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Transcript from "'42 to '45"

Then the war intervened and were you Army Air Corps, is that what you were?

I was in the Air Force, yes.

Where were you, Charley ?

Well, I started out in Greensboro. I played both baseball and football there. Then I went to the Third Air Force in Charlotte and played on the Third Air Force football team. From there we went to our headquarters in Tampa, so I played football there, but I lived out of Clearwater Beach, so what we did, most of us lived out there, so we would commute back and forth. We would go to practice in the morning at the base. We would have lunch, and then we would go home. That was our job for the day. We had no duties at all. All we did was practice football and go home, and go to the beach.

So you represented the Air Force on a football team for your years?

Yes. That is all I did in the service. I never held a gun. I never went to bivouac. I never did anything. All I did was play baseball and football. I didn’t feel like I was in the service really.

And you all won too, I bet?

Yes. We had good teams, yes.

You returned to Athens for part of the 1945 season, was that right ?

Yes, as I expressed earlier, I was a month late. They had already played five games when I got here, see.

But they were able to work you into school and onto the field before the end of the season, right.

Yes.

Was that the season you went to the Oil Bowl?

Yes, we played Tulsa in the Oil Bowl, yeah.

Then in 1946, you were the captain of the team.

That’s right.

And it was an undefeated season.

Undefeated and we went to the Sugar Bowl.

SEC Championship?

Yes.

Another memorable year while you were there?

That was a great year because it was my last year and I was the captain of the team and I wanted to leave on a good note, you know, and get ready for professional football.

What were some of the highlights of that year. Was Johnny Rauch the quarterback?

Johnny Rauch was the quarterback, and a good quarterback. Johnny Rauch started out as a freshman and played in four bowl games as a quarterback, which is a record you know. Normally, you know, freshmen are to be seen and not be active on the football field, but he did the job and quite well.