Frank Ingram

The Most Memorable Game of Uncle Mack’s Life

In the 1950’s, Uncle Mack was an All-American High school football player for the Wildcats at Jackson County High, located about five miles outside of Locust Grove Georgia. In his youthful days, Uncle Mack was considered to be the best athlete to ever play high school football in the state of Georgia. At the age of sixty-five, Uncle Mack is remembered by a game he played in that displayed his exceptional of athletic talent. In the 1951 football state championship between the mighty Jackson County Wildcats and relentless Griffin Bears, my uncle broke four state records.

Uncle Mack’s body stature was intimidating to most people. He stood about six foot three, weighed a whopping two hundred thirty pounds and he had long black braided hair that stretched from his head to his knees. My uncle walked with a vicious stomp that had a thunderous boom. His face was very dark masked with coils of thick black hair and he had protruding eyes that covered all angles of sight. His arms were long like gorilla arms with mountains of muscle mass stacked on top of one another. The most unordinary feature was his extended nose covered with lumps and bumps that depict a resemblance of a star crunch.

In addition to his intimidating features, Uncle Mack was a very fast runner. Everyday before football practice, Uncle Mack would run two miles around his high school with two forty-five pound truck tires hugged around his shoulders. He said this exercise helped build his speed and his explosive power in his upper body. However, there were times when he was teased and laughed at by some of his teammates because they thought he looked like a jackass with tires squeezed around his body. Yet, he ignored his teammates’ criticism and began to chase the big white chickens on his mother farm as an additional exercise to increase his speed.

Little did his teammates, coach and opponents know that Uncle Mack had been preparing himself to be the best player in the championship game. As it was getting close to game time, tension mounted between players when Uncle Mack said he was going to be the most valuable player in the game. However, some players felt Uncle Mack was not ready to play at the highest level of high school competition. Yet, he was the second team running back and a first team linebacker of which both required much skill. Uncle Mack was a smart player and also he had the skills of a big time football player. In all the games leading up to the championship, he displayed flashes of an animal ready to break loose out of a cage. When the game started on the first play from scrimmage, the starting running back only rushed for three yards. The head coach had to replace the starting running back quickly so he called up Uncle Mack. As opposed to the starting running back who only tiptoed three yards on the first play from the line of scrimmage, on the second play from the line of scrimmage uncle Mack received a handoff from the quarterback and rumbled eighty yards up the football field for a touchdown. The cheerful crowd had got very excited over this remarkable play.

Shortly after uncle Mack scored his eighty- yard touchdown run, the announcer told the fans over the P.A. system that he had broken the state record for the longest touchdown ever by a running back in a state championship game. A few series later, he was on the fierce defense causing all kinds of havoc. On his first defensive series he blasted through the offensive line like he was shot out of cannon and sacked the quarterback ten yards in the backfield. When the quarterback got up, his helmet twisted around his head like a pretzel with backside of the helmet blinding his vision. During the second series on defense he intercepted the football and then ran seventy yards down the football field for another touchdown. Intercepting the ball and scoring a seventy- yard touchdown was another record set in a championship game. In each series he played, his confidence began to grow and this enabled him to reach his athletic peak. His eyes started protruding out more, his arms and legs began to swell like the incredible Hulk’s and his voice had begun to moan a deep bone shattering sound. Later on in the game, Uncle Mack kicked a towering sixty- yard field goal to put his team far ahead of the other team. The sixty- yard field goal had destroyed a twenty-year-old record of forty-five yards held by his head coach Jim Morris. Last, on the final play of the game, Uncle Mack caught a pass that went ninety yards for another score. The pass went ninety yards and established him as the first player to have more total yards than an opponent combine total yards in a high school championship football game.

Uncle Mack had predicted he would have the best game of his life. Yet, no one believed him. Nonetheless, he displayed the most unforgettable talent played in a 1950s high school championship game in the state of Georgia. Even now, people call Uncle Mack “the human highlight” because he was a shining star throughout his entire football career.