Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 7, 1993 TAG: 9311070150
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: EMORY LENGTH: Long
For the first and last time in Norton's 34 seasons as the Panthers' football coach, they didn't listen. They surrounded their bald coach and bawled.
On a shivery Saturday when the Panthers had five turnovers, they grasped the moment. They hadn't only lost a football game, 16-13, to Emory & Henry. They had lost a legend.
As we all have. It's too bad too many others have diminished the accomplishments of Norton by snubbing him. There are some who have ignored him as best they could. They didn't play Norton, but they still lost.
The irony in Norton's 77th loss in 332 games was that it came to an Old Dominion Athletic Conference team. ODAC teams, with the exception of E&H, spent the past nine years not playing or dropping Norton's teams from their schedules.
Certainly, he has done more for college football in this state than any other coach who has walked the sideline. He won. He did so with dignity. He summed up 40 years as a head coach in his last words to his last team.
"Work, pride, discipline, that's what wins," Norton said among the sweat and tears. "If you go down, you go down together, you go down fighting."
Precisely. Norton certainly wasn't retiring in retiring. If his 30th winning team at Ferrum had to lose his swan song, falling to longtime coaching buddy Lou Wacker and his Wasps would lessen the sting.
"The first college game I dressed for, [in 1949] as a player at Concord College, we played Emory & Henry over at Bluefield," Norton said. "They beat us and went to the Tangerine Bowl.
"Lou and I coached high schools against each other. He's the only ODAC coach who has kept playing us. I can't think of anybody else I'd rather finish with.
"It's like fighting a friend. Emory & Henry has been a good rival for us, and we need rivals at Ferrum."
Ferrum belongs in the ODAC. Norton said it. Wacker said it. ODAC schools won't play Ferrum in football, but they do in women's volleyball or men's tennis, or other sports.
Maybe Norton's greatest accomplishment, above the wins, titles and 46 All-America selections, will be that his retirement will help the Panthers get into what has been an obviously frightened ODAC.
Since the Franklin County school moved from a junior-college power to NCAA Division III status - particularly since the Panthers reached the Division III national football semifinals in 1988 and '89 - one of Norton's particular frustrations has been scheduling, because his neighbors except Wacker won't play.
Ferrum was 5-4 this season against schools from six states. In nine Division III seasons, their opponents have come from 14 states. While the E&H-Ferrum rivalry stands 5-5 and some other state ODAC members have dropped Ferrum, Washington and Lee and Hampden-Sydney haven't stepped onto the same field with the Panthers.
"I really respect Emory & Henry," Norton said. "Lou has always played. Hey, they lose to us today and they're out of the playoffs. You have to respect someone who will at least come out and play.
"I'm not asking for Ferrum to be in the ODAC. I just want to play those schools. Emory & Henry has beaten us three times a row, but we're not going to quit playing. I wish I knew why it is the other people won't play us.
"Tell me. Is it something I did? Is it something we did? I'd just like to know."
Wacker knows.
"You can try and disguise why you don't play someone behind anything you want to," Wacker said before Norton's exit. "Everyone knows it comes down to winning and losing.
"Our philosophy here is to see how good we can be and compete with people in our backyard. We've never considered not playing Ferrum."
And, if those schools that won't play Ferrum whisper about academics, well, the ODAC is about as diverse academically as it is athletically. ODAC doesn't stand for Old Dominion Academic Conference.
"Ferrum meets all of the criteria to be in the ODAC," said Wacker, who also is E&H's athletic director. "It's a private school, a Division III school. There used to be a rule that you had to be a Virginia school, but no more.
"Does Ferrum belong in the ODAC? Certainly."
The politics is a part of coaching Norton, 66, won't miss. How much will he miss?
"I don't know," Norton said. "I don't want to think about it. I just hope I can make it."
He wants to attend the Syracuse-Virginia Tech game next Saturday. Norton said he hasn't been to a major-college game in at least a decade.
He's started his post-coaching days by endorsing his longtime assistant and defensive coordinator, Dave Davis, for his job. Although there's no indication Ferrum is listening to its coaching legend, the school would do well to do so.
Since 1960, the Panthers have.
by CNB