Cifers, ex-UT star, dies at 89

Mr. Cifers died Tuesday morning, just hours after celebrating his 89th birthday with family. The family will receive friends following the service. Burial will be private.

He came from an athletic family, but he also was blessed with a business sense. Mr. Cifers left pro football to go in business with Daugherty and Waters Construction Company, then became president of Charles H. Bacon & Co., a hosiery manufacturer, in 1960.

Charlie Brakebill, who later became vice president for alumni and development for UT, served as sales manager for Bacon Creamery, a division of Bacon & Co.

"Ed was a very good corporate executive," Brakebill said. "You always knew where you stood with him. He was a tough administrator, but he was fair. He was the same way tomorrow and the day after that. Bacon was a big operation in the 1940s though the mid-1960s."

Mr. Cifers and his brother Bobby were born in Hawkins County and reared in Kingsport and traveled similar paths to get to UT. They starred at Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett High School and as Vols.

Ed Cifers played on coach Gen. Robert Neyland's UT teams of 1938, '39 and '40 that compiled a record of 31-2. The Vols defeated Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl after the '38 season, but lost to Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl and Boston College in the Sugar Bowl the next two years.

Fullback Leonard Coffman is the only surviving starter for the '39 Vols, who didn't allow a point.

Mr. Cifers was drafted in the first round of the NFL draft in 1941 by the Washington Redskins. He had his career interrupted by World War II as he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, and was dealt to the Chicago Bears in the postwar era.

Washington won the NFL title in 1942, and Mr. Cifers and quarterback Sammy Baugh were the Redskins' only All-Pro selections.

The Cifers brothers didn't have the fortune of playing on the same team. Bobby played 1941-42 before he went into the military.

Bobby Cifers, who died a few years ago, set the NFL record while punting for Detroit - 61.75-yard for four punts in a game, Nov. 24, 1946, against the Chicago Bears. The record has never been equaled.

Ed Cifers was inducted into the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, received Sports Illustrated's Silver Anniversary Award in 1965, and received the College Hall of Fame East Tennessee Chapter's Amateur Athlete Award in 1975. And while with Bacon & Co., he was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Mr. Cifers and his wife, Catherine, were active with Knoxville Swim Association when their daughter Meg competed, serving as meet officials at local meets. When Mrs. Cifers died in February, he was unable to attend the funeral because he was hospitalized. So, after a graveside service, the family and several friends put together a memorial service at Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center so that Mr. Cifers could be present.

Despite health problems that set in almost a decade ago, he continued to attend sports functions and celebrations.

Mr. Cifers used to enjoy telling about the Vols' rough-and-tumble Orange Bowl Game with Oklahoma. It is said that coach Col. Bill Britton grabbed the big, muscular end and said, "Cifers get out there and do something. They're killing us," to which Cifers replied, "But Coach, what if they kill me?"

Britton supposedly said, "Cifers, you're big and strong enough to take care of yourself."

Mr. Cifers is survived by daughters and their husbands Catherine Van Dyke "Vandy" and Don Leake, Gale Cifton and Mike Pettit, and Margaret Rose "Meg" and Sammy Manning.

The family requests that memorials be made to Church Street United Methodist Church, Knoxville Boys and Girls Club or Ronald McDonald House.