Sept. 10, 2008
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Inaugural Hall of Fame Class | HOF Dinner Tickets On Sale
Vanderbilt is planning a special Hall of Fame weekend for September 12-13. A series of events will unfold over those two days, capped by the Induction Banquet Friday evening, September 12 and the Class of 2008 being presented at halftime of Saturday’s Rice football game. VUcommodores.com will spotlight one inductee per day leading up to the Hall of Fame weekend.
Carolyn Russell is pretty sure she knows what her dad would have said had he been alive for the news that he had been voted into the inaugural class of the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame.
“There must be some mistake,” would likely have been what Fred Russell, the legendary Nashville Banner journalist who passed away in 2003, would have quipped.
“He would have been humbled to think he was in the same class with one of his heroes, Coach McGugin, his close friend, Roy Kramer and Clyde Lee, who was the subject of so many of his columns,” Carolyn says.
Mr. Russell, as so many of his admirers called him, wrote an estimated 12,000 columns during his 69 years with his beloved Banner. He would have celebrated his 102nd birthday August 27 and delighted tens of thousands of readers during his 96 years in Middle Tennessee.
Many think of Russell as the consummate Southern gentlemen but those who were lucky enough to know him a bit closer than his “Sidelines” column knew he was one of the all-time best practical jokers.
Everyone has a favorite Fred Russell memory but for some a luncheon on Friday, September 10, 1997 at the University Club is tops.
Southeastern Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer was in town for the next day’s televised football game with Alabama. It was his birthday and Mr. Russell was invited to join a group of about a dozen Vandy staffers who had been hired by Kramer.
As the plates were pushed aside, Russell began regaling Kramer with his funniest stories: the switched top hat practical joke; the Chicago hotel wake-up call; his Tennessee basketball pre-game party where a “game official” just happened to drop by; the bragger whose car either got 3 miles per gallon or 50. No stand-up comedian ever got more laughs.
Daughter Carolyn is right, however, when she remembers her dad’s shy streak.
In November, 1999, Mr. Russell was going to be honored by the Vanderbilt Library in conjunction with another of his heroes, fellow sports journalist legend Grantland Rice. Both had donated personal papers to the library archives and some celebration of their great careers was in order.
Despite multiple attempts to convince Mr. Russell that a larger venue was necessary due to public interest in his life and work, he steadfastly insisted that a much smaller reading room in the library was sufficient.
On this occasion, before a standing-room-only group of well-wishers, it was Roy Kramer that provided much of the program as he arrived on a chartered jet from his SEC duties to deliver what many considered to be a living eulogy for his own personal hero.
During this memorable tribute, Kramer revealed that as a school boy he had not been interested in reading but loved sports. Kramer said his teacher wisely handed him a copy of “I’ll Go Quietly”, one of several books written by Mr. Russell. Nearly a half-century later, Kramer remembered that turning point moment.
Carolyn Russell remembers how her dad loved Vanderbilt University.
“He believed in Vanderbilt,” she says. “He practically grew up on its campus. He went to the old Duncan School, which sat on the same ground that Memorial Gymnasium now occupies. He was so proud that one of his mother’s (Mabel Lee McFerrin Russell) compositions was featured at the dedication of the statue of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1897.”
There is something else that Carolyn is certain that her dad would have done after getting the news of the Hall of Fame Class of 2008.
“He would have sat down at his typewriter and written a story about each one of the other inductees.”
Indeed. Fred Russell chronicled the history of Vanderbilt athletics in many ways. In years to come, historians will continue to turn to his words to better understand the glories and stories of Commodore athletics for the majority of the 20th Century.
MORE HALL OF FAME COUNTDOWN FEATURES:
09/09/08: Bill Wade was Nashville’s All-American boy
09/08/08: Peggy Brady thankful for opportunity
09/07/08: Perry Wallace continues to inspire others
09/06/08: Dan McGugin’s legacy stands strong
09/05/08: June Stewart honored to be in inaugural class
09/03/08: John Hall a student-athlete in every sense
09/02/08: Roy Kramer reflects on special years at Vanderbilt
09/01/08: John Rich’s success spurred by Vanderbilt experience
08/31/08: Chantelle Anderson still pinching herself
