster. Freshmen were ineligible for the varsity, so Wade played on the freshman team. Wade, learning the quarterback position as a freshman, led his team to victories over Ole Miss and Kentucky, and narrowly losing to Tennessee. Wade gained wide recognition as a freshman and was featured in Look magazine’s 1949 “Football Forecast” written by Vanderbilt graduate Grantland Rice. Wade was on the cover with two Vanderbilt co-eds. Rice ranked Vanderbilt third in the nation in a preseason poll. He wrote to watch out for sophomore Wade, an excellent passer and punter. “They had put my picture on the cover of Look magazine before the 1949 season started,” Wade said. “I didn’t play a lot my sophomore season, Jamie Wade (no relation) played more than I did and did a very good job. Red Sanders left and went to UCLA. Our coach was gone and Bill Edwards came down to be the coach. “We opened up against Georgia Tech with a full house, and I will never forget it. This Look magazine came out right before our first game. There I was on the front of Look magazine with Dot and Peggy Neal. Both of them were from Atlanta though they were in Vanderbilt. The crowd kept yelling at me, ‘Hey glamour boy.'” Wade’s last game of his career was a tough loss against Tennessee, which would eventfully become the national champions. The last collegiate pass he “completed” was to his younger brother, Don. Don Wade was a guard pulling on a screen pass to block when he went too far down the field. He instinctively caught the pass from his brother. The play was illegal and stopped Vandy’s final drive of the game. In Wade’s three seasons (1949-51) at Vanderbilt, he never had a losing season (5-5, 7-4, 6-5). Concluding his collegiate career, Wade was named the SEC’s Most Valuable Player and a second team All-American. He was also MVP of the 1951 North-South Shrine Bowl game in Miami. Wade also played in the Senior Bowl of 1952 and was selected to play in the College All-Star game in Chicago. Wade’s postseason performances caught the attention of the NFL scouts. It has been widely acclaimed and published that Wade was the first round pick of the Los Angeles Rams, but that is not correct. “In 1952, I was the Rams ‘bonus draft choice,'” Wade explained. “There is no such thing as a bonus draft choice any more, but at the time the professional football teams would put their names in a hat, and they would draw for a bonus draft pick for each team before the actual draft. There is no bonus draft pick today. “I was told that Frank Gifford resented me, because I was the bonus pick of the Rams. Gifford was a graduate of Southern Cal, and he wanted to be the bonus pick of the Los Angeles Rams. He was the No. 1 draft choice of the New York Giants. I was the bonus pick of the Rams and the No.1 draft pick of the Rams was Les Richter of California, a linebacker. “The Rams did Gifford a favor, because Gifford went to New York and he would never have had that broadcasting job that paid him tons of money. And he might never had met Kathie Lee (Wade laughing) if Gifford never went to New York.” After serving two years in the Navy as an officer, Wade entered the Rams training camp in 1954, competing with 100 other determined rookies. For two years Wade had to play in the shadow of Norm Van Brocklin. In 1956, he earned the starting quarterback slot and was the second leading passer in the NFL. But the next season a disappointed Wade found himself once again on the bench. “Our coach in 1954 was Hampton Poole and I felt that I had won the job fairly and squarely,” Wade said. “I did not get to play much, but every time I did we played well. In 1955, I was put on the bench again by the new coach Sid Gillman. “Van Brocklin had given them an ultimatum,” Wade said. “In 1957, either play him the whole time, or and if they didn’t win the championship they could trade him. They traded him and in 1958, I became the first string quarterback. It was very difficult for me to sit on the bench and watch him play football.” In 1961, his request for a trade was granted and went to the Chicago Bears where the highlight of his career was directing the legendary George Halas’ team to the 1963 NFL Championship. The game was played in Chicago’s Wrigley Field against Gifford’s New York Giants. Halas would let Wade call his own plays. He scored the Bears only two touchdowns in a 14-10 victory. “In the game, I was going to run the ball,” Wade said. “I felt that I could run against the Giants. On the first time I ran the ball, I made a fake to cut to my right and cut to back the left. I did not know that a guy was chasing me, and he knocked the ball out of my hands. They recovered the ball and went on to score. We had to come back from a deficit, because in my mind it was my problem because I had fumbled the ball. “We had two interceptions that led to our touchdowns. I made the two scores in the game on quarterback sneaks. I did not want to hand off to anybody. I did not want to take a chance on a fumble. I would have run quarterback sneaks until we scored.” During Wade’s final two seasons, he was hampered by injuries, which resulted in surgery on his knee. Serving one season in 1967 as an assistant coach, Wade returned to Nashville and began a banking career with Third National Bank. He retired from the bank in 1990. Wade, who had two sons and two daughters, has faced tragedy in his life. His brother Don, after being cut from the Rams, was killed in a car accident in 1956. Wade’s second son, Don died in 1985. “I was away too much,” said Wade, who has been a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for over 40 years and gave testimonials across the country. “My message is tide your time like you do your talent. “If I had been wise enough to see that my children were being hurt by my not being here enough, I would have never had gone to speak. I thought I was doing God’s work and I made a big mistake. Don’t go more than 10 percent of your time or your doing your family wrong.” Next week read about Vanderbilt’s first football teams in 1890-91. If you have any suggestions or comments you can contact Bill Traughber via e-mail. |
