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Huntsville Hall of Fame:
Danny Webster Was 'Iron Man' Player For Lee High
by John Pruett
From AL.com
The dictionary defines the term "iron man'' this way: "A person, as a worker or athlete, of great physical endurance who can be depended upon to perform a given task or job tirelessly.''
That broad description sounds a lot like Danny Webster when he played football at Huntsville's Lee High School in the mid-1960s.
"If anybody in the city had an iron-man football player back in those days,'' says former Lee coach Keith Wilson, "it was us. His name was Danny Webster.''
Although not officially documented, it's believed that Webster played every minute of every game - offense, defense and special teams - in his last two seasons at Lee in 1964 and 1965.
"I think that's right,'' said Webster, now the president and owner of the family business, Webster Construction Company of Huntsville. "I don't ever remember coming out of a game either of those two years. I know I didn't when I was a senior.''
As he recalls, he asked the coaches in preseason practice of his junior year if he could play on both the offensive and defensive lines.
"Coach Wilson liked the idea,'' said Webster. "It really wasn't a problem for me. I was in pretty good shape. I'd been working with my dad in his construction business, helping build houses and toting lumber and concrete blocks, since I was 12 years old. I did that every summer until I left for college. My dad was the kind of fella who liked to work every Saturday. So a lot of times, I'd play a football game on Friday night and be out there with him until sundown the next day.''
Only once did an injury threaten to sideline Webster, who was the biggest kid on the team at 6-1, 235 pounds. Weather postponed the finale against Huntsville in his senior year, so Wilson held a light practice on Saturday.
Webster was injured in practice, however he was able to play on Monday, "but not at full speed. They beat us 7-0.''
It was the end of a frustrating two seasons for the Generals, who were winless in 1964 and finished 1-7-2 in '65.
"Coach Wilson was a great coach,'' said Webster, "but we were still a young team, being a new school, and we didn't have a big squad. We were just outmanned. I don't think we ever had more than 32 players out for football while I was there.''
In a remarkable one-year turnaround, Wilson's Generals went 9-1 in 1966 after the coaches installed a new wide-open offense called the "Run 'n Shoot'' over the summer.
"Just my luck,'' said Webster. "I left and they got great all of a sudden. Same thing happened to me in college.''
Webster signed a football scholarship with Jacksonville State and continued to play the familiar Iron Man role, lettering three years and starting at left tackle on defense and playing backup tackle on offense as a sophomore and junior for coach Jim Blevins' Gamecocks, then under Charley Pell as a senior.
Lee Lunch Bunch
Meets April 30th
Another reminder regarding the upcoming Lee Lunch Bunch Thursday, April 30th, at 11:00 a.m. at Logan's on Balmoral Dr., in the far left corner of the restaurant. They will have the room ready for us by 11:00 and would like to begin taking orders at 11:30. We need to give them a "ballpark" headcount the day before so they can set up the room accordingly and if we can get 30 or so to attend we usually have the whole room to ourselves. So if you are planning, or even thinking about planning, to attend please let me know by FB, e-mail (njkincaid@hotmail.com), carrier pigeon, smoke signal, etc.. So mark those calendars and spread the word! Hope to see a bunch of you there!
The Day I Turned 16
by Glenn James
LHS '65
I turned 16 on Saturday, November 3, 1962. At the time I was living at Barrywood Road, Huntsville, AL, along with my parents, two brothers and one sister. I would describe my parents as typical middle income and I considered myself cool, but shy. My favorite group/organization to which I belonged was Explorer Scouts. A memorable décor item in my room was my model cars. Jimmy Davis, Terry Hughes and Nancy Oliphant were my best friends.
My favorite fun activity was listening to records, dancing, and bicycle riding, and I loved to watch Shock Theater on our 21-inch Dumont black and white television. My favorite type of music to listen to was Rock and Roll, and Westerns were my favorite type of movies.
My favorite food was hamburgers, and if I could eat anywhere I wanted to eat I would go to Hardee’s. My favorite beverage was Coke.
Up until that day, my best vacation ever had been a trip to Alexandria, LA.
Our family car was a 1959 Cadillac Sedan De Ville, but my primary mode of transportation was my Western Flyer bicycle.
I had no plans for my birthday, but I was looking forward to turning 16 because I could get my driver’s license.
I had a crush on Lynn Hughes. If I wanted to look good I would wear my Madres shirts and jeans, and I would put on English Leather to smell good. My first kiss was on a church hayride.
My favorite subject in school was Mechanical Drafting, and I thought I wanted to be an architect when I graduated from high school.
Master's Week Festivities
Craig Bannecke
LHS '65
Once again John Drummond, Jennifer and I held our annual Lee High mini-reunion during Master's week in Augusta, Ga. This year we added to our Master's week festivities, a guided Striper and Hybrid fishing trip. We had a good day on the lake catching 15 fish between 2 and 4 pounds. This was John's 20th anniversary attending the tournament and we had a wonderful week of fellowship, golf and fishing.
We are all really looking forward to coming home to Huntsville in September, to attendi the LHS class of '65, 50th year re-union.
Memphis, TN - I hope you are enjoying sharing some of the birthday memories of your classmates. I think you will find that not everyone remembers everything about the specific day, but many remember the era and the things which were important to them about that time. I got several new stories this past week and will continue this series as long as we have classmates willing to share.
Many of you have elected to disregard the 20 question format and just send in your own memories of the time, and that is even better. The 20 questions was just intended to give you something to base your memories on.
Keep them coming.
2015 Reunion Plans
Greetings Fellow Classmates of 1964/1965/1966
Plans are underway for the upcoming "joint" class reunion. As most of you know, these three classes have celebrated class reunions together several times over the years, usually at 10 year intervals. Beginning with the 2000 reunion it was decided that we would schedule a joint reunion every five years. This has proved to be beneficial for many reasons, but the greatest benefit is being able to see so many of our classmates at the same time!
Since the class of 1964 held their own 50th Reunion last year - which all of us were invited to help them celebrate - there has been a misconception by some folks that each class will be scheduling their own 50th Reunion and the joint reunion of the past will not take place. To put everyone's mind at ease, the reunion being planned this year will be just like the joint reunions of previous years. But since 2015 also happens to be the class of 1965's 50th year reunion, we are going to tailor the reunion program to give them more time to focus on their class. Sound fair? Good!
One of the first steps we need to do is make sure we have updated information on all classmates.....whether they plan to attend the reunion or not. An e-mail address has been set up for each class. While several class committee members will be assigned to help monitor their specific e-mail address, the name of only one class member will show up when an e-mail is sent .
Here are the e-mail addresses for each class and the name that will show up as the sender:
leehigh1964@hotmail.com Linda Taylor
leehigh1965@hotmail.com Sarajane Tarter
leehigh1966@hotmail.com Judy Kincaid
This is the info we need....
Name: ladies, we need your last name at time of graduation, then married name if applicable (i.e. Judy FEDROWISCH Kincaid)
Spouse Name: if applicable
Street Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Phone #: of your choosing
E-mail address:
Please begin sending in this information as soon as possible. Also, feel free to use these e-mail addresses to communicate with us at anytime.
With all the technology, social media, and free long-distance phone calling we have now-a-days, plus the weekly Traveller you are reading right now, we hope to reach as many classmates as possible before having to resort to the postage costs of snail mail . As final decisions are made regarding reunion plans, we will begin sending out updates using all of these types of communications. But there will still be folks that we will not reach, so this is where good old "word of mouth" comes into play. PLEASE help us spread the word by sharing all the information we will be sending out. We also want to include those that may have attended Lee, but for various reasons did not get to graduate with us. So anyone you know that might be interested in joining us this year, please have them send their information to the "class e-mail address" they would have been a part of.
Huntsville Marriott Information
Here is the reservation link your guests can use to make online reservations:
Book your group rate for Lee HS Class of 64,65,66
You will find the information for your online reservation link below. If you have questions or need help with the link, please do not hesitate to ask. We appreciate your business and look forward to a successful event.
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Lee HS Class of 64,65,66
Start date: 9/11/15
End date: 9/13/15
Last day to book: 8/26/15
Marriott hotel(s) offering your special group rate:
• Huntsville Marriott for $89.00 per night
Book your group rate for Lee HS Class of 64,65,66
You can also call 888-299-5174 which is Central Reservations, not at the hotel, but they answer it with our hotel name.
September 11th & 12th will be here before we know it!
So looking forward to seeing everyone,
Judy Fedrowisch Kincaid
Class of '66
From Our Mailbox
Subject: Coach Godsey
Joel Weinbaum
LHS '64
As to Coach Godsey, during the closing days of my senior year of 1964, I had entered into Lee's track team as a last ditch effort to possibly prove myself with a school letter. Then one day during dress out for regular PE I noticed my torso was getting red blotches all over as I could see in the mirror. So i went to Godsey to inquire as to the cause. I pulled up my shirt and he jumped back about 5' and said, "Boy, you go home right now! You have the red measles." I was sick as a dog from one weekend to the next. Took care of that school letter. As to red measles, there is nothing "childhood" about that disease. 50+ years later I still remember being delirious with high fever and being miserable for nearly 10 days. There is an inoculation now and young kids need that protection. Caught the RM from a family with sick kids on my paper route off of Governors Drive. As to Coach Godsey, and looking back, I thought he was a real plus for all the kids at Lee. I wish his family the best.
Subject: Turning 16
Brooks F. Glover Jr.
LHS '64
Everyone has been giving their own experience when they turned 16 years old. I don't know about mine but I still remember the night before Barbara Seely turned 16. Stan Horton and I rolled her yard with bath tissue. I said rolled her yard, but what we really did was a work of art. We wrote "Happy Birthday 16" on her lawn with bath tissue. We had a border around it with X's on each side. I wish I had been able to take a picture of it. Stan and I thought it was pretty cool but Barbara's Dad was not so inclined. Needless to say we avoided the intersection of Sullivan Road and Kenwood Drive for a while after that.
I guess Barbara found out who did it and they returned the favor on our lawn a few weeks later. The job she and friends did on my lawn was not artistically done and just a standard yard roll with confetti. In spite of it all that sure seemed like a fun time so many years ago. Thanks again for the "Traveller" and keeping these memories alive.
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