Sharpe names ‘All-Nose’ team
Published 1:17 am Saturday, August 14, 2010
Former Andalusia High School football coach Don Sharpe has answered to many names in Andalusia.
He is “Donnie,” “Don,” or “Coach.” But to his fellow Class of 1958 teammates, he is “Nose,” short for “Shark Nose,” he said.
During his keynote speech at Friday night’s Hall of Fame induction banquet, he named the “All-Shark-Nose team.”
• James Palmer – “In 1958, he scored seven touchdowns. He scored the first time he touched the ball in seven games … after the rest of us in the huddle told him which way was right.”
• Lex Short – “He was a quarterback on two great teams, but he’s the slowest quarterback that ever played. Eddie Williamson could outrun him,” Sharpe said of Short’s former teammate. “He could drive the ball, but for some reason, he kept being forced to run the option and hand off to people like Bobby Johnson,” Sharpe said, indicating the team’s star running back, known for his speed.
![814Psharknose](https://www.andalusiastarnews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2010/08/814Psharknose-300x145.jpg)
Three of the four members of Coach Don Sharpe’s ‘All Shark-Nose Team,’ Lex Short, Tim Nall and Lucky Cope. The fourth member, James Palmer, also attended last night’s banqet, but left before photos were made.
• Tim Nall – “He was the best all-around football player I ever coached. Sometimes he thought he could coach better than the coaches. We’d come up with a new plan and he’d look at us like ‘I don’t know, Coach.’ Most of the time he was right.”
• Lucky Cope – “He was the toughest person I ever coached. We were glad when he graduated because if he had stayed another year, it would have broken the athletic program.
“Every day we had to wrap him with $20 worth of tape. Both thumbs, both wrists, both ankles, a knee and one shoulder.”
Sharpe recalled that he had a rule at the time that you couldn’t fight at school on Fridays.
“One day on Friday, some guy came up to Lucky’s girlfriend and pinched here on the derrierre. Lucky floored him in the gym.
“He came in my office and said, ‘Coach, I messed up,” Sharpe recalled. “He was a captain. In the make up of the rest of the team, he was one of the most important members. But no single person is more important than the discipline of the team.”
Sharpe said Cope went to midfield for the coin toss wearing blue jeans.
“It made a powerful impression on the other players,” he said.