9/16/2009 5:01:00 PM Alex Dees Memphis
Hall of Fame inductee
By STEVE SWOGETINSKY Sports Editor
Alex Dees wasn't the biggest player on the Memphis State football teams when he earned all-conference honors for two years in a row in the 1960s.
The Philadelphia High School graduate weighed around 200 pounds. He was a tough defensive end with a workman attitude and got after some of the biggest names in the game of that day. He went on to earn the respect of his coaches and his peers.
It's been a long time coming but Dees will be enshrined on Friday into the University of Memphis M Club Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will be held at the Holiday Inn on campus, starting at 6:30 p.m. Dees and others will be introduced the next day at the halftime ceremonies of the Memphis football game.
Looking back, Dees said he was well prepared for college ball after playing football at Philadelphia High School.
"If you played under coach Bobby Glen Posey and (assistant coach) Roy Terry, you knew how to play," Dees said. "I could have gone anywhere and stayed. They weren't going to run me off nor outhit me. I was ready."
Dees played the 1966, 1967 and 1968 seasons for the Tigers and was a starter in all of Memphis' games. Freshmen didn't play varsity ball in those days but they practiced and that's when Dees started to make his name.
One day, the coaches put Dees up against one of the biggest players on the team. He took him down. The two men lined up again and Dees put him down again. The same thing happened the third time.
"I think they were satisfied that I could hit," Dees said.
He played lineman for most of his high school career. But as a senior, he was moved to halfback after the starter at that position became sick with mumps. It turned out to be a good move as he earned "Back of the Year" honors for the Choctaw Conference.
His coach, Bobby Glen Posey, remembers Dees as a solid citizen and a very good football player.
"He was tough player," Posey said. "Alex was quiet but he played hard. He and his brother came from a good family.
"He played both sides of the ball and he was just a good on both sides. In college, he only played on defense but I think he set and held just about every record a defensive end could hold. We moved him to running back his senior year and he did an outstanding job. He was also my punter and his average (45.6 yards per kick) was better then the college kickers that year."
Playing running back his senior year drew the attention of the college scouts and Dees ended up at Memphis State.
"That (the college) seemed like the biggest place to me when I first showed up," Dees said. "I had never been anywhere, and I didn't know if I wanted to stay. My father stayed up there for a week or so in case I wanted to go home. I didn't see him every day but he was around."
Dees opted to stay. When he started as a sophomore, it was reported that he was the youngest starter ever for the Tigers. The next year, his brother, Bobby Dees, followed him to Memphis and in time, they would be known as the Dees boys.
"Really, I wish Bobby and I could go into the hall of fame together because he deserves just as much," Dees said.
The Tigers' rivalry with Ole Miss was just as intense in those days as it is today, especially since there were seven former Tornado players involved. The Dees brothers and Ferrell Skinner played for Memphis while Jimmy Haddock, Larry Thomas, Frank Trapp and Jimmy Parkes played for Ole Miss.
"They beat us twice and we beat them one," Dees recalled. "We were all friends and stayed together we when came home in the summer. There was a lot of picking but it was all in fun."
The Tigers also had a big game with Houston and actually beat the Cougars 14-13 in the Astrodome, which was brand new at the time. Houston had picked up some big wins over Ole Miss and Georgia that year and nobody thought Memphis would beat them. But the Cougars ran away from Dees' side the entire game.
After the game, Cougar coach Bill Yeoman said: "There's no use in trying to prove your courage against that No. 82."
Dees wore No. 82.
The Dees-led Memphis defense got after NFL legend Mercury Morris when the Tigers played West Texas State. Morris had been averaging over 200 yards per game but only gained 52 markers that day.
Just how good were the Dees brothers? Alex tells the following story.
"One time, my parents were at one of our games," Dees said. "They were waiting on us at the dorm when we got back.
"Our coach, Billy Murphy, introduced them to the team. And then he told them if they were to have another son, he would give him a football scholarship they day he was born."
Dees earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors as a junior and a senior. He and Joe Greene of North Texas State and later the Pittsburgh Steelers were the only unanimous picks. He was also on the watch list for All-America honors.
After college, he played in the Blue/Gray game and the East-West Shrine game that was held in Memphis.
Dees tried pro football in Canada and went through the preseason with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He made it until the final cuts and had a good chance. But a couple of starters from the previous season came out of retirement and took his spot.
"They just didn't want to go through training camp," Dees said.
Dees decided that was it for football so he went to work. He sold insurance in Memphis for a while. He worked off shore. Then he came back to Philadelphia. He has been a letter carrier for the post office for 33 years.
Forty-plus years is a long time and folks tend to forget about star linemen after a while. But with the help of some friends, Dees' outstanding career was brought to the attention of the current power-that-be at Memphis.
High school teammate Terry Jordan, who played basketball at Ole Miss, said the movement started two years ago but it was too late at the time to get Dees on the ballot. His name was on this year's ballot and passed without question.
"I don't want this to sound like I'm bragging," Dees said. "But I believe that I belong in the hall of fame, and my brother does, too. It has been a long time coming."
Dees and his wife, Patty, have three children: Alex IV, Shanna and Tia.
Thirty-eight or more people from Philadelphia are expected to be in attendance of the hall of fame induction. This includes Dees, his wife, children and grandchildren; his mother, Burnice Dees; Bobby Dees and his wife Serita; Dr. Brent Cumberland; Dr. Tracy Phillips; Larry Holland; Don DeWeese; Terry and Susy Jordan and their daughter, Whitten; David Vowell; Jim Haddock and his wife, Linda; Coach Posey and his wife, Betty; Larry Thomas and his wife Annette; Ferrell Skinner, Jim Parks and Frank Trapp.
