I was the Senior Basketball Manager at GA Tech in 1949/50 when, as I recall, our Yellow Jackets lost to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. Several of us team members went out and had a beer or two after the game concluding that our season was done. Coach Roy MacArthur caught me coming in after curfew and told me that he was not going to give me a letter, which he did not. I did not manage the next year because of injury from a bad fall in late summer of 1950.
Advance to 1986, I believe it was, my 35th reunion. I was walking down Fowler Street on the Tech campus and ran into Mickey Sermersheim, GT Hall-of-Fame guard and Captain of our team, and several of our teammates. It was the first time I had seen any of these guys since graduation. Mickey asked me why I had not attended any of the Lettermen’s Games now held every year. I reminded him that I had not been given a letter and they all recalled why.
The next winter, Mickey invited me to the Lettermen’s Game. I went even though I felt somewhat out of place. At the Letterman’s banquet after a varsity basketball game, Coach Bobby Cremins made an inspirational talk and then asked me to join him at the microphone. He and 90-year-old former Head Coach Whack Hyder, who succeeded MacArthur and under whom I had served as Freshman Basketball manager, then gave me a letter, complete with blanket, sweater, etc……37 years after I and my teammates felt that I had earned it.
It was was a sweet moment indeed. I will always cherish it and my Letterman symbols.
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