Teammate remembers Hall of Famer Faulkner as a competitor

TOP PHOTO: Aside from a Hall of Fame track and field career at Cumberland College, Jack Faulkner also coached championship basketball teams at La Follette Junior High during part of a 37-year teaching and coaching career.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – “He will not beat me,” said Jack Faulkner. “And he didn’t,” said L.C. Madron. Madron summed up Faulkner’s competitive nature in just one of many memories he’s carried with him since the 1960s.

Faulkner, who died earlier this week, and Madron were friends plus track and field and cross-country teammates on the La Follette High and Cumberland College, now The University of the Cumberlands, teams. in the 1950s and 1960s. “The Faulkner boys, Johnny (John) and Jack, were real winners at LHS and Cumberland,” said Madron.

Faulkner’s feat in a track meet as a senior in high school was impressive and set a tone for what would result in a Hall of Fame track and field career in college. Faulkner entered an open track meet hosted by Tennessee Tech University where he recorded two victories over competing high school and collegiate athletes by winning the mile at 4:35 and the half mile at 2:03.

“Well, there were a lot of records set at Cumberland by Johnny who was a couple of years ahead of Jack, and Jack came along and broke every one of them,” said Madron.

Faulkner’s family was supportive of Jack and John’s athletic endeavors. “Their mom Maria was also one of my biggest fans in high school. I’ll never forget at a meet at Oak Ridge when I could hear her above the rest of the crowd cheering me on,” said Madron.

In the early 2000s, Jack’s name came before Cumberland’s Hall of Fame committee. “I happened to be on that committee and nominated Jack. I simply presented Jack’s scrapbook to support my nomination,” said Madron. Another committee member expressed that that was the greatest record of any he’d ever seen, according to Madron. Jack was inducted into the HOF in 2008.

Madron said a new athlete arrived at Cumberland College from the Midwest, and he was a half-miler, one of Jack’s specialties. He was good. Really good. So good in fact, teammates ribbed Jack that the newcomer would beat him prompting Faulkner to vow “he’ll never beat me.” “He never beat Jack, and I learned right then just what a competitor Jack Faulkner was,” said Madron. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 12/01/2022-6AM)