Answers solved on Blanchard’s bowl appearance

When Bishopville native Doc Blanchard died the other day, it brought back memories and led to puzzlement.
Blanchard was a West Point cadet who played football with Army’s great mid-1940s teams. He was All-American, and he and Glenn Davis were the most famous backfield pair of the era, known as Mr. Inside (Blanchard) and Mr. Outside. In addition, Blanchard won the Heisman Trophy, as the best college football player in the land.
He also had an unusual appearance at Hicks Field, where Florence (later McClenaghan) High School teams once played. That’s where the confusion came in.
Fred Samra found a program for the 1946 Tobacco Bowl game in which the Florence Yellow Jackets played a team of all-stars from 15 Pee Dee high schools. His sister, Ramona, who could have been mistaken for a movie star, was Tobacco Bowl Queen that year and was featured in that program.
Fred and I also recalled (we thought) Blanchard appearing and making the opening kickoff for that game. To check details, I went to Morning News files.
Among names on that Florence team were Coke Dent, Tommy Summerford, Webster Williams, Joe Griffin, Lukie Brunson, who went on to play much football at the University of Georgia, A.W. Miller and Carl Cockfield. Coach Jack Shivers moaned that the Jackets were overmatched.
One of the coaches of the All-Stars was Dudley Saleeby of Dillon, whose son of the same name later served as 12th Judicial Circuit solicitor.
The paper said the game raised money for a memorial stadium to be located at the airport. The Junior Chamber of Commerce was sponsor.
Miss Samra was object of much attention that day, and afterwards was presented the game football, autographed by all of the players. She also was driven around the field at halftime in a convertible, accompanied by, the paper said, her little cousin and crown bearer, Sandra Nofal, who later sensibly enough married a witty columnist.
The Yellow Jackets, by the way, won the game, 13-6, with the clock running out on the All-Stars as they threatened to score and tie it. Billy Houck scored the two Florence touchdowns, one on a pass from Brunson, and Summerford kicked an extra point. Nick Simon of Conway made the All-Stars’ score.
Maybe the most memorable thing about the game was 18 fumbles, 10 of which saw possession change.
Where the confusion about Blanchard set in was when I read in a paper from a day or two before the 1946 game. It said Blanchard had been honored at a Bishopville banquet and had expressed regret that he could not attend the Tobacco Bowl as he had planned. He had to get back to West Point.
Maybe, I thought, Blanchard made it here at the last minute. But the paper after the game told of Gov. Ransome J. Williams and Clemson football great Banks McFadden being there but made no mention of Blanchard.
This set me on a search, and I found in the Jan. 2, 1949 paper that Blanchard had appeared at the Tobacco Bowl game the day before, three years after the Jan. 1, 1946 game.
By that time, Blanchard had graduated and married and was serving as a lieutenant at Shaw Air Force Base. He passed up a pro football shot for a career in the Air Force, served in Korea and Vietnam and retired as a colonel.
Anyway, it turned out that Blanchard came to the Jan. 1, 1949, Tobacco Bowl game and made the opening kickoff. Fred and I both recalled that but had it in the wrong year.
In the 1949 game, the Florence Stoppers and Charleston Royals, teams in a semi-pro S.C. football league, met on Hicks Field. They had split two games during the regular season and a showdown was booked for the Tobacco Bowl.
Blanchard, on a muddy field in a suit to make the kickoff, kicked it out of bounds. He did better on a second try, putting it in play and scurrying off before getting caught in the action, dressed in suit and tie. That was my answer. We recalled Blanchard’s appearance correctly except for the year.
The Stoppers won 14-13, and that must have been Hicks Field’s final football game. The Yellow Jackets of MHS played at Memorial Stadium that fall.

— Thom Anderson is a retired journalist who has 40 years experience with South Carolina newspapers, including the Morning News. He can be reached at .