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Friday, August 8, 2008 - Lee Fry Speaks to Rotary
THE UNION CITY ROTARY NEWS
Published by the
UNION CITY ROTARY CLUB #3842
Union City, Tennessee
www.unioncityrotary.org
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT 6760
District Governor International President
Larry Boyd Dong Kurn Lee
Brentwood, Tennessee Seoul, Korea
Today, Fellow Rotarian and Union City Businessman Lee Fry will speak to us , with a informative background and an up-to-date history of the world known business Dixie Gun Works.
Dixie Gun Works was founded by the late Turner Kirkland, in 1954, when he began trading and repairing antique Derringer pistols out of the trunk of his car, he kept this up for several years, and the results are what we now know as one of the largest Antique and Replica Gun collections in the world.
Dixie Gun Works has furnished many guns and weapons for several award winning movies, and for famous actors, such as John Wayne, Charlton Heston, and the list goes on and on. They ship and buy these wares all over the world, making several trips a year to these Foreign Countries to promote and buy merchandise for the local business.
The business is now run by Lee and his two brothers, Charles Kirkland and Hunter Kirkland. Lee was born in Union City, he says, "too long ago" Attended U.C. High School, UT Martin and UT Knoxville. After graduation from UT, he worked in Chattanooga for two years, and began his career at DGW in 1976.
Next Week, we begin our series previews of the up-coming football season from the local coaches here in the county as Shawn Jackson, the new Head at Obion County Central visits Rotary.
Shawn comes to Troy from Lidenwood, MO College where he served as offensive coordinator and sports promotion coordinator. Prior to 2007, he was the recruiting coordinator at the University of Missouri for one season. He is widely considered as an innovator of the spread offense in the Missouri High School ranks, and his teams regularly ranked in the Top 10 in the state in numerous categories. Jackson spent one season as head coach in 2005 when he piloted Hayti, to a 7-3 record and a conference championship. He was named the SEMO South Coach of the Year during that season.
He has served as the offensive coordinator at three schools over a four-year period, and was the play-caller at Blytheville, AR High School in 2004, helping that school to the state playoffs and an 8-3 record. In 2003 he was the OC at Caruthersville, where the school went 11-2 and made it to the state semifinals while ascending to as high as No. 3 in the state. He also served as offensive coordinator at Hayti in both 2001 and 2002, helping the team to records of 11-1 and 11-2.
He is married and the father of two sons.
Last Week, SEC, Football referee, Mike Taylor visited Union City Rotary, with a fist-full of information about the South Eastern Conference Football Program, and some humorous experiences he has had during his career.
Mike was an All-State lineman at Jackson North Side High School, before joining the UT Martin Team as a player under Fred Pickard. After graduation from Martin, he was approached by several colleges to become a Graduate Assistant Coach,which he turned down, because "I never really wanted to go into coaching" he said. "After I got a day job, Buddy Patey, who was a local referee for many years, kept coming into my office and telling me I should give officiating a try." He said, "for the love of the game", he decided to do that, and so we have Mike Taylor, SEC Referee. He started out as a High School official in 1989 and worked his way up to the Ohio Valley Conference in 1992, and then on the South Eastern Conference in 1999.
Since that day Mike said he has called nine postseason NCAA Bowl games and the 2001 SEC title, he was also the line judge in the 2004 National Championship game between The University of Southern California and Oklahoma.
He said along the way he has met some very colorful characters, one of the first being Larry Shanks the former coach at UCHS and OCCHS. He also mentioned antics pulled by coaches such as Lou Holtz, while he was at South Carolina, andOle Miss., new Head Coach, Houston Knutt. The stories he told of these characters, drew several rounds of laughter from the audience.
Mike spoke of several rule changes which have been implemented into the game for the up-coming season, and after mentioning the rule change of misconduct from the sideline warning, he turned to former coach Randy Barnes and said " it’s a good thing you’re not still in the game", which drew applause and laughter.
In his closing remarks, he said "there is nothing in my mind that is more intense as an SEC rivalry". And also there is serious talk of a college football playoff.
Coming Attractions
Aug. 15 - Shawn Jackson, OCCHS Football Preview
Aug. 22 - Jason Simpson, UT Martin Head Football Coach
Aug. 29 - Darren Bowlin, UCHS Football Preview
Birthdays
Aug. 8 - Bill Stephenson
Aug. 11 - Scott Critchlow
Aug. 11 - Dwight Phillips
Aug. 13 - Matt Goodrich
Anniversaries
Aug. 12 - Roger and Juli Williams
Zen Thoughts
The most important ingredient for a long marriage is a short memory
There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"
No matter what happens, someone will find a way to take it too seriously.
If you lend someone $20.00 and never see them again, it was probably worth it.
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