Thanks, Brother

Marshall "Abe" Shires was a stellar tackle for the Vols 1938-40 and also made a name for himself in the boxing ring.

"Abe left home to attend Staunton Military Academy when I was four years old," said Pat, who will be inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame on Aug. 18 at Knoxville Convention Center. "I was only 9 or 10 when he was playing at UT. Within a month of his graduation, Abe was off to World War II."

Pat, as a 130-pound high school freshman, finally got to know his big brother in the mid-1940s. He visited Abe in Davenport, Iowa, for the summer in 1947 and came back to Hinton, W.Va., weighing 175. Pat lettered as a 130-pound freshman but by his junior year he had become the state's MVP as a tailback.

Not only that, he earned 11 letters in football, basketball and baseball.

His favorite sport? He said he just depended on the season. Shires enjoyed them all.

Someone contacted the UT coaching staff, alerting them to Abe Shires' baby brother. Coaches scoffed, not believing that Abe had a brother more than a decade younger. So, Abe wrote Pat a letter, then told Pat to write a note to UT coaches at the bottom of the letter. That got their attention, and Pat became a UT freshman in 1949.

After arriving at UT, Shires found himself in a world of stars - two of them at tailback, Heisman runnerup Hank Lauricella and leading SEC scorer Herky Payne - during his sophomore and junior seasons. His main contributions those years were kicking extra points.

He missed one in the 1951 Cotton Bowl that would've tied the score at 14-14. Shires was dejected. But he recalled that Gen. Bob Neyland, the coach, said, "The game's not over. We didn't come down here (Dallas) to lose this game."

Fullback Andy Kozar scored his second touchdown of the game against Texas, Shires converted and UT won 20-14.

Shires had some enjoyable moments as a senior in 1952, especially in a 41-14 win over North Carolina. He ran for a touchdown, passed for one, passed for an extra point, kicked five extra points, attempted a field goal and punted five times.

He also scored a touchdown in UT's 26-12 upset of Florida, then started at tailback in a 1953 Cotton Bowl loss to Texas.

"That Florida game really cost us, because we took a licking in our second Cotton Bowl," Shires said. "Kozar was injured - ending his career at UT; Jim Haslam (tackle) was declared ineligible because he had played as a freshman against Ole Miss and Jimmy Wade (tailback) was injured."

After graduating, Shires coached high school football in Tennessee and Florida and served an Army hitch 1955-56. He coached youth football, basketball and baseball 1965-75.

As president of the T Club, Shires and a committee of Gordon Polofsky, the late Col. Gene Moeller, Hal Wantland and Judy Constantine planned the UT Letterman's Wall of Fame.

"I believe UT is the only university in the country to honor its lettermen like this," Shires said.