Former Vol Gentry preferred to be in the middle of the action

Having been a college football player and a coach, Mack Gentry never got comfortable as a civilian in the bleachers.

That's one reason why he sought refuge in another uniform, one with black and white stripes that comes with a whistle.

"It got me out of the stands,'' he said, "where I didn't have to listen to people scream and holler about things they didn't know anything about.''

While Gentry played at Tennessee during the interesting 1960s and later coached at UT and West Point, he became best recognized as a zebra.

For more than 30 years, the Knoxville native officiated football games. He started and ended in local high schools. In between he worked SEC games 1979-97. For a couple of weeks, he was even an NFL ref.

"Football,'' Gentry said, "has given me a lot of opportunities I would not have had otherwise.

The most recent is induction into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame next month.

Aside from sports, Gentry is known as an attorney and member of numerous civic boards. Sometimes he dons a cowboy hat. He's a certified horse trainer who loves to get away to Colorado.

His relationship with football began in the 1950s. In those days he was tickled to be in the stands at Neyland Stadium - selling peanuts.

In 1962, he signed with UT out of Central High School, a 175-pound lineman.

That was a time of turmoil on The Hill. Gentry was a freshman in Bowden Wyatt's final year, a redshirt during Jim McDonald's only season and ready to become a sophomore when Doug Dickey arrived one winter's day.

"Life changed radically soon thereafter,'' Gentry said.

The transformation began in a space Dickey cleared out under Section X at the stadium.

"It was pretty intense,'' Gentry said. "He didn't really care whether he kept us or not.''

The Vols showed signs of life in 1964 and leaped forward in a '65 season memorable for both triumph and tragedy.

In October, three assistant coaches were killed when their car was hit by a train in West Knoxville. One of them was line coach Charley Rash.

"I don't remember what game it was but he had written that our line was capable of winning eight games,'' Gentry said. "That became our battle cry, to win eight games.''

They did. By taking six of the final seven, including the first bowl since 1957, the Vols finished 8-1-2. The '66 team also won eight games. To this day Gentry is proud of having helped restore UT football to winning ways.

He stuck around UT for law school and helped coach a freshman team that included Phillip Fulmer, Tim Priest and Jackie Walker, three of his fellow Hall of Fame inductees.

Next came three years on the Army staff at West Point, where he worked with three future NFL head coaches, Bill Parcells, Al Groh and Ray Handley. During a 1-9-1 season Gentry began to think there might be a more stable way to make a living.

So he came home to practice law. But at the encouragement of his brother Ed, Gentry found himself officiating high school football.

In 1979, he made his SEC debut. Because of his legal background he was assigned as referee, the head of the crew.

For 19 years, Gentry was a fixture in the SEC - except for Tennessee games. Officials are not allowed to work games involving their alma mater or hometown schools.

Any ear-bending he took from coaches was preferable to what he had heard in the stands.

"They'd always work you,'' he said, "whatever their personality was.

"There's a give-and-take, a tension. There's not many people that tell a head coach 'no,' or 'you can't have that.' ''

After the '97 season Gentry handed in his whistle. Or so he thought.

His brother suggested working high school games again. An odd career trajectory, but Gentry figured why not?

In 2001, an NFL officials' walkout created another opportunity, an unexpected one. After an afternoon's training, Gentry refereed two games, an exhibition in St. Louis and the Jacksonville-Pittsburgh season-opener.

The walkout ended and Gentry continued his high school work through 2005. Now he sticks to his law office and his horses.

And on Saturdays at Neyland Stadium, he sits in the stands again.

"I just keep quiet,'' he said.

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

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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