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VW: And then studying, I'd try to study, but I had four hours of football practice every day, and that just took too much of a chunk out of me. And so I had to quit. I had to make a decision on whether I was gonna do my studies or whether I was gonna play football, and I decided study was more important so I quit. And then the coach came up and saw me, like, two weeks later or so and said, "Virgil, you quit football?" He said, "You were in the starting lineup against Michigan State." And I thought, "Oh, no. That would have been great." But that was the way it was.

TI: And Virgil, what position did you play?

VW: I was playing left guard at the time, which was a little unusual because I wasn't real heavy at all, but I was so fast. I was very quick. And I had figured that out in high school playing football for one year, that if I hit the guy before he even got started, it was so easy, much easier. But you had to move quick. And so that's the way I implemented the movements. I used them instead of, instead of the weight that some people had. So I would sometimes play both sides of the line, even when I was in the backfield trying to get the, the football carrier. And often people wondered what I was doing on the right side of the line when I was playing on the left side of the line. Well, the reason was because the ball was going over in that direction.

TI: Because you were pulling, or because they actually took you --

VW: I was also a pull guard, too.

TI: A pull guard, and you would also play, oftentimes, on the side that the run was going to be on, and they'd put you on that side?

VW: Yeah, sometimes I'd go through so quick --

TI: I see.

VW: -- that I was in the backfield of the opposite, opposition. And I'd tackle the guy on the right side over there, and that was somebody else's problem, but I would go after him and get him.

TI: Oh, so you'd play both offense and defense.

VW: Yes.

TI: I see. So, okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.