Sherman Is Sherman

As I SEE It

By

Thom Gossom Jr.

“Sherman is Sherman”

“Sherman is Sherman,” I accidentally coined the phrase when describing, to a former Auburn teammate, how our mutual friend and teammate Sherman was doing.  Immediately, the teammate understood and giggled.  Everyone who knows Sherman understands.  Keep reading . . . you’ll understand too.

I’ve known Sherman Moon since 1971.  In those days of yesteryear, we were competitors for the same position on the football team at Auburn.  We remained competitors on the field, but friends off the field.  Forty years later we lived one street from each other.  Our visits consist of football debates, reunions with teammates, parties at our neighbors’, and enjoying Sherman’s BBQ.  The man can throw down on a grill.

Sherman, then and now, always has a smile for you.

You see; with Sherman the glass is always half full.  Smiling, laughing, talking, talking, and talking until you reluctantly have to interrupt or ask for a break.

“Oh, Okay TG,” he’ll say, and relinquish the floor for a few – a very few – minutes before jumping back in.  He’ll throw his head back and take you on another one of his verbal journeys.  Upbeat, head held high, and fun.  That’s Sherman.  Rain or Shine.  Sickness and in health, stage four cancer not withstanding.  My phone chimes and there’s his familiar voice on the phone, “Hey TG, what you up to?” 

Sherman beat prostate cancer.  He got ahead early in that game, recovered, and came out with a victory.  The carcinoid tumor he’s been battling for the last three years has proven to be a booger that, even Sherman has to admit, has tested his mettle.  The cancer has metastasized into his stomach, liver, and lymphatic system.  Doctors in the US have thrown their hands up and cried, “No Mas!”  But you didn’t get to be a teammate on the Auburn teams of ‘72, ‘73, and ‘74 without a lot of courage and fortitude.  We’ve never backed down from a good fight.

I have not once heard him complain.  I’ve not once seen him in a bad mood.

Several former teammates, who have occasionally run into him, call me and ask, “Is Sherman still sick?”

“Yes,” I reply.

“I saw him, and he was as upbeat as he’s always been,” they counter.

“Sherman is Sherman,” I respond.

Sherman says, “I have Cancer.  Cancer does not have me.”

My friend Sherman is on his way to the Netherlands for treatments that, over the next few months, will cost him upwards of $70,000.  With all the debate about Affordable Health care in the US, there is little doubt that remaining healthy and finding cures is expensive.  In Sherman’s case, it has cost him dearly.  He and his wife have lost their income and their home.  His final chance at a Hail Mary pass, to regain his health, needs assistance.

Sherman’s teammates and friends are lining up at his side.

Sherman reluctantly agreed to have his story told and to have others solicit funds for him.  Nineteen thousand dollars flowed in instantly from family and life-long friends.  Next up, was a benefit golf tournament that included a dozen former teammates, some who had not seen him in forty years.

Teammates drove to Florida’s Fort Walton Beach from Mississippi, Tennessee, Central Florida, and Auburn, AL.  Sherman made a brief appearance and took pictures with his friends.  Then he took off for the airport, leaving for his trip to the Netherlands and the first of four treatments.  His teammates and other golfers raised another $8,000 that day.

In Sherman’s honor, we laughed, reminisced with some great Sherman stories, and realized how special we are that Sherman came into our lives.  Those who hadn’t seen him in many years marveled at how fun, positive, and upbeat Sherman was.

Just like always.

Sherman is Sherman.

**Want to support Sherman and Vicki Moon?**

Send donations to:

Sherman Moon

PO Box 2077

Fort Walton Beach FL 32549

Or contact Sandy North:

sandy_north@earthlink.net

January 2014

As I SEE It

By

Thom Gossom Jr.

“Duke’s Barbershop”

It’s the same guy, in the same location.  The other guys, the regulars – at least the ones living – still hang out there.  And yes, they talk a lot of the same loud trash talk they did back in the day.

Welcome to Duke’s Barbershop located across the tracks in Auburn, Alabama. 

Back in the day, we were forced to go there.  No other options.  Our coach made regular haircuts a mandatory team rule.  No exceptions.  Granted, this was before dreads and fashionable baldheads.  Then, it was a time of huge afros and integration.

In 1969, James Owens had the courage to sign with Auburn University as its first black football player.  In 1970, I joined him as Auburn’s second black football player.  We began an odyssey that we still laugh, cry, and reminisce about today, forty odd years later.

What’s the big deal?  Where have you been?  College football has been king in Alabama since long before I was born and more than likely until long after I’m gone.  Dragging it’s feet on civil rights and cultural integration, the deep south fought, scratched, and embarrassed itself in a fruitless fight against progress; preferring to fight to keep people from going to school, eating a hamburger or having anything to do with the Federal Government of the United States.  It was serious business and those times should never be marginalized or forgotten.

But along with seriousness, lives lost, boundaries falling, and unbound courage there was also the absurd.  This was one of those moments in time.

 “Get a haircut,” we were told.  We were reluctant but obedient.  Contrary to my look today, I had a huge, sprouting, afro.  James had what we described as, in those days, a TWA (teeny weenie afro).

James approached a barber in downtown Auburn who, upon seeing the strapping black athlete enter his shop with the intention of getting a haircut, nearly messed his pants.  He begged James to leave his shop,  “Please get out.  I’ll lose everything.  I can’t cut your hair.”

James asked, “Where do I go?”

We were directed to Duke’s Barbershop, across the tracks.  It was literally across the railroad tracks that separated the black community from the university community.  Rush, the barber, doubled as the local school bus driver; meaning, the shop was closed while Rush shuffled children back and forth to school.  We had to time our haircut visits around football practice, classes, and Rush’s bus schedule.

After all these years, a film project took me back to Duke’s with James.  It had been over forty years for me.  Rush knew we were coming.  He was waiting.  We walked into the shop and time stood still.  The small shop looked the same.  Rush stood over the same barber chair.  Regulars sat in the same waiting chairs, not to get haircuts but because Rush had told everyone he knew that James and I were coming by.  “You gon’ film me?”  Rush wanted to know.

The photos of Auburn athletes Cam Newton, Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, and at least twenty more former Auburn football players hit me.

“All these guys come here to get their haircut?” I asked.

“All except Bo and Cam,” Rush answered.  “The young boys, they cut their own hair now.  Never cut Bo.  He wanted me to open the shop up for him on my off day.  Told him no sir.”

Unknowingly and unwillingly, James and I started something that lasted through the ages.  The photos were a who’s who of black Auburn players down through the years, Byron Franklin, Doug Smith, James Brooks, Joe Cribbs, Harold Hallman, and many more.

“Where’s our picture?” we asked.  Rush didn’t miss a beat.  “Did they have cameras back then?”  The laughter flowed until the phone rang.  Rush answered, “Hey we filming over here, you better hurry up and get here.”

“I’ve been here since 1966,” Rush related.  “Man we were proud when you guys started playing.  Up until then we would go to the games and root for the other team if they had a black player.”

“We sat in Kinfolks corner,” he continued.  Black spectators had to sit in makeshift bleachers in those days, separated from the white fans. 

“We named it Kinfolks corner,” Rush explained.  “Boy, when ya’ll started playing we had our own players then.”

James and I exchanged a look.  We’d always said we felt the weight of the black fans on our shoulders.  Now we knew.

More guys came in as the cameras continued to roll.  They treated James and me as heroes.

Going back to Duke’s still brings a smile to my face.  We brought joy to some old timers who, forty years earlier, had cheered us on in the social experiment of college football integration.  Perhaps we should thank our coach for making us go in the first place.

The Big O

The Big O

If work is supposed to be fun, I’m having a ball. For the past year I’ve been working on a project that feeds my soul and in the words of the old Native American Chief in the film Little Big Man “causes my heart to soar like a hawk.” Quiet Courage, a film documentary on my good friend James Owens gets my juices flowing.

James Owens has been my friend since 1970. We were pioneers of college football integration at Auburn University. When we played black players in the Southeastern conference of college football were relegated to one or two per team.

In comparison to James I had it easy. He was the first African American football player in Auburn’s history.

The loneliness, the slurs, the suppression of hurts and emotions stayed with me a long time. It was three decades before I could express it in this manner or any manner. It was many years before I could bring myself to talk about it with my wife and son. Just couldn’t. It was too painful.

But this isn’t about me: Nor about the pain. It’s about my friend and his forty-year relationship with Auburn University. 

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” James tells me. “I had no idea of the magnitude of being the first black.”

In 1969, James Owens realized a portion of Martin Luther King’s dream. He fulfilled the legacy of Jackie Robinson. He answered prayers of many blacks and some whites in the state of Alabama by answering Auburn’s call to play football at the University. What has followed over the last forty years is a love story.

Not knowing what to do to aid their only black football player and only the second black athlete in Auburn Athletic history, Auburn attempted to treat James as if he was no different than the other athletes. “We treat all our athletes the same” was the philosophy.

Imagine being the only white among a team of blacks. Imagine being the only white in a University of 15,000 blacks where everyone, students, alumni, whites and blacks examine your every move. Imagine there are so few people who look like you on the campus, that your social life consists of sitting in the TV room after games while all your teammates are out partying and enjoying the spoils of victory. Imagine being seventeen and having no family nearby.  Imagine possessing a second rate education, a by-product of segregation that leaves you inadequate in the classroom. Imagine.

Quiet Courage explores these issues and others as told by James, his teammates former coaches and friends. It’s introspective, funny, sad, and full of love. Mistakes were made. James did not graduate. He didn’t play professional football. The University brought him back as a graduate assistant to get his degree. The rules were changed and he was asked to leave. He wandered. Jobs came and went. His wife Gloria who he met when she became one of the few black women at Auburn his senior year, became his salvation.

Then he found the ministry. Saving souls was as tough as scoring against bigotry, but it was more rewarding. His church was only forty miles from where he’d made history, but he didn’t venture close to campus. Nor did the University reach out to him. Love relationships are like that.

Fate intervened. His nephew, Ladarious signed a scholarship to play football at Auburn. James was drawn back to his Alma Mater. This time it was different. Auburn loved him back. Auburn Athletics created the James Owens Award of Courage to honor him. He received his award and a standing ovation in front of 86,00 Auburn fans. Auburn named him an Auburn legend and he was honored at the SEC Legends dinner with other legends from the conference before the 2012 championship game.

Life was good. He was back in the fold. His teammates honored him as the soul of the 10-1, 1972 team known as the Amazins, one of the favored teams in Auburn history.

Then came the diagnosis. His heart was failing. Tears followed. His teammates and the University rallied to his side. Letters, phone calls, and loads of  love poured in.

Yes. He realized, they loved him, not only as a football player but, as James Owens, the human being who notched his name in the Auburn history book.

He had one regret.  He never received his degree.

The phone call from the Auburn administrators shocked him. The robe, the march, the arena full of the Auburn family, his name called, the honorary degree handed to him, his acceptance speech.  He was an Auburn University graduate.

They were back together again, a happy ending. Just like in the movies. 

“Top Ten”

Got a call from a student reporter who wanted an interview. I agreed. She stumped me when she asked what were my all time favorite roles as an actor. I’d never thought about it and had to give it some time. I came up with a list of my top ten. Thought I’d share them with you.

1.     Three theatre roles share the top spot.

Speak of Me as I Am, One man play, written and performed by yours truly.

Characters: Rev. Bobby Lee White, Emmett, Smitty, Curtis, Coach Billy, Ralph, Tyronne, Malik, Zonnie

“Nine guys, three Saturdays, One barbershop in Birmingham Alabama. It’s 1999.”

Fences, By August Wilson. Character: Troy Maxson, garbage man, powerful, resentful, and conflicted. Would love to play him again.

Ali, a one man play. An honor.

2.     In the Heat of the Night, Television. Multiple episodes. Character: Ted Marcus, Attorney, City Councilman – My first real TV gig. Learned a lot. Worked with pros, Carol O’Connor, Howard Rollins, Denise Nicholas, and many, many others. Made great friends.

3.     NYPD Blue, Television. Episode: Lost Israel. Character: Israel. Homeless mute accused of sexual assault and murder of a child. Innocent. Tearjerker. Episode won an Emmy. Always an honor when someone mentions it. Five star.

4.     Miss Ever’s Boy’s, HBO films. Character: Ben Washington. Story based on real life Tuskegee Syphilis study where the U.S. government allowed black men in Tuskegee, Alabama to die from the natural progression of untreated syphilis rather than treat them with newly discovered penicillin. The study was released while I was a student at Auburn University. Felt the obvious connection. Ben was a great character to inhabit. Worked with wonderful actors and friend, Lawrence Fishburne and Alfree Woodard. Release of film prompted a long overdue presidential pardon to the men of the Tuskegee Study.

5.     Fight Club, Film. Character: Detective Stern. Cult piece. Got to work with David Fincher and Ed Norton. Got to meet Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Direction tid-bits from Director Fincher and Casting director Laray Mayfield. Favorite of many twenty- something’s. Young man in a bar told me he’d seen it 52 times. Scary!

6.     Jeepers Creepers 2, Film. Character: Coach Charlie Hanna, a favorite. Brings a smile to my face. Enjoyed working with Director Victor Salva. He trusted me with his coach and I think I delivered for him. Worked several weeks from sundown to sun up at Tejon Ranch conservancy eighty miles north of Los Angeles. Cold at night. Another cult favorite. Popular with the younger set.

7.     Game of Your Life, NBC film. Character: Billy Taylor Jr.; Great dad! Honest man of substance. Loved playing him. Inspirational film.

8.     Miracle in the Woods, TV film. Character: Henry Cooper Jr. Another great character role; Played Della Reese’s long lost son. Had to work with a cat, a first for me. Worked with Meredith Baxter, Patricia Heaton, Sanaa Lathan. Met my good friend Joe Slowensky who wrote the script.

9.     Cold Case, TV series. Episode: “Time to Crime”. Character: Mike Odum, Family man willing to take the rap for a killing he didn’t do to save his son. Funny thing, I’m from Birmingham, Alabama. Joyce Guy who I did not know beforehand, played my wife. She’s from Montgomery, Alabama and Reggie Currelley who played our son had gone to college at Alabama State University in Montgomery. Score one for Alabama.

10.  Tie for 10^th Jack and Bobby, TV series. Character: Joseph Ride. Another great dad. The District, TV Series, Character: Archie Cryer. Ran a government undercover drug operation. Great bureaucrat.

What about you? Are there any favorites of yours that didn’t make my list?