« on: August 16, 2010, 03:25:43 PM »
On the anniversary of D-Day this story about Shug Jordan by Al Benn ran in the Montgomery Advertiser. I tried to find an electronic copy of it but could not. I eventually wrote Mr Benn directly to see if he would send me an electronic copy that I could post on here, which you will see below with his response. Enjoy. I know I did.
Howard: Here's the column. I'm trying to get something that looks like how it appeared in the paper and if I do, I'll send that, too. I met Shug a few times during my journalism career including the day that Jimmy Sidle signed with the Cowboys. As you may know, Shug grew up in Selma and was one of Paul Grist's favorites. Grist was a legendary YMCA director in Selma and was known around the country--just like Shug would become during his coaching days. Best regards--Al
This is the day “Shug” almost died.
It was June 6, 1944 and Army Capt. Ralph Jordan had just splashed ashore at Normandy to lead his engineers in setting explosives to penetrate a German seawall aimed at slowing the Allied advance. It was imperative for the engineers to do their job quickly because tanks were waiting on the beach for the seawall to be breached in order for them to push through toward the French interior. Moments later, a German 88 mm artillery shell exploded nearby on Utah Beach, sending shrapnel into his left shoulder and showering others in his brigade.
He might have died that morning if an artery had been severed by the shrapnel, but luck was with him. Other troops with him were killed or seriously wounded on the first day of the D-Day invasion.
Most college football fans know “Shug” Jordan as a coaching legend who guided the Auburn Tigers to a national football championship in 1957 and had more victories than any gridiron coach in the school’s history. What they most likely don’t know is the fact that he was also quite a soldier, a man who took part in much more than the Normandy invasion 66 years ago today.
Jordan’s military record is well documented, but he tended to downplay his role and when he came home he never made a big thing out of his Purple Heart for that wound at Normandy. The same applied for other combat medals and ribbons that filled several rows of his uniform for action during invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Okinawa which was halfway around the world.
It’s could be easily assumed that few U.S. soldiers took part in five amphibious invasions from Europe to the South Pacific during World War II. “Shug” was one who did. “What little I know about my dad’s war experiences came from talking to other people because he never said much to us about what he did,” said Ralph Jordan Jr. Author Rich Donnell was one of the last journalists to interview Jordan, who died 30 years ago next month. In “SHUG: The Life and Times of Auburn’s Ralph ‘Shug’ Jordan, the coach talked about the war and what he saw around him at Utah Beach.
“I saw’em stacked up like cordwood,” he told Donnell. “I could easily have been one of them. I had been scared before I went over there and I was damn sure scared over there.”
Capt. Henry McHarg, another officer in Jordan’s engineer brigade, wrote Auburn University President Hanly Funderburk about his friend’s courage under fire and after being wounded. Jordan refused to be evacuated for treatment, McHarg said. He basically asked to be stitched up so he could stay with his troops during the initial phase of the invasion. Ralph Jordan Jr. said he learned that after his father was wounded, he and a second soldier could not be found. That’s when a search party was formed to look for them.
“They found my dad propped up against a seawall smoking a cigarette,” Jordan Jr. said last week during a telephone interview from his home near Knoxville, Tenn. “He was waiting for help to arrive.”
In his letter to Funderburk, McHarg mentioned the wound and wrote: “It hurt him like hell, but he knew he wasn’t going to die. After awhile he couldn’t use his arm and he broke out in a tremendous fever. It was a fine thing to have done to stay on the beach.”
An Army doctor gave Jordan a local anesthetic as he began to dig the metal out of his arm, but the pain was evident during the battlefield procedure, according to those in his unit. Eventually evacuated across the English Channel to an Army hospital, Jordan received more treatment, but insisted on rejoining his unit and was allowed to go back to France.
“My dad and all the others who served with him were patriots,” said Jordan Jr. “They understood the freedoms they had and would continue to have thanks to those willing to protect them.”
When Jordan returned home after the war, he resumed his role as husband, father and coach of a football team that he helped mold into one of the best in the country. James “Red” Phillips of Alexander City and Bill Cody of Fairhope--both Auburn All-Americans who became stars in the professional ranks, used the same term to describe Jordan.
“He was a great gentleman and coach,” said Phillips. “It seemed he didn’t feel much pressure and it was an honor to have played for him.”
“He allowed his assistants to do the coaching and he kept things moving,” said Cody. “He always had a positive attitude and when we lost, he’d tell us we could learn from our mistakes.”
In 1973--two years before Jordan retired--the university renamed Cliff Hare Stadium Jordan-Hare Stadium. It was the first time that such an honor was bestowed on an active coach. Jordan was diagnosed with acute leukemia in April of 1980 and he died at his home on July 17 of that year. He was 69 years old. Six of his former players served as pallbearers--another sign of the impact he had made on them. The same could be said of his leadership on Utah Beach where he refused to be evacuated for treatment of his wound so that he could stay with his men.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2010, 03:34:16 PM by Godfather »
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