The Legend of Doug Atkins.

#26
#26
:hi:Heard John Madden on a San Fran radio show about 10 years ago say Atkins was one of the top-3 all-time NFL greats, forget the other two, maybe Unitis and Brown. Madden also said the years that Doug would play in the Pro Bowl, the opposing starting players would cancel or feign injury, so as not to have to play against him. He lives next door to a friend of mine in Holston Hills, and heard he is in a wheel chair.
 
#27
#27
Volle said:
:hi:Heard John Madden on a San Fran radio show about 10 years ago say Atkins was one of the top-3 all-time NFL greats, forget the other two, maybe Unitis and Brown. Madden also said the years that Doug would play in the Pro Bowl, the opposing starting players would cancel or feign injury, so as not to have to play against him. He lives next door to a friend of mine in Holston Hills, and heard he is in a wheel chair.
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Holston Hills, Knoxville?.....those are my old stomping grounds. Grew up there. Got in a lit of trouble there tool lol.
 
#30
#30
OldGrandad said:
My dad and I watched Doug play at UT when I was just a kid. He and my dad were close friends and remained so through the years. While I was in high school, Doug once held his big arm out and I did a chinup on his arm and I wasn't a little guy!

Here's a photo of Doug and my dad from around 56 or '57. For size reference, dad was 6' tall.

A great guy with a great sense of humor.
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Great Pic.
 
#38
#38
I knew Doug pretty well. Use to have breakfast with him quite often when he was in town visiting his family. He would come down to the coffee shop and sit and talk with us...We had The Doug Atkins Roast sponsored by the booster club...Had several of the Monsters of the Midway in town to roast Doug...It was a huge day and night for Humboldt.

I went to the graveside part of his funeral a few years back...His brother who lived in Humboldt passed away not to long ago.
 
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#39
#39
Hate that I passed on the opportunity to by an 8x10 B&W of him and some short guy in the dorm I guess it was, where he was standing off to the side with his left arm extended straight out and the little guy was doing a pull-up on it. It was in one of those antique places on the way to Townsend on 321. I wonder if any school can match the lifetime accomplishments of the DL pair of Doug and Reggie?
 
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#40
#40
GUNTERSVOL said:
Hate that I passed on the opportunity to by an 8x10 B&W of him and some short guy in the dorm I guess it was, where he was standing off to the side with his left arm extended straight out and the little guy was doing a pull-up on it. It was in one of those antique places on the way to Townsend on 321. I wonder if any school can match the lifetime accomplishments of the DL pair of Doug and Reggie?
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The little guy was Bobby Brengle, a tail back in the early 50's. That picture was included in an article published in the Knoxville News Sentinel .
 
#41
#41
VOLINVONORE said:
The little guy was Bobby Brengle, a tail back in the early 50's. That picture was included in an article published in the Knoxville News Sentinel .
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Man, thanks..... I seem to remember it had a photographer's logo on it, but did not know of the back story. It was for sure a glossy, not a clipping. I also seem to remember he looked pretty skinny. Was this early in his UT years?
 
#42
#42
GUNTERSVOL said:
Man, thanks..... I seem to remember it had a photographer's logo on it, but did not know of the back story. It was for sure a glossy, not a clipping. I also seem to remember he looked pretty skinny. Was this early in his UT years?
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He played in 52,,53,,and 54. It was evident he was not the largest -layer on the team. I do not know if he even played . I just remember his name and the picture in the paper.
 
#45
#45
My father ran with a rowdy crowd when he was in Knoxville back in the 60s. They all had expense accounts and back pocket money in those days. Doug's career in the NFL was just over or almost over at the time but if a home game by UT was that weekend he'd usually be in Knoxville before the game. This was the days before drunk driving was taboo and some of the tales these guys could tell about driving Cadillacs into mountains and over hills (this came from a famous detective who had retired and became an insurance investigator), going out the back window while a husband was coming in the front door stories, all that sort of stuff. Hilarious to hear them tell those stories then as a wide eyed kid. Looking back these stories all revolved around alcohol. Doug was no stranger to strong drink but handled it better than almost anybody in that crowd back then anyway. I admire Doug Atkins for his football prowess and being a gentleman any time I was in his vicinity as a kid.
 
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#48
#48
Atkins' basketball interest came naturally enough, for it was THE high school sport in his home town of Humboldt, Tenn., where he was born on May 8, 1930. Only 5-2, 118 pounds his first year in high school, Doug grew rapidly and, as a senior, was an all-Tennessee star. He went to the University of Tennessee on a basketball scholarship and immediately did well, scoring 38 points in one freshman game. An all-around fine athlete, Doug also filled in one year on the track team and won the Southeastern Conference high jump title with a 6-6 leap. He later would use this ability to leap-frog over blockers in his mad rush to get at NFL passers. General Bob Neyland, Tennessee's football coach and athletic director, spotted Atkins on the basketball court and marveled at the way a man so big could move so well. He knew he had to have Atkins on the Volunteers' football team. "I enjoyed basketball, I was gonna forget all about football," Doug reminisces. "But they wouldn't let me." So he gave college football a try and did well enough to become an all-America tackle as a senior. Still, Doug paid little attention when he heard the news the Browns had made him their No. 1 pick in the 1953 NFL draft. He turned instead to his first love -- basketball. "Atkins was the most magnificent physical specimen I had ever seen," Ewbank says of his first meeting with Doug. "Paul Brown told me I could go as high as $10,000 to sign him but he was really worth much more." Depending on the source, the figure varies, but Atkins signed for something between $5000 and $6800. Both sides agree, however, that Weeb threw in a special "bonus" -- eight beers and two hamburgers. Atkins immediately became an important factor on the Browns' defensive team. The Browns won the divisional title in 1953 and the NFL championship in 1954. But before 1955 rolled around, Doug was traded to the Bears.

The Saints' head coach, Tom Fears, summed it up during Atkins' final 1969 season: "They threw away the mold when they made Doug. There'll never be any other like him."
 
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#49
#49
peaygolf said:
Atkins' basketball interest came naturally enough, for it was THE high school sport in his home town of Humboldt, Tenn., where he was born on May 8, 1930. Only 5-2, 118 pounds his first year in high school, Doug grew rapidly and, as a senior, was an all-Tennessee star. He went to the University of Tennessee on a basketball scholarship and immediately did well, scoring 38 points in one freshman game. An all-around fine athlete, Doug also filled in one year on the track team and won the Southeastern Conference high jump title with a 6-6 leap. He later would use this ability to leap-frog over blockers in his mad rush to get at NFL passers. General Bob Neyland, Tennessee's football coach and athletic director, spotted Atkins on the basketball court and marveled at the way a man so big could move so well. He knew he had to have Atkins on the Volunteers' football team. "I enjoyed basketball, I was gonna forget all about football," Doug reminisces. "But they wouldn't let me." So he gave college football a try and did well enough to become an all-America tackle as a senior. Still, Doug paid little attention when he heard the news the Browns had made him their No. 1 pick in the 1953 NFL draft. He turned instead to his first love -- basketball. "Atkins was the most magnificent physical specimen I had ever seen," Ewbank says of his first meeting with Doug. "Paul Brown told me I could go as high as $10,000 to sign him but he was really worth much more." Depending on the source, the figure varies, but Atkins signed for something between $5000 and $6800. Both sides agree, however, that Weeb threw in a special "bonus" -- eight beers and two hamburgers. Atkins immediately became an important factor on the Browns' defensive team. The Browns won the divisional title in 1953 and the NFL championship in 1954. But before 1955 rolled around, Doug was traded to the Bears.

The Saints' head coach, Tom Fears, summed it up during Atkins' final 1969 season: "They threw away the mold when they made Doug. There'll never be any other like him."
Click to expand...


I think Atkins was a Mears recruit.
 
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