Berry shares a special bond with widow of former Ole Miss standout

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Martha Wilson, widow of former University of Mississippi football star Bobby Wilson, shows off memorabilia from her husband’s playing days. The University of Tennessee’s Eric Berry broke Bobby Wilson’s conference record for career interception return yards.

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Bobby Wilson, a football star at Ole Miss, was longtime baseball coach at Carson-Newman College. Wilson died on June 21 at age 84.

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Bobby and Martha Wilson met while sharing an umbrella after a rainy junior varsity game at the University of Mississippi in 1946. “Then, as they say, the rest is history,” Martha Wilson said.

Eric Berry and Martha Wilson have never met, but the University of Tennessee's record-setting 19-year-old football player and the 81-year-old grandmother of three still share a common bond.

Last Saturday night, as fans chanted Berry's name in Neyland Stadium, Wilson sat alone in her Jefferson City home and heard another.

Berry's 72-yard interception return for a touchdown in the Vols' victory over Mississippi State broke a 59-year-old Southeastern Conference record for career yardage on interception returns. It was no sooner than Berry crossed the goal line, setting the record with 397 yards just 21 games into his college career, that Wilson's cell phone buzzed.

It was her son, who watched the game on pay-per-view with friends, texting to making sure his mother heard the name. Bob Kesling, Tennessee's play-by-play announcer, said it twice.

Martha Wilson, who spent 27 years as a health and physical education teacher at Carson-Newman College, left the Eagles' 3 p.m. homecoming football game early so she would be sure not to miss Berry's climb through history.

That Berry moved ahead of her late husband, former University of Mississippi standout and longtime Carson-Newman baseball coach and teacher Bobby Wilson, doesn't bother her at all.

"I was just tickled it was somebody we were familiar with," Martha Wilson said.

The Wilsons first became fans of Berry last fall. The couple, both former coaches, always watched sports together on television.

Having lived in East Tennessee since coming to Carson-Newman in 1964, they developed a fondness for UT sports. Their son graduated from UT, and Martha took a sabbatical there during her career as a teacher. As Berry approached the record, the Wilsons cheered him on as if he were a family member.

To hear Martha Wilson tell it, he almost is.

Berry's quickness reminds her of the way her husband played, and the Tennessee safety, like Bobby Wilson, made an impact as a true freshman.

Tennessee's coaches speak of Berry with reverence, awarding platitudes for both his athletic ability and maturity. Bobby Wilson was a favorite of legendary Ole Miss coach John Vaught, who helped the Wilsons land their first jobs as teachers in Canton, Miss., after Bobby Wilson spent three years playing baseball in the Cincinnati Reds' farm system.

"He was very modest," Martha Wilson says of her husband. "Very fast, but he was modest. He never did talk about his accomplishments. Pass defense was his specialty and punting in college. He'd zoom in on pass defense immediately."

As the two saw more and more of Berry, who earned freshman All-America honors last season and set UT's career interception return record, Bobby Wilson and his wife quickly became fans. And with each interception, the Wilsons realized Berry could zoom by Bobby Wilson's records.

Only seven games into his sophomore year, Berry is halfway to Wilson's SEC record of 20 career interceptions. This season, Berry's five interceptions are halfway to Bobby Wilson's second-place mark of 10 interceptions in a single season, set in 1949.

At Berry's current pace, he'll near Wilson's career record sometime late next fall. It just so happens that the Vols play Ole Miss next November in Oxford, Miss., where Martha Wilson first met her husband, sharing an umbrella after a rainy junior varsity game in 1946.

"Then, as they say, the rest is history," she said.

Martha Wilson hopes to still be cheering Berry's run into SEC history next fall. She'll also be rooting on behalf of her husband, who died June 21 at age 84 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in April.

Last week, she sent Berry an e-mail message wishing him well as he approached the first of her husband's records. Reading her words, Berry felt the reverse of what opposing quarterbacks must feel when he turns upfield after another interception.

"It made me feel amazing, just to have that kind of support from fans like that - basically a legend who set the record," Berry said. "It's just an amazing feeling. I truly have a deep love for them."

Even after her husband passed away, Martha Wilson has continued to tune in for the latest on Berry.

"He thought Eric really was good on pass defense," she said. "We said, well, it would be good if we could watch him because we'd be close by."

Last Saturday night, Bobby Wilson once again felt close.

Sitting in her living room, Martha Wilson watched baseball just like the couple had always done together. With the television on mute, she listened to the radio broadcast of Tennessee's game, perking up when she heard Berry and her husband mentioned in the same breath.

Baseball had her eyes. Football had her ears. Bobby Wilson still had her heart.

"I just wished Bobby had been here to hear it," Martha Wilson said. "I just thought, well, we had always listened to these things together, and it would have been nice if we could have both heard it together."

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.