“My interest in sports evolved over time. But I’ve always loved football. It’s full of excitement, and the athleticism of the players is amazing. It’s been said that the spirit of the team is within me, and I believe that. They play better when they hear my milk jug ringing. They know I’m there,” says Gladys Lee, a retired teacher in the Brooks County School System who is the Trojans’ #1 fan.
Lee was born in Brooks County and taught high school science for 43 years. Not all teachers like athletics. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about high school or college; many schools have an uneasy relationship between academics and athletics. That has never been the case with Gladys Lee. Throughout her years teaching, she was always a huge football fan. She’s at every game, encouraging the players and cheering for the team. The players and coaches know she’s there, and she never gets discouraged. Since Lee retired in 2007, her passion for sports has only grown.
During her teaching years, she had thousands of students pass through her classroom. One in particular was Brooks County head football coach Maurice Freeman. She describes Coach Freeman as a quiet, self-controlled young man who always seemed to be in deep thought.
“He looked like he always had something on his mind. I told him he would be the first person in his family to graduate from college, and he was. I have an awesome sense of pride when I see how he has grown and evolved. He’s an outstanding parent, head coach, and athletic director. I can still see him walking to class. He had a very perceptive mind, and you could see the potential for greatness. I’m as proud of him as I would be if he was my own son,” she says.
Coach Freeman, however, remembers things a little bit differently. “When she was my science teacher, she was mean as a snake,” he laughs. “I didn’t think she even liked me.”
During Freeman’s years at Brooks County, Lee has been a rock upon which Freeman and the team have stood. “She’s extremely inspirational,” Coach Freeman says. “She’s powerful in her belief of the success of Brooks County football. Her belief motivates me. She comes to practice, staff meetings, and she’s welcome in the locker room. She has full access, and she can come to anything we do.”
He also recalls that Lee just may have been the reason why one of the best football players Georgia has ever turned out ever stepped onto the field. “When I first came to Brooks, she told me about a kid she had in her class. She said he thought he was a basketball player, but Mrs. Lee wanted him on the football field. She told me to get him out there.”
That young man was Marcus Stroud. And, as Freeman puts it, “the rest was history.” (Stroud would go on to play for the University of Georgia Bulldogs and spend ten years in the National Football League as a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills after being selected 13thoverall in the 2001 draft.)
Throughout the years, Lee has seen so many big moments and games that’s it’s hard to pick just one. There have been all the great players that passed through the Brooks County program. There was the state championship in 1994. Then there’s the recent success the Trojans have had. But when asked about one particular moment that stands out, Lee didn’t hesitate. She couldn’t recall the year, but she remembered the names and place well.
“We were playing Toombs County in Toombs. Decameron Williams, #60, hit a player from Toombs County. I could feel it in the stands. It was heard around the world. When he hit that boy, I said, ‘Oh, Jesus!’ He got up, but it took a while. I can still see it and feel it today,” she says. (According to the Georgia High School Football Historians’ Association, Williams was an All-State linebacker in 1994, the same year that Brooks beat Toombs in Toombs County 19-7 in the quarterfinals of the state playoffs en route to the Trojans’ only state title.)
Williams’ hit certainly wasn’t the first time Lee had uttered the name of her Savior from the stands. She says she prays often for the team, and she is convinced the prayers work.
“The players see me on my knees, praying for them in the stands. I call on the Lord all the time for them. When they see me, they say, ‘She’s praying again’,” laughs Lee.
She recalls one time in particular playing Jefferson County, Florida, in Monticello. It had to be around 1995. Tommy Jackson was quarterback (he was named All-State that year) and he took a nasty hit from the defense. Coach Freeman took him out of the game. Lee immediately started praying – the Trojans’ best chance to win was with Jackson in the game, she felt.
“I prayed, ‘Lord, please let him go back in’,” states Lee. It wasn’t long before Jackson went back in the game and Brooks County ended up winning.
So what does Lee do if the Trojans have a down year? She remains positive and supports the kids and the coaches no matter what.
“I love the kids, regardless of whether they win or lose. I love them unconditionally. It’s not about winning, but having the desire to win. If I see the heart and desire to win in them, it motivates me. They are a part of me,” she says.
But Lee is quick to admit that winning is a lot more fun than losing. And she always has the same expectations every year. “I always say this will be the year we win a state championship. That’s all I want – a state title for my Brooks County Trojans. And I know they will deliver.”
Special Feature/South Georgia/August 2015
Gladys Lee
Robert Preston Jr.
Retired educator is Brooks County’s #1 fan
Photography by Micki K Photography
