On one of McCallie’s special nights, a myriad of former players and coaches gathered Friday night to honor and remember former Blue Tornado coach Pete Potter who coached the boys in blue from 1973 to 1993 with a school best win-loss record of 155-67.
The school has now named the gridiron field Pete Potter Field at Bill Spears Stadium.
On a rainy night, but a good one for the Blue Tornado faithful, McCallie edged Ensworth, 42-35.
Mates For Life: None was more proud on this night than his widow Lorraine Potter who had her eye on Pete as a lifelong mate beginning in her ninth grade year at Red Bank High School in the fall of 1946.
“I knew he was the one for me as soon as I met him and waited for him through high school and college as we married in the mid-1950s,” said Mrs. Potter.
“Oh I dated other boys along the way, but I knew Pete was my man.”
Graduating as school valedictorian in 1950, Lorraine enrolled at the University of Chattanooga, while Pete had a stellar boxing career at the U. of Virginia.
"When he would come home during Christmas or summer breaks I made sure we stayed in touch,” said Mrs. Potter with a twinkle in her eyes.
Coach Potter first coached at North Side Junior High, then on to City High School where he had 96 freshman out for football in the fall of 1959 and also started the school’s boxing team.
Brainerd – City Boxing Team:
While Coach Potter went from City to the new school called Brainerd High School in the early 1960s, he was an assistant football coach later to be the head Rebels coach in the mid 1960s (and to McCallie in 1973) and also formed the boxing team.
One of his boxers was his younger brother, Jesse, who actually was a student at City.
“Once football season was over, Jack Towns, myself and a handful of other athletes would drive to Brainerd every afternoon in the winter months to box for Pete since the City team had disbanded and we could box for any school we chose as it as not a TSSAA sport,” Jesse stated.
“Probably Brainerd’s first team trophy was in Golden Gloves boxing in the early 1960s thanks to several City Dynamos who helped lead the team.”
Jesse and Towns won their local Golden Gloves titles wearing the Red and Powder Blue of Brainerd and were Southern runners-up.
“I had a broken knuckle on one hand and Jesse had broken ribs, but instilled with the Pete Potter never-give-up attitude, we boxed injured in the finals anyway,” Towns stated.
And the late coach Potter would have been proud of the fight and effort of the McCallie teenagers Friday night as they came-from-behind twice to beat Ensworth for the second year in a row.
Their reward? A trip to Florida to play Oxbridge Academy Thursday night and a couple of days to enjoy visiting Disney World among other central Florida sites.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net