Truckin' on the Western Branch

practices meant no water—you sneaked moisture from a lemon tucked in your belt. Didn’t taste very good but it was moist. Playing was sort of a pride thing, a survival story. We were afraid to lose—afraid to have anyone score on us.

Shotgun claimed it was the most intelligent team he had ever coached. The guys became doctors, lawyers, and applied their intelligence in different ways.

Shotgun Brown had a heart of gold according to James “Jimmy” Webb Jones, one of the younger team members. He played center and tackle, and remembered: Shotgun set a high standard and was very inspiring. He taught us we could do things we never thought we could do. He won games by conditioning and strength training his teams. He taught us how to tackle without injuring our opponent or ourselves. When Jones was sidelined by a life-threatening reaction to a prescription drug, Brown convinced him to be the scorekeeper, home game announcer, and a stringer for The Virginian-Pilot reporting the games.

Undefeated, untied, and unscored upon 1954–1955 Truckers in 2014. Images by Sheally

“The man had a heart of gold,” Jones said.

A Medal of Honor recipient graduated from Churchland High School in 1948? By presidential order on June 8, 1955, First Lieutenant Richard T. Shea Jr. was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be given to an individual serving in the Armed Services of the United States. His citation tells the story: On the night of 6 July [1953], he was supervising the reinforcement of defensive positions when the enemy attacked with great numerical superiority. Voluntarily proceeding to the area most threatened, he organized and led a counterattack and, in the bitter fighting which ensued, closed with and killed 2 hostile soldiers with his trench knife. Calmly moving among the men, checking positions, steadying and urging the troops to hold firm, he fought side by side with them throughout the night. Despite heavy losses, the hostile force pressed the assault with determination, and at dawn made an all-out attempt to overrun friendly elements. Charging forward to meet the challenge, 1st Lt. Shea and his gallant men drove back the hostile troops. Elements of Company G joined the defense on the afternoon of 7 July, having lost key personnel through casualties. Immediately integrating these troops into his unit, 1st Lt. Shea rallied a group of 20 men and again charged the enemy. Although wounded in this action, he refused evacuation and continued to lead the counterattack. When the assaulting element was pinned down by heavy machinegun fire, he personally rushed the emplacement and, firing his carbine and lobbing grenades with deadly accuracy, neutralized the weapon and killed 3 of the enemy. With forceful leadership and by his heroic example, 1st Lt. Shea coordinated and directed a holding action throughout the night and the following morning. On 8 July, the enemy attacked again. Despite additional wounds, he launched a determined counterattack and was last seen in close hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Shea grew up off Dock Landing Road, was an altar boy at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Bowers Hill, and went to school from the first grade on with Paul Smith, who grew up on a farm in Hatton Point. Smith said, Richard was very serious, a real leader, a good friend and made good grades. He was our class president every year. When we were seniors, the senior class president was automatically named to the student council, a rule change to get him on the council. Back then high school seniors drove the school buses, and Richard drove the Dock Landing Road bus. I was the bus conductor and maintained order on the bus—once we had to put a kid off the bus for trying to cut the cables to the bus lights.

And although he never played a sport growing up, Shea was inducted, posthumously, into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. Once again the citation tells his story.

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