UGA's Frankie Sinkwich
Always Went For The Goal Post  

By Harris Dalton

Rod Blaylock, our football coach at Americus High School, was a bona fide American hero, who as a bomber pilot flew 54 combat missions over Europe in World War II, but his favorite adventure story was about when he tried to tackle Heisman Trophy winner Frankie "Fireball" Sinkwich.

Blaylock was playing in the defensive backfield of the Mercer University eleven when the triple threat University of Georgia Bulldog broke through the line of tackle and headed down the sideline toward Mercer's goal line.

Coach Blaylock recalled, "I had the perfect angle to hem him up on the sideline and bring him down with a flying tackle. I had him penned against the sidelines when I left my feet at full speed to tackle him. I hit him perfectly, but it was like smashing into a Greyhound bus. I bounced off him like a BB pellet hitting a tank. I rolled over on the turf in time to see him crossing our goal line."

I had heard similar stories of Sinkwich's power and how he had never been knocked backward by a tackler, and his legend grew at the University of Georgia as the years passed.

By my senior year at UGA, I had a deal where I would cover speakers of Kiwanis and Rotary Club luncheons for the Athens Banner Herald. I covered some great Georgia names back then, such as Pierce Harris, Ed Danforth, Ed Rogers, Rev. Charles Allen and others. At one of those luncheons, I saw Frankie Sinkwich approaching me. He extended the hand of friendship, and I braced myself in anticipation of having my hand crushed in his bear trap grip. To my surprise, his strength seemed no greater than that of the bankers and lawyers gathered for the noonday social gathering. And he was shorter than I had imagined when I listened to his feats on the radio. For a moment of comical fantasy, I saw myself doing to him what Coach Blaylock had failed to do.

My sanity was restored when a club member joined us, and the two of them began to discuss a member of the '57 football team who was not performing up to Bulldog expectations.

Sinkwich said, "He's just got to want it more than his opponents. At the college level, everyone has athletic abilities, but the standouts are the ones who put their heart and soul into excelling."

"Yes," the club member agreed, "he hasn't reached that point where desire takes over and drives you to be the best you can be."

I had heard that even in practice, Sinkwich ran the length of the field when he broke into the clear because he envisioned a touchdown every time he touched the ball, and he was goaded on to sacrifice by Wally Butts who was never satisfied with a player's performance. Sinkwich's tenacity and talent, along with help from Charlie Trippi and others, brought the first national championship to Georgia when the team defeated UCLA in the 1943 Rose Bowl by the score of 9 to 0. Sinkwich went on to become the number one National Football League draft choice in 1943 and went on to play for Detroit.

I look back on that meeting realizing Sinkwich had God-given talent, but without the desire to get one more yard or to bull over a tackler, he would never have made it to the Olympian heights where he dwelled on the field of competition.

But no one can reach the pinnacle without being challenged, and sometimes in my fantasy, I long for that shot at Frankie that Coach Blaylock had. But who knows? If that happened, I might not be here to write about it.