European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Usa eur sports in the 50s tackles and Tot this was the army football style editor s note this is the isl of Paul Zimmerman s two Parl series detailing his army sports career in Germany. Zimmerman has been the pro too Batt Guiu at sports illustrated lot 9vt years. Thirty two years ago he was a tackle with Kaiserslautern s Waco rhinos. By Paul Zimmerman sports illustrated was so a fms i Dyrti even know what toy meant. I was so dumb i did t know Tutsi he Post personnel Olicer was the last person you wanted to 1alk to about gelling relieved from duty so you could go up to area command and play football. Request for toy it was called. Temporary duly. Do or die for toy was the slogan then Back in 1956, when army sports were still a serious thing. Do people still say thai it was my second Day in Germany. The Day before when we were Clearing the processing Center in Frankfurt sweating under the miserable August heat 3 sergeant came into the room and announced any men with College ool Ball experience Tail out Over i Lell out with three other Guys and we were led into a Small office where a general was seated at a desk. Con. Renaldo Van Brunt commanding officer of the Northern area command Naco the Black knights who won the Usa eur championship in 1955 and were to repeat in 56.1 found out later that he was a football head thai he recruited them right off the troop ship which guaranteed a healthy influx of latent Lor his beloved Black knights. He interviewed us personally. Where d you play son he asked me. Slant Ord and Columbia i said. A looked at my orders. Nope you re Waco. You la to playing Lor he rhinos. I can t touch two of the other Guys remained in the room. I wound up Al the 20th station Hospital in lands Uhl. Up on the Hill right near the Castle. Why a medical unit never found out. Those were my orders. Waco. Western area command which was building a Nice Little football machine of its own. Thanks to a veterinary surgeon named or. Howard Slider a major another serious Recruiter. My Lar to night in Lan Stuhl i checked out the rec halt and looked Tor anyone who had the appearance of a football player or any kind of athlete. I found Jim Oesterricher fat Ollie they called him a 5 tool a 235 Pounder who was on his Way up to command to in Vogel Weh a military suburb of Kaiserslautern a town to go on toy and play for the rhinos. I showed my a card i d gotten trom the Baltimore Colls and another one from the Cleveland Browns Standard forms that All seniors got asking whether we were interested in becoming eligible for the draft but Ollie did t know that. His eyes widened. Ill put the word in with the people up in Waco a said. In the meantime you go see or. Hunter the chief warrant Ottimer who s in charge of personnel bad advice there. Or. Hunter had already lost Lour men to the Waco football program and he want by god. Going to fuse any rare. He informed me that i was there to work not to play some Damn game. Actually i worked for two Days us sort of worked. But fat Ollie had spread the word around Waco that hero was an All pro for the Colts or maybe ii was the Browns Down there in Lan Stuhl. And when a. Slider heard about it a Cut orders Lor me on the spot and 1 was on my Way up to Vogel Weh and the Waco rhinos. A Guy to personnel later old me that or Hunter had snapped two pencils in Hall when he Hoard i d be moving out and had sworn some Day i la get that.,." so i played for the rhinos. I played left tackle offensively and defensively. You went both ways then and i weighed 225, which was about average for a tackle. Our league was called the Rhine league. About one third of our squad generally the Guys who did t Start were composed of kids who had joined up out of High school. Then there were the College dropouts. Flunked out. Got a girl in trouble and had to leave generally could t gel 11 together. I was in that last category. I was due to graduate but professor Demorelos flunked me in Spanish and Uncle was waiting. Finally Here were Guys who had been outstanding players even pros briefly who did t want to risk injury and their pro career. But a few of them did play hard and you just hoped you did t have to line up against one of them. Dick Siymanski Colt Stan sheriff 49ersjim Schrader redskins and Lew Carpenter packers were playing in Germany that year. Our coach was capt. Marvin Roach an easy going North carolinian who did t know a whole lot about football but was a Nice person so we played hard for him. Maj Slider had done a Good Job recruiting. We Tad some real Talent . Amos Thornton a two Lime Black ail american halfback for North Carolina College Charley Hatch an end from Utah state who d been drafted by Detroit Lions Joe Palmier a powerful Little fullback who d played far Fordham when they faced teams such As Miami Clemson and Penn slate and our quarterback dynamite Dick Durham of Chattanooga u. Dynamite Dick could have had a career in the sport except that Well he had a thing about lira water. They knew All about dynamite Dick in the local cafes especially the ones that featured entertainment. He d listen for a while then he could t stand it anymore and he d stagger up of the stage grab the microphone and announce Andy s musical bar presents. Durham whereupon he d burst into a rendition of Blue Moon his Tav Orile song and a signature number Al Andy s Back in his Home Lawn of Chester a. We breezed in our league. We were big men around the Post envied by the honest Gas who actually soldiered sometimes disliked for our swaggering nonchalance and the fact that we had it made. And boy did we have it made. We pulled no regular duty. We just had to show up for practice and the games. I Hung around with two Guys Palmier and Jack Mcdornan from Philly a Gene Kelly look alike who had been an outstanding freshman end a dayton.,. He and the giants Jim Walcavage were the freshmen ends. Until to was kicked out for stealing a religious painting from the Chapel. We spent most of our non practice time strolling around a town or the Post occasionally dropping into the Library to read or listen to music or mess around. We stood no inspections. Check that there was one an in inspection everyone had to stand. Fool and Wall locker someone shaped up my Wall locker for me. My foot locker was hopeless so i carried ii downstairs into someone s car borrowed another one from a Guy in a different Barracks a very neat Guy and passed. We were undefeated going into a nor league cd Nith do to it is in w i f b la w it 9-ni it i n h if wan nol at Good clean fun for Usa eur football Stafan in the Sot. Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday sept amt
