[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 2, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E111-E113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO DR. GEORGE VERNON IRONS, SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. SPENCER BACHUS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 2, 1999

  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to eulogize and celebrate the 
life of Dr. George Vernon Irons, Sr., distinguished professor of 
history and political science at Samford University for 43 years, who 
passed away July 21, 1998. Dr. Irons taught 17 university presidents--
more than any other known educator.
  Dr. Irons was also a colonel in the United States Army for 33 years, 
active and reserve, and received full military honors. Dr. Irons was a 
member of the prestigious Alabama Sports Hall of Fame for 22 years--its 
oldest member. He was the only distance star ever inducted into the 
Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and a true great in Alabama's rich athletic 
history. As captain of the University of Alabama distance team, he 
broke the record for the Birmingham Road Race in 1923. His record was 
never broken or equaled. Dr. Irons also broke the Southern 
Intercollegiate Athletic Association, now the Southeastern Conference, 
record for two, three and three and one-half mile races.
  Dr. Irons was listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the South 
and Southwest, Who's Who in American Education and Directory of 
American Scholars. Dr. Irons was awarded the George Washington Honor 
Medal from Freedom's Foundation, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in 1962.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that articles from the Alabama 
Sports Hall of Fame and Bama Magazine be included in the Congressional 
Record to share the achievements of this great Alabamian who served 
Samford University as distinguished educator 43 years, his country as 
colonel in the U.S. Army 33 years and his alma mater, the University of 
Alabama, as a record-breaking champion athlete and Phi Beta Kappa honor 
student.

                 [From the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame]

              Irons Accustomed to Seeing Finish Line First

                            (By Kyle Mooty)

       While football was far from its `king' stages the 
     University of Alabama would enjoy in the future, Crimson Tide 
     track star George Irons was keeping the athletic flame 
     burning at the Capstone as its `Knight of the Cinderpath.'
       Former Alabama Sen. John Sparkman was a classmate of Irons 
     at Alabama and later served in the Army together. And 
     according to Sparkman, if it hadn't been for Irons, athletics 
     would have been pretty boring during that time period at 
     Alabama.
       ``George Irons was all we had to cheer about,'' said 
     Sparkman.
       Today, Dr. George Vernon Irons is catching another 
     milestone, as he'll turn 91 on Aug. 7.
       With the discipline, desire and skill he possessed, Irons 
     would have probably been a standout distance runner anyway. 
     But there were other reasons for perfecting the art of 
     running.
       ``For the fear of being paddled,'' Irons said. ``When I was 
     a freshman at Alabama the sophomores were always getting 
     after the freshmen. If they caught you, you could do one of 
     two things . . . you could lie or you could run. Don't press 
     me too much on which I did because I did both of them.''

[[Page E112]]

       Irons also said that running was getting for catching up 
     with the co-eds.
       Born in Demopolis as a son of a Presbyterian minister, 
     Irons moved to Fort Valley, Ga., shortly afterwards and 
     eventually took a job as a paper boy. Strangely enough, it 
     was perhaps that job was the start of something that led to 
     him being inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 
     1978.
       ``I rode the bicycle a whole lot delivering those papers, 
     so I had strong legs,'' Irons said.
       Later, as a freshman at Alabama, Irons first realized he 
     could run a long distance in a short period of time.
       ``From where I was living, when I would hear the whistle 
     blow each morning I had about 10 minutes to make it to 
     class,'' Irons recalled. ``And it was a pretty good distance. 
     But I always made it to class on time. I don't think I was 
     ever late. I guess you could say I found out I could run fast 
     by accident.''
       His trip to class would take him across an open field, a 
     few acres of ground that now is the home of Bryant-Denny 
     Stadium.
       Irons also noticed the `college boys' running around the 
     university's campus having what seemed like good times. He 
     laughs now at remembering thinking they were running around 
     in their underwear, when actually it was the track team's 
     shorts.
       Irons joined the Alabama track team and would never lose a 
     race to a teammate. In fact, from his sophomore year on, 
     Irons never lost a race to another collegian. But the problem 
     was not fellow collegians. The problems was pros.
       The big running events often allowed older, professional 
     runners to compete with the collegians. And one of the best 
     of those that Irons would compete against in events ranging 
     from the 880-yard run to the four-mile run would be a fellow 
     by the name of Ellsworth Richter.
       Richter was Irons' biggest nemesis in a Birmingham road 
     race that was held annually for the SIAA (Southern 
     Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) championship.
       Irons recalls the race through Birmingham had about seven 
     turns in all, and Richter knew the course well, which gave 
     him an added advantage each year.
       As a freshman at Alabama, Irons would place 10th in the 
     event, but would come back and claim second-place finishes 
     both as a sophomore and junior, as only the professional 
     Richter was able to beat him.
       Then came Irons' senior year at Alabama, and although 
     Richter was busy having an appendectomy, Irons completely 
     shattered the course record by 20 seconds. And he did so in 
     the rain. It was a record that stood for the final 20 years 
     of the race until its demise.
       How could a record be broken by so much, and especially by 
     an amateur, and in the rain? It must have been the shoes.
       In fact, Irons wore kangaroo skin shoes. ``They stuck to my 
     feet very tight,'' said Irons. ``While the others were 
     sloshing along in their tennis shoes, mine felt just great.''
       Richter would never beat Irons on other courses such as 
     Atlanta. The two would later become friends before he passed 
     away many years down the road. His son, Ellsworth Richter, 
     Jr., would later be an SEC champion distance runner for 
     Auburn University in the 1980's.
       Irons had other ways of getting the edge. While he had no 
     state of the art weight set to work out with, he would simply 
     lift an old shotgun repeatedly for upper body strength. 
     ``That improved my endurance, my wind and strength,'' Irons 
     said.
       During the early '20s, college football games had all the 
     excitement a game may have today . . . or at least while the 
     game was actually going on. But halftimes were more of a dead 
     period.
       Irons explained, ``There were no bands, or girls to watch 
     at halftime. There was not much entertainment. So they'd 
     bring us runners in to run before these big crowds. We'd run 
     for 10 or 15 minues during the half. We'd start inside the 
     stadium and run a couple of laps, then go outside and run a 
     road race. It was usually a three-mile run and we'd finish in 
     front of the grandstand.
       ``The big game back then was Georgia Tech and Auburn and I 
     guess there would be fifty or sixty thousand at those games 
     even back then at Grant Field. They would bring in 75 
     runners, and of course the crowd would be really pulling for 
     their school.''
       Once again, the rules were pretty loose as pros were 
     allowed to compete once again.
       ``Richter was there, but I would always beat him in Atlanta 
     because he didn't know the course,'' said Irons.
       Irons added that Alabama's big rival in track was 
     Mississippi A&M, which is now known as Mississippi State 
     University.
       Irons worked his way through school. Despite his success, 
     he ran for three years on no scholarship. But as a senior he 
     became aggressive off the track, too.
       ``Yeah, my last year I suggested to them that I could use a 
     scholarship,'' laughed Irons about something that was 
     certainly no laughing matter at the time.
       Irons' coach at Alabama was the late Hank Crisp, who was 
     more widely known for his football and basketball duties. He 
     served as an assistant for five Alabama football coaches, and 
     was the head basketball coach from 1924-42 in Tuscaloosa, but 
     he actually came to Alabama to be the head track coach.
       The NCAA rule book was nowhere near as thick as it is 
     today. And with Crisp being what Irons called ``a very kind 
     man,'' his players would never have to worry if they got in a 
     serious bind financially.
       ``He (Crisp) would loan you money on the side if you really 
     needed it,'' said Irons.
       Irons, like everyone else that came into contact with 
     Crisp, had great respect for the coach.
       ``He was a four-year letterman at VPI (Virginia Tech) 
     despite having his right arm cut off,'' said Irons.
       Crisp lost his arm when he was 13 cutting corn to fill a 
     silo.
       ``But man was he tough,'' said Irons. ``And he ran the 
     hurdles, and if you've ever run hurdles before you know how 
     important balance is, but he did it with just one arm. He 
     also played football, basketball and baseball. They said he 
     played outfield and after he would catch the ball, he'd throw 
     the glove up in the air and catch the ball coming out and 
     throw it back to the infield.''
       Crisp died the night he was inducted into the Alabama 
     Sports Hall of Fame on Jan. 23, 1970.
       Irons wouldn't let the university or Crisp down for 
     awarding him the scholarship for his senior season. He 
     finished undefeated in dual matches. And the biggest race in 
     the south during that period was an AAU event run in Atlanta 
     where some of the top eastern runners were also in the field. 
     Irons won that race two years in a row.
       Irons path in life took a turn during World War II. He had 
     finished at the university just after World War I, but 
     through his ROTC classes he had made 2nd Lt. He would become 
     a Captain in WWII and eventually a Lt. Col. for four and a 
     half years.
       ``I had various experiences in the Army,'' said Irons. ``I 
     was in a swamp about 30 miles north of Wilmington, NC. They 
     put us there so when the shrapnel fell it wouldn't hurt 
     nothing but the rattlesnakes.''
       He would also be stationed in Texas, Mexico and New Jersey 
     before returning home.
       He would enter the educational field once back in Alabama 
     at Howard College (known today as Samford University) in 
     1933.
       ``Howard was really struggling to keep its head above water 
     at that time,'' Irons said. ``I was lucky to be hired. Jobs 
     were scarce during the Depression. We were accepting a side 
     of beef and 12 dozen eggs for tuition. Those were hard times. 
     Nobody had cash, so we took produce instead.''
       But Irons knew a banker in Woodlawn, and he feels even 
     today that may have helped him get hired at Howard College.
       ``Yeah, one of my first jobs was to go down to First 
     National Bank and try to get them to extend the loan for the 
     college. I knew the banker so they thought I'd be a good one 
     to send.''
       He didn't say whether he got the extension or not, but he 
     got the job, and stayed for 43 years.
       During his tenure at Howard College, Irons taught future 
     sports legends Bobby Bowden and Shorty Cooper in the 
     classroom. But he also remembers a young man from Rattlesnake 
     Gulch, Montana named Homestead. ``He was a big fella that 
     talked big, but he wasn't too brave at heart,'' recalled 
     Irons. ``But everybody just assumed he was tough because he 
     came from Rattlesnake Gulch, Montana.
       As the only University of Alabama track man in the Alabama 
     Sports Hall of Frame, Irons is extremely proud. But perhaps 
     no more than his son, Birmingham attorney Bill Irons.
       ``Dad is the most disciplined person I've ever known,'' 
     said Bill Irons. ``He goes beyond the doctor's wishes. And he 
     also has a very high threshold of pain.''
       Bill calls the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame ``a galaxy of 
     stars and assembly of greats.''
       Dr. George Irons is certainly a great star in the Hall of 
     Fame.
       ``Being inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame was 
     the most important event of my life,'' said Irons. 
     ``Everybody wants to get to heaven. Well, this may be the 
     nearest I come.
       ``I've read about all of these guys in the Hall and now I'm 
     in it.''
       Just a couple of months away from his 91st birthday, Irons 
     still gets in a couple of miles a day, although they're most 
     accomplished by walking. He does jog on occasion.
       ``It's good to get a little sweat out of you and spend a 
     little time in the sunshine each day,'' said Irons.
       Asked how he's made it, Irons said simply, ``All my life 
     I've been doing what seemed the best thing to do at the 
     time.''
       One of his favorite quotes comes from another Hall of 
     Famer. ``Satchel Paige used to say, `Don't look back, they 
     may be gaining on you.' ''
       Gain on George Irons? Hardly.


       
                                  ____
                   [From the Bama Magazine, May 1984]

       History of Alabama Athletics--Irons: A Tide Track Iron Man

                            (By Tommy Deas)

       George Irons had never run in a race before his freshman 
     year at Alabama in 1921. But afterward he was without equal 
     in his four years of running track and cross-country for the 
     Crimson Tide.
       Not once did Irons finish behind a teammate in a race, 
     beginning with his first effort as a freshman. And not often 
     did he finish behind an opponent. George Irons was simply a 
     natural.
       It wasn't a background in track that led Irons to start 
     running for Alabama--he had no such family ties to the sport. 
     It wasn't the promise of medals and recognition, or the 
     thrill of victory or the roar of the crowds. All that was 
     still unknown to Irons when he began running.
       Irons had more practical concerns that led to the discovery 
     of his talents. After building

[[Page E113]]

     his legs up by delivering newspapers on bicycle, Irons found 
     his leg strength could come in handy.
       ``I lived in Tuscaloosa on Queen City Avenue,'' he said. 
     ``They blew a whistle in those days to start class. They 
     would take roll 10 minutes after the whistle. I found I could 
     eat my pancakes in time and still get to class for roll call 
     after they blew the whistle.
       ``Also in those days, the upperclassmen would haze the 
     freshmen. They would wait around Woods Hall--that was the 
     center of campus because that's where the Post Office was--
     and grab a freshman and carry him upstairs for a paddling. 
     There were two things a freshman could do--lie or run.
       ``I'd rather not comment on the lying, but that's where I 
     started my running. I found that running was a fun thing to 
     do. I just gradually worked my way up to cross-country.''
       By the end of his four years at Alabama, Irons had made his 
     name as one of the best, some said the very best, distance 
     runners of his day. Known as ``Alabama's Shining Knight of 
     the Cinderpath'' (track events were then run on cinder 
     courses), Irons competed all over the South against the best 
     amateur and, occasionally, professional runners around.
       ``I mostly ran the mile, two miles and three miles. I ran 
     cross-country over hill and dale and streams and meadows. 
     Sometimes they would even throw me in the half-mile to pick 
     up a point in a meet,'' he said.
       After his freshman year, Irons won every cross-country and 
     road race while competing for the Tide. That led to his being 
     named captain of the track and cross-country teams his junior 
     and senior year. In addition, in Southern Intercollegiate 
     Athletic Association competition after his freshman year, 
     Irons never finished worse then second in any race, including 
     shorter-distance races that he ran to help the team score 
     points.
       As naturally as the slight 6-footer took to the sport, he 
     did not begin running without some skepticism. ``That first 
     race I didn't know that I'd be running so much,'' he said, 
     ``and I asked myself, `What am I doing this for? This hurts!' 
     So I decided to pick it up and start passing people to get it 
     over with, and I came in first.''
       And running around town in a track suit in those days 
     attracted more attention than it does today.
       ``When we'd run down Greensboro Avenue, some of the sweet 
     old ladies would call the police to come arrest these men 
     running down the street in their underwear. The police were 
     understanding, and they asked us to run back another way and 
     not let the ladies see us again,'' Irons said.
       One race that stands out in Irons' memory is his final run 
     in the Birmingham Athletic Club Road Race in 1923. In that 
     race Irons broke the course record by over 20 seconds, and 
     his record has never been broken. And as the three-mile event 
     is no longer run, his record may stand forever.
       ``I'd been running that race all along,'' he said, ``and I 
     believe I'd won it twice, but for this race I'd bought a pair 
     of kangaroo leather running shoes. All the other runners were 
     wearing tennis shoes, but I had brought these that wrapped 
     around your feet.
       ``It was raining very hard, and it was a big handicap for 
     them to be wearing tennis shoes, because they kept slipping. 
     It ruined my shoes, and I was never able to wear them again, 
     but I won that race, and the record still stands.''
       Irons likes to recall the big races that were part of the 
     halftime shows of big football games. The biggest was the one 
     held at halftime of the Auburn-Georgia Tech game every year 
     in Atlanta.
       ``They'd have the big race over there between the halves,'' 
     he said. ``This was before they had the bands and the `honey-
     watching' that they have now, so we were the only halftime 
     entertainment. We'd leave before the half and finish at the 
     middle of the field with everyone standing and cheering us 
     on. I ran three of those, and won two of them.''
       After coaching at two high schools and earning his 
     doctorate at Duke, Irons went into the teaching profession. 
     Now 82 years old, he retired a few years ago after teaching 
     history for 43 years at Samford (formerly Howard) University 
     in Birmingham.
       In 1978, Irons was recognized as one of the state's 
     outstanding athletes by being inducted into the Alabama 
     Sports Hall of Fame. The drive was spearheaded by his son, 
     William Lee Irons, a Birmingham lawyer (George Irons, Jr., 
     Irons' other son, is a doctor in North Carolina).
       ``It means a great deal to me,'' Irons said of the 
     induction. ``I never expected to get that. In 1978, I never 
     expected to be heard from again as a track man. There's only 
     one track man in the Hall of Fame from Alabama, myself, and I 
     think there will be a great many more in there, because 
     they've got world-class people competing in the state now. I 
     hope maybe I've opened up the door for some of them.''

     

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