Ted Boozer

Ted Boozer was an outstanding athlete in both football and basketball at Alexandria High School prior to graduating in 1955. These days, Boozer is retired and lives in Hokes Bluff, but he will be back in Calhoun County at the Oxford Civic Center on Saturday evening.

He lettered for three years in football and three years in basketball. Asked if football or basketball was his favorite sport he responded “probably football.”

Following the 1953 football season, he was honorable mention all-county at end after the Valley Cubs finished 6-3-0. In 1954, as a 185-pound senior, he was one of 11 members of the all-county first team as an end. Alexandria again ended 6-3-0.

As a junior during the 1953-54 basketball season Boozer was a forward and helped the Valley Cubs capture the 1954 Calhoun County tournament championship and the Sixth District tournament championship. As a senior, he earned all-tournament honors at the 1955 Calhoun County tournament.

Boozer was scouted by both the University of Alabama and Auburn University in football. He said Alabama coaches thought he was too slow and at Auburn he was considered too small. He told his high school coach Lou Scales about his predicament and Scales made a phone call to College Station, Texas, where Paul (Bear) Bryant was finishing his first season as football coach at Texas A&M.

Bryant answered the phone. After Scales and Bryant talked, Scales handed the phone to Boozer.

After having “a real good year” on the Aggies’ freshman team, Boozer and some of his freshmen teammates heard they were going to be red-shirted the next season — relegated to practicing against the juniors and seniors — and transferred to Allen Military Academy in Bryan, Texas, a few miles outside College Station for his sophomore year.

At Allen Academy, he caught 15 touchdown passes and earned Wigwam Wiseman junior college All-America honors. The recognition was given by the Sporting News. He had given up his scholarship to Texas A&M to play at Allen Military and attended Trinity College in San Antonio after leaving Allen.

Boozer returned to Alabama the following summer. Friends from his high school days like Alexandria’s Ray Burgess and Jacksonville’s Jimmy (Big Toe) Luttrell were playing for Jacksonville State College.

“You need to be up here with us,” Boozer recalled them saying a few days before he was scheduled to return to Texas.

Boozer said he couldn’t give up a scholarship and playing opportunity in Texas without a scholarship at Jacksonville State. Burgess made a phone call to Jacksonville State assistant coach Ray Wedgeworth. Wedgeworth convinced Boozer to remain in Alabama and play his final two years of college football at Jacksonville State.

Wedgeworth probably didn’t have to twist Boozer’s arm too hard. Boozer said it was 900 miles from his parents’ house to his destination in Texas and nine miles from home to the Jacksonville State campus.

In 1958, Boozer led the Gamecocks with 89 tackles and caught 23 passes. He helped coach Don Salls’ 1959 team to a 6-2-1 record after the 1958 Gamecocks finished 5-4-0.

written by Joe Estep