CHARLIE BRANNON, ONE OF GREATEST, GOES ON

By Charlie Roberts

There is something sad about the passing of a superior athelete from the high school or college scene. There are so very few of them. One has just finished his prep school career at Brown High, and we can think of few through the years who have equalled the all-round excellence of quiet, mild-mannered Charlie Brannon.

This friendly, blond youngster, unblessed with two traits so necessary to athletic greatness - speed and weight - has been great despite the lack of them. Why? Because this 160-pounder is possessed in abundance of all the other necessary qualities - leadership, confidence, know-how and the intestinal fortitude that makes him just a little bit better when the chips are down.

All coaches under whom he played at old Boys' High and Brown - Shorty Doyal, Bill Orgain, Joel Eaves, J. E. DeVaughn and Jimmy Green - will tell you that the Georgia Tech-bound Brannon is "a little something extra special.

"It is a mighty big mouthful, I suppose," intones Brown's Head Football Coach, DeVaughn, "but I believe Charlie is one of the best all-round athletes to come out of Georgia since Clint Castleberry was at Boys' High in 1941."

Anent Brannon's all-round excellence, it should be set down that he has been regarded as perhaps the city's best fielding shortstop ever since he bobbed up from nowhere to win the first string berth as a freshman at Boys' High and several times his wide roving for base hit-labelled grounders was the difference in victory and defeat.

He was a B teamer in football and basketball his first year, but later came stardom at Brown in both sports that led all coaches who saw him to rate him with the best Georgia has had to offer.

How teammates felt about him is reflected by the fact that for two years he was chosen captain of Rebel teams in the three major sports in which he participated. That may be a record that no athlete in Georgia has ever equalled.

"I could talk about Brannon and how deeply I feel about him for three days," says Coach DeVaughn. "He was one of the best students in school. On the athletic field he is modest, smart and a great leader. We will be lost for a long time without him.

"Usually other boys have some feeling of jealousy for a teammate who gains the acclaim that Charlie did, but he was one of those few boys who was so well regarded by the others that they felt only pride in his accomplishments and didn't begrudge him the publicity.

"He was a player's player if you ever saw one, and a coach's player, too. He lost himself in the team, and all he did was for the good of the team. Because Charlie was such a broken field runner, people lost sight of the fact that he probably was the best blocker and defensive man on our State Class AA championship football team.

"When Brannon was injured we sent him into the first Marist game for only one play. He made a tackle on a reverse play that would have gone for a touchdown and beaten us - Brown won, 7-6 - had he not been in there at sideback. Charlie is the best safety man I have seen, and he's also the coolest player I ever saw under fire.

"Charlie may not be big in size, but his is big of heart and, I believe, even lacking speed and size, that he will make Georgia Tech a very fine halfback."

The Brown basketball team, beaten only twice, has not been the same since Charlie was graduated two weeks ago. He let the other fellows do most of the scoring, but his great floor play and generalship had much to do with the near invincibility of Coach Roy Rowlett's Johnny Rebs.

One sidelight on Brannon's career is the fact that he and Ed (Bulldog) Carithers, all-State tackle, have played Damon and Pithias roles since pre-teenage days. Where you find one, you'll find the other.

The squat carrot-top and Charlie played together on the Mosley Park grid team, Boys High B team and for three years at Brown. No college could have gotten either without the other. They vowed that long ago, and it is Tech's good fortune that both are stars in their own right. Yep, they'll room together. Some girl will have a tough time breaking up that love affair.