Choo Choo power

Never before and never since has Asheville, nor indeed the state of North Carolina, seen a high school football team like the 1942 Asheville High Maroons. 

Led by two great running backs—145-pound Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice (later an All-American at the University of North Carolina) and Billy Britt—the team won all nine of its games, scoring 441 points to only six by the opposition—and those six came on a fumble by Justice. The Asheville blockers opened such gaps in the defense of opposing teams that Justice once commented, “My grandmother could have run through the holes they opened for me.”

One of the victories was a 94-0 demolishing of Hickory High School, where Britt scored five touchdowns and Justice, four. Afterwards, Hickory Coach Ed Scarborough congratulated Asheville Coach Ralph James with admiration: “Shucks, I was pulling for you, Coach; I’ve never seen a team score a hundred points.”

That was the second undefeated season for the Maroons. They won all 11 games in 1941, and counting the last victory of 1940, had a winning record of 21 consecutive games. The Asheville team was so devastating that Duke University, then a national powerhouse, wanted to recruit the Maroons’ 11 starters to see what they could do against major college competition. Unfortunately, World War II had begun just as the 1941 season ended, and the Asheville players went into military service at the end of the 1942 campaign.

In that fabled 1942 season, Asheville demolished Tech High of Atlanta, 34-0; Kingsport, Tenn., 22-0; Columbia, S.C., 47-6; Hickory, N.C., 94-0; Charlotte Central, 35-0; Greenville, S.C., 55-0; Knoxville, Tenn., 27-0; Brevard College, 67-0; and Children’s Home of Winston-Salem, N.C., 60-0.

Justice’s high school records were phenomenal. In 1942, he gained 2,385 yards on 128 runs, an average of 18.63 yards each time he carried the ball. In his three-year high school career, he gained 4,005 yards rushing, completed 41 of 61 passes for 527 yards, and scored 49 touchdowns, averaging 34.39 yards per touchdown run. Justice’s figures are even more amazing when one considers that he played only half of every game, sharing equal time at tailback with speedster Billy Britt, who could run like a deer. Justice ran, passed, received, punted, and returned kickoffs and punts—everything a football player could do.

Justice was the star running back on every team he ever played on—Asheville High, the Bainbridge Naval Training Station in Maryland, the University of North Carolina, and the Washington Redskins.

Asheville High was able to build such a powerful team by recruiting from other high schools in the mountain area of North Carolina. Rules were loose then, and a ruling body did not govern high school football as is done today. Recruiting was prevalent in all major high schools in the state.

On Asheville’s juggernaut teams of 1941 and ’42, Asheville had players from Bryson City, Canton, Weaverville, Candler, Black Mountain, Swannanoa, and Biltmore, each of which had a high school football team. A big, bruising fullback, Glenn Painter, had played four years for Sylva High and then played the entire 1940 season for Asheville High. Asheville’s hard-hitting linemen included Carl Perkinson at center, Ed Williams and Don McCurry at guards, Bill “Footsie” Williams and Phil Bennett at tackles, and Carl Tipton and Richard Knapp at ends. In the backfield with Justice and Britt were Jim Pinkerton at fullback, Forrest Maney at wingback, and Norman Harris at blocking back.  

Justice’s longest, and perhaps most spectacular, run ever came in a game against Knoxville High at McCormick Field in Asheville. The Tennessee team drove within one foot of the goal line and lost the ball on downs. In the Asheville huddle, Justice said, “We’ve got to punt out of here. Let’s kick it upfield and get some room.”

The rest of the guys looked at him like he had dropped a skunk in the huddle.  

“Hell, no,” said team captain Norman Harris. “Take the ball and run, Charlie; we’ll clear out for you.”  

The Maroons came out of the huddle in punt formation. Justice took the snap and ran untouched 99 and two-thirds yards for a touchdown. He looked back as he crossed the goal line, and not one Knoxville player was on his feet.

After high school, Justice went into the Navy and was the star runner for Bainbridge Naval Training Station for two undefeated seasons. He picked up the nickname “Choo Choo” in Baltimore in a game in which he ran wild. A writer for the Baltimore Sun overheard a fan say, “He runs like a runaway choo-choo.”  The nickname appeared in the paper the next day and Charlie Justice was known as “Choo Choo” for the rest of his life. In later years, North Carolinians may not have recognized the governor on the streets, but they knew Choo Choo when he passed by.

Justice died October 17, 2003, at age 79 and is buried in the Calvary Episcopal churchyard in Fletcher, N.C. His wife, Sarah, whom he had married during the war, lived less than a year after Choo Choo’s death.

Charlie Justice was the first athlete enshrined in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

(For Justice’s complete story, read ALL ABOARD, the Charlie Choo Choo Justice Story, by Bob Terrell.  Alexander Press, Asheville.)