Published by the

Union City, Tennessee

www.unioncityrotary.org

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT 6760

District Governor                                                                               International President

Jim Springer                                                                                               Ray Klinginsmith

Columbia, Tennessee                                                                                Kirksville, Missouri

Rotary 2010-11

July 30, 2010

Today, is another round of "Heat", as Rotary Members Art Sparks and Mike Cox take to the podium and entertain with the familiar Union City Rotary Roast of New Members.

Today there are supposed to be four of our latest members in the hot seat. Names have been withheld, not to protect the innocent, but to assure presence of the recipients.

As Michael Hagan, the latest victim can tell you, these two must have a full team of private investigators on payroll, to be able to come up with some of the material exposed on the unlucky victim while standing in front of the membership.

If you remember, Michael was astounded a few times when Mike brought back some of his past, even as an elementary student at Carr Elementary School in Fulton.

You can be sure there will be some red faces, the question will be asked, how did you find that out, I thought I was the only one who knew that, or payback is coming!!

Non the less, Mike and Al always entertain and Rotary Members will leave today with a somewhat lighter burden for it, which we can all use during these stressful times, and some can also say thank goodness they let me off this time.

Next week, Union City Mayor and Union City Rotary Member Terry Hailey will be guest speaker. He is expected to enlighten Rotary Members on matters before the City Council at the present and bring us up-to-date on current projects which the city is dealing with now, and in the not too distant future.

Terry has been Union City’s Mayor since 1988, along with the duties of Mayor, he also has been affiliated with Union City’s popular radio station, WENK since 1967. He grew up in neighboring Troy, Tennessee, graduating from Obion County Central in 1967, also graduating from University of Tennessee Martin in 1971. He began his adult career as an English Teacher at Obion County Central for three years, 1971-1974. In 1987 Terry became a Speech Instructor and UT Martin, a position he holds to date.

He was elected to the Union City Council in 1984, and elected Mayor four years later. Terry also serves as Organist for the First United Methodist Church here in Union City, a job he has held since 1987. He is Past President of Union City Rotary, Union City Jaycees and Tennessee Association of Broadcasters.

Last Week, kicked off the upcoming 2010-2011 football season for U.C. Rotary, as Ken Williams, Owner-General Manager of the new semi pro football team, The West Tennessee War Eagles, of Jackson visited, using the opportunity to promote the new franchise.

Ken reported the team now has a 53 man roster, the Head Coach is Trent Boykin, former Head Coach at Lane College. As a player, Coach Boykin played in the 90’s at Youngstown State, where he amassed some outstanding statistics. After college, he played Arena Football and Pro Ball in Canada. He shared some of the tough times the team had landing a head coach at the beginning of the season before hiring Coach Boykin.

As of last Friday, the team had an outstanding record of 5-1, a record he said, "he had no idea that he could be standing here reporting after the problems they faced in January".

He covered some of the adversities the team has gone through this season, with putting a roster together, missing some key players during pre-season, and a shortage of offensive linemen. Also the team lost one of their coaches in a swimming accident recently, but Ken said the team has overcome these obstacles in rare form, with their record as proof.

He did some comparison of his team with that of U.T. Martin’s team, saying when you go to Martin to a football game, you expect to see a certain level of quality, and that is what he expects of his team. He said he was content with the team, on the D-2 level right now, but he would like to amass a D-1 level for the team and expects to do that. He also said he had some D-1 level players on his team right now, but when you take the whole team into prospective, they were just not there at this time. Ken explained that some of his players could be playing at major universities right now, but were not academically eligible.