Nov. 22, 2017
Doug Nettles (1971-73), Taylor Stokes (1971) and Walter Overton (1971-72, 1974) were the first African-Americans to play football at Vanderbilt and at the same time. But Nettles was the first African-American from Vanderbilt to play in the NFL. Perry Wallace (1968-70), the first African-American to play basketball for Vanderbilt and in the SEC, had an influence on Nettles’ decision to come to Vanderbilt from his Panama City, Fla. home.
“In that period, especially those last few years 1967-68-69, socially the country was in turmoil with the assignations [Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy] and riots,” Nettles said recently. “I just remember visiting a lot of schools when I saw an article about Perry Wallace and the things he had gone through.
“He said in the article not to run away from it [racism], but to run towards it. I remember Walter Overton and I got together on a recruiting trip to Vanderbilt and had a couple of conversations. I was going to Florida State and he was going to Western Kentucky. We both decided if we didn’t stay and do something we’d be running away. So we both decided to go to Vanderbilt because of Perry.”
Nettles began his collegiate football in 1970 for Commodores’ head coach Bill Pace in an era where freshmen were ineligible for varsity competition. The six-foot, 180-pound cornerback would start in his sophomore season never giving up his position through his senior year. He excelled on special teams returning kickoffs that placed him in the Vanderbilt record book.
In his sophomore season, the Commodores were 4-6 (1-5 SEC) with wins over Chattanooga, Mississippi State, Tulane and Tampa. Nettles revealed his athleticism and speed with a pick-six for 28 yards against Mississippi State in the third game of the season.
“We were having a pretty good day against Mississippi State all the way around,” said Nettles. “They kept running slant routes since our linebackers were crowding the line. I anticipated one and the quarterback threw the ball too soon and I read it. I broke on it and took it to the outside. There was nobody there. We won 49-19.”
Later in that season Nettles and the Commodores played a game against Virginia in Charlottesville where the weather was a challenge getting to the game the day before. Nettles had a pleasant experience on game day with a record play that got him in trouble.
“That was a bad trip for us,” said Nettles. “It was after Hurricane Ginger. We were sitting in Nashville’s airport waiting on the hurricane to move out for better weather to land in Charlottesville. For some crazy reason that hurricane stopped when we got into the air. When we were getting close to Charlottesville that plane was going up and down. It was rocking all over the place.
“The pilot told us we couldn’t land there that we would land at Dulles Airport [Washington, D.C.] He told us to hang on while he took the plane over the clouds. Those winds caught it and dropped us a couple of hundred feet in seconds and guys were screaming and passing out. So we landed in Dulles. We got to Charlottesville about eight that night. It was a horrible trip.”
As far as the game, Vanderbilt lost to the Cavaliers 27-23 where there wasn’t any hot water in the stadium and a muddy field. Nettles took a kickoff on the five-yard line and returned it 95 yards, which at the time was a school record.
“They kicked off and I went to the middle,” said Nettles. “Then I cut to the inside and to the outside. Guys were chasing me and they couldn’t get a footing and were slipping. But, I had my footing, got outside and took it to the house. But what got me in trouble was when I was on the 10-yard line I turned and waved the ball at the guys running behind me.
“[Coach Bobby] Procter was mad about me showboating and he was yelling at me. I saw Deion Sanders do the same thing once, but I was the first to do that. Their quarterback was George Allen, Jr., who was later a Senator from Virginia. We were at a golf tournament a few years ago and I reminded him of that. I told him I got the touchdown, but you guys won the game.”
Vanderbilt was 3-8 (1-5 SEC) for Nettles’ junior season with victories over Chattanooga, Virginia and William & Mary.
“That was Pace’s last year,” Nettles said. “By that time we thought we had too much talent not to be winning SEC games. There was a lot of dissention between the offense and the defense. The offense wasn’t scoring enough and the defense was struggling even if we had good games we were still losing. There weren’t many highlights that season.”
After that season, 28-year-old Steve Sloan a former All-American quarterback for Alabama and Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant replaced Pace. Sloan had been the offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.
“I loved that change,” Nettles said. “He called me into his office and the first thing he said was, ‘there isn’t much difference between us in age.’ At that point on I knew I was going to like this guy. He basically asked me to be candid with him and tell him what was going on with the team. I told him what I thought and so did the other rising seniors on what we thought the way things should go.
“When I met Bill Parcells [defensive coordinator] I knew that we were going to have a good defense. There was one practice that was about 95 degrees and he kept the entire secondary out there running drills when everybody else was getting water. You knew where you stood with him. Steve left him alone to run the defense. Steve was a great human being and Parcells was tough. That combination really worked.”
With the new coaching staff Vanderbilt improved to 5-6 (1-5 SEC) with wins over Chattanooga, Virginia, William & Mary, Georgia and Tampa. The key game was the 18-14 upset over Georgia. Nettles knew whom to credit for the team’s improvement.
“Steve had a great offensive mind and Bill toughened the defense tremendously,” said Nettles “It wasn’t just tackle them; it was hit ‘em. One person better not make the tackle, there better be two or three making the tackle. That was his philosophy. He took that to the NFL. Steve was good at understanding the talent that he had and utilizing it.
“Steve adapted to his talent where Pace just wanted you to do his system. That was like putting a round peg in a square hole. He was very stubborn about that. Steve was more relaxed and at practice he was joking around and talking to us. Steve was a very religious guy and afraid of lightening. Whenever he saw lightening in the distance he’d say, ‘Okay, that’s it. Practice is over.’ We thought he was kidding, but we went inside to look at films. We liked him and wanted to play for him.”
Nettles led Vanderbilt in kickoff returns for all three seasons he played. He left Vanderbilt as the all-time return leader in yardage (1,450) that is currently ninth-best. Nettles’ 95-yard TD is good for sixth place all-time.
“I was a running back in high school and ran kickoffs,” said Nettles. “I was always fast. Walter [Overton] ran back punts and I ran back kickoffs. I didn’t like returning punts. It was just a matter of running up the field and using your running back skills. One of the things we did was put linebackers and defensive backs blocking for me. It was like a brotherhood with guys that I trusted to block for me.”
Nettles would play in the Blue-Gray Classic and the Senior Bowl. It was at the postseason all-star games where Nettles’ draft stock rose.
“What got me rated a lot higher was Gerald Tinker who was from Kent State. [Tinker was on the Gold Medal 4 x 100 meters relay team in the 1972 Olympics.] During practices we would do a lot of one-on-one situations. He just couldn’t do much against me. I remember scouts saying I was having good practices and doing well against Tinker one of the fastest guys in the country.
“I told them, ‘I’m fast too.’ Then the next week I flew to Miami for the Senior Bowl where Pepper Rodgers from UCLA was our coach and our quarterback was Mark Harmon [actor on the TV series NCIS]. Mark and I were roommates. The guys elected him offensive captain and I was the defensive captain.
The Baltimore Colts drafted Nettles in the fifth round (129th overall). In his rookie season, the Colts were 2-12 with Howard Schnellenberger coaching the first three games before being fired and replaced by Joe Thomas, who finished the year. Nettles played in 13 games with four starts.
“Schnellenberger got fired in the middle of the third game in Philadelphia,” said Nettles. “Bob Irsay [Colts owner] walked past us and told Schnellenberger to put [quarterback] Bert Jones in the game. Howard, being the person that he was, used profanity and told him to get off the field. Irsay told him, ‘I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.’ Then he told him, ‘you’re fired.’ Irsay looked around at the offensive line coach Whitey Dovell and said, ‘who are you?’
“He answered ‘Coach Duvall.’ Irsay said, ‘Okay, you’re the new head coach, put Jones in the game.’ Whitey told him he wasn’t doing anything. It was amazing how news travels. Some of the Eagles’ players were asking us if our coach got fired. After the game in the locker room Howard, Joe and Irsay were in a room screaming at each other. All of a sudden Irsay came out and walked past Mike Curtis [Colts linebacker].
“Curtis told Irsay, ‘look you idiot, you can’t fire a coach in the middle of the game.’ Irsay stormed out of the locker room. Then Joe Thomas stood up on a table and told us Howard was no longer our coach that he was taking over, which was a joke. Thomas thought that we were practicing too hard. We would have practices for an hour and a half. I would go to practice at 9:00 AM and be home by noon. This was the NFL.”
The next season (1975), Ted Marchibroda became the Colts new head coach and Thomas was moved to general manager. Under Marchibroda’s guidance, Baltimore would be 10-4 and AFC Eastern Division Champions. Bill Billichick was an assistant coach and worked with Nettles on special teams.
“We were 1-4 and held a players-only meeting,” said Nettles. “We decided there was too much talent on that team and not winning. Joe Thomas busted into the room and said, ‘I know this is a players-only meeting, but I’ve got to say something. Thomas said, ‘If you lose another game, I will get rid of every last one of you and start a whole new team. Now talk about that.’ Then he left. We all looked at each other and thought other than the threat, he was right. We committed to stopping the nonsense and dedicated ourselves to winning.
“We had to win nine straight games. We beat the Jets and Cleveland then we had to go to Buffalo. That was the special one. We were down 24-7 at halftime. We were calm and knew we could turn this around. Juice [O.J. Simpson] was running all over us the first half. We decided to stop No. 32 [Simpson]. We shut them down and won. We did win nine straight.”
The Colts lost to the Steelers in Pittsburgh 28-10 in the playoffs. Nettles said he was busy trying to cover Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, both Hall of Famers. He thought Stallworth was the better receiver since he “ran perfect routes” but Swann was more athletic.
Nettles missed all of the 1976 season with a separated shoulder that placed him on the injured reserve list.
“The NFL for some stupid reason had a rule that if you missed the first game you couldn’t come back off injured reserve. I think it was in response to teams loading people on their reserve team like the Redskins just bringing them in and out. They were trying to stop that. They only had that rule for one year. I was fine after four weeks, but all I could do was practice and hold a clipboard during games.”
In his final two seasons in Baltimore, Nettles became the special teams captain while starting at cornerback. In 1977 the Colts were AFC Eastern Division Champions for the third consecutive year with a 10-4 record. They lost a heartbreaker in the playoffs to Oakland (37-31) in Baltimore that went into two overtimes. It the final playoff game played in Memorial Stadium.
“I wouldn’t watch that game for five years,” said Nettles. “We were so close. That was our year that we could have won the Super Bowl. It hurt. A friend once called me to tell me my game against Oakland was on TV. I wouldn’t watch it. I told him if we won that time to call me back [Nettles laughing].
“In the latter part of the game Raymond Chester [Colts receiver] ran a post corner where we could have sealed it. [Jack] Tatum stumbled and fell down. Raymond was wide open in the corner and Bert overthrew him. Bert said that he wasn’t rushed, but should have held the ball a second longer so he could have floated the ball to him. It was a Christmas Eve day game and I couldn’t get out of bed Christmas Day. It took a toll on my body playing two overtimes, which is a game and a half. It was great to be part of NFL history.”
The next two seasons Baltimore was 5-11 and 5-11. Nettles started both seasons but became a New York Giant in 1980. He only played in two games for head coach Ray Perkins and retired saying, “I had my fill of the NFL so I retired. One of the reasons I went to Vanderbilt was to get a good education and a degree to do something in life.”
“In 1977, Irsay had fired Ted in preseason for some stupid reason,” said Nettles. “We got together and had a meeting and told Joe we weren’t going to take the field unless he hires Ted back. We thought we could make a run for the Super Bowl that year with Ted. Whether we would have done it, I don’t know.
“We said we’d practice, but on game day we wouldn’t take the field and stand on the sideline, which would be embarrassing. He buckled and rehired Ted. Irsay took offense to a lot of us that were behind that. He got rid of Lydell [Mitchell], Stan White, Mike Curtis and [Nelson] Muncie. He fired Ted [after the 1979 season] and brought in Mike McCormack as the new head coach. It was a slow process of getting rid of the guys that had stood up and embarrassed him. They cut me and I was the starting corner going into the season. I went to the Giants to be a back-up corner and play special teams.”
At that time Billichick was the special teams coach for the Giants. One issue that has become very serious in football today, especially in the NFL, is the culture of concussions. Nettles suffered four in his NFL career and talked about his first head injury.
“We were playing against Chicago and early in the game Walter Peyton ran an off-tackle play,” said Nettles. “I lowered my head to hit him and he lowered his head and just exploded into my tackle. That is all I remember. He got up and I didn’t. I was carried off the field. The doctor asked me where I was. I saw a Soldier Field sign so I said Soldier Field. He said ‘Doug, what is your name?’ I said, Doug. He sent me back out.
“I walked to the Bears’ huddle. The referee told me I was in the wrong huddle. I don’t remember any of this; this is what they told me. I walked to our huddle and Bruce Laird our safety saw me and said I wasn’t okay. He called time out and I left the game.
“I do remember being on the plane flying home. I looked at Fred Cook and said, ‘when we get to Chicago let’s go to Unos, a great pizza place I heard of. He looked at me and said. ‘Doug, we are on our way home.’ On Monday I was back practicing. If it were today, I would miss two or three weeks due to the protocol.”
Nettles said that the toughest receivers he covered in the NFL were Paul Warfield, Wesley Walker, Lynn Swann and Charley Taylor. All, but Walker are in the Hall of Fame.
His first of seven career interceptions was off Green Bay quarterback Jerry Tagge. Nettles also had four career blocked punts with one bouncing through the end zone for a safety. “If the ball was round, I would have had a touchdown,” Nettles said about the safety.
After retiring from the NFL, Nettles was in medical sales for 20 years. He became a teacher 15 years ago and currently teaches at Landon School, an all-boys private school in Bethesda, Maryland.
Said Nettles about his time at Vanderbilt, “The educational part of Vanderbilt was special. It was the ‘Harvard of the South’ with a great reputation from an academic standpoint. From an athletic standpoint it prepared me for an opportunity to show what I could do in the NFL.”
Traughber’s Tidbit: The first time concerning Vanderbilt football: First game and win Nov. 27, 1890 (Vandy 40, Peabody 0); First train trip–Nov.7, 1891 to Sewanee (Vandy 22, Sewanee 0); First radio broadcast–Nov.10, 1928 from Atlanta versus Georgia Tech (Dave Morris did the play-by-play on WSM radio—Ga. Tech 10, Vandy 7); First night game–Oct. 28, 1933 at LSU—Vandy 7, LSU 7; First airplane trip–Sept. 26, 1947 to Chicago to play Northwestern (Vandy 3, Northwestern 0); First TV broadcast–Dec. 31, 1955 from the Gator Bowl; First indoor game(Vandy 25, Auburn 13)–Oct. 4, 1975 at the New Orleans Superdome against Tulane (Vandy 6, Tulane 3).
Tidbit Two: Although it was not known at the time, an invitation to the Rose Bowl was waiting for Vanderbilt if it had beaten Alabama on Thanksgiving Day 1937. It was the final game of the season with Vanderbilt ranked No. 12 and Alabama No. 4 before the game. With the Commodores leading 7-6 with six minutes to go in the game, Tide substitute, Sandy Sanford, connected on a 23-yard field goal from a difficult angle to give the victory to the Tide, 9-7. The Commodores finished the season 7-2. The other loss was 14-0 at Georgia Tech.
If you have any comments or suggestions contact Bill Traughber via email WLTraughber@aol.com.
