Deke Brackett learned to play football on the sandlots of Knoxville in the Roaring '20s. Then he became a college standout for the hometown Vols and spent his adult life coaching the game.

Brackett coached his last game on Nov. 14, 1970. A few hours later he became a part of the worst tragedy in the history of American sports.

When the Hollywood movie "We Are Marshall" debuts today, Knoxville will have its own link to the story.

It can be found at Lynnhurst Cemetery.

Brackett was an assistant coach on the Marshall University football team plane that slammed into a ridge while landing in Huntington, W.Va., and killed all 75 people aboard.

"He was a good guy,'' Murray Warmath recalled this week. "I played with him and coached with him.''

Warmath played with Brackett at the University of Tennessee in the early 1930s, and the two stuck around as assistant coaches for a couple of years before heading in separate directions.

Brackett joined the Marshall staff in 1968, serving as the kicking coach and working with the freshmen team.

The team had lost a close game at East Carolina on the fateful day in 1970. The Southern Airways DC-9 charter flight was landing in a fog and drizzle back at Huntington and crashed short of the runway.

The 37 players, the coaches and a number of other staff and supporters were all killed instantly.

Herbert Benjamin "Deke" Brackett was survived by his Knoxville-born wife and two grown children. A memorial service was held at Mann Heritage Chapel on Kingston Pike, and he was buried near his parents in Lynnhurst, according to News Sentinel archives.

Brackett grew up in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and played at Knoxville High School prior to enrolling at UT, where football was just beginning to take off under new coach Robert Neyland.

Warmath recalled the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Brackett as an able quarterback running the single-wing offense.

"He passed well and he ran well and he knew the game,'' Warmath said. "He was a very knowledgeable quarterback, and he executed well.''

Brackett played in the same 1931 backfield as two of UT's all-time greats, Gene McEver and Beattie Feathers.

The Vols finished 9-0-1 that year and played in the school's first postseason game, against New York University at Yankee Stadium. Brackett scored on a 75-yard punt return in a 13-0 UT victory.

He would coach at Hampden-Sydney, The Citadel, Arkansas and UCLA before moving to Marshall.

The movie, starring Matthew McConaughey, depicts the university and the community coping with the tragedy and rebuilding the program.

Marshall managed to restart the program for the 1971 season. The team began winning consistently in the mid-1980s and became a power at the Division I-AA level, winning national titles in 1992 and 1996.

In 1997, the Thundering Herd moved up to Division I-A without missing a beat under the quarterbacking of Webb School product Chad Pennington.

Marshall continued to win and Pennington continued to star. In 1999 Pennington finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting as Marshall went undefeated.

Marshall recruiters have kept a Knoxville pipeline open.

This year's team, which lost to the Vols 33-7, included Ian O'Connor of Halls, John Inman of Webb and Zane Bruhin of Powell. Lee Smith of Powell is enrolled and will be eligible next season. John Bruhin, a senior at Powell, has committed to Marshall.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276.