Tracy Blair: “Friday Night Hero” from Waynesboro, VA

Storyline: Stories are still fresh in the minds of those who saw him play in the late 1970s. He was one of the greatest running backs to ever play in the Commonwealth. He’s Tracy Blair from Waynesboro, VA. Written by Waddell Howard Jr.

Every now and again there’s a talent who’s a cut above the rest. He or she has the “it factor,” which separates him or her from everyone else. We know there are things that can be taught and, then, there are skills that are given by The Almighty. Football’s Tracy Blair was one of those with God-given talents. There are stories about Blair carrying the entire team on his back to the end zone from 10-15 yards away, sprinting past state-caliber DBs for touchdowns, and running over, through, and around some of the toughest defenders of the day. Those stories are still fresh in the minds of those who saw him play, way back in the 1970s. Blair was one of the greatest running backs to ever play in the Commonwealth. 

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It’s a Friday afternoon and I’m making my rounds, calling as many people as I can over my lunch break. I want to get their consent regarding an article I’m writing on Central Virginia athletes who’ve played over the years.

I go through the list of names I’ve accumulated from relatives, friends, and acquaintances regarding the athletes featured in the article. I realize that I had talked to someone the day before who’d asked me to call him back the following day. I looked over my notes and, then, my planner, but couldn’t find the name. I thought to myself: “Check your call log.” Viola! I found the name, Tracy Blair. “Cool,” I thought. “I’ll give him a ring.”

Baseball in Waynesboro (from waynesborogenerals.net)

He was in. During the call Blair responded as though he had known me his whole life. He told his story straightforwardly, to the point, and with keen memory.

This man, whom many NFL players and past standouts say was the best they had ever played with, against, or seen, may have never have picked up a football had it not been for urging by childhood friends. “Baseball was my thing,” Blair said. “Yep, I was a centerfielder, batted cleanup, and didn’t play football until Marshall and the guys kept asking me to come out.”

Courtesy: prepsportswear.com

Blair talked about his first day on a football field. He continued: “It was the summer of 10^th Grade and the fellas kept after me to come out. I did. I hated it. I thought these guys were crazy. All this equipment, all this training, all this practicing in the heat. Well, I quit after the first day!”

Blair went home that evening thinking that he was finished with the game. But he didn’t know the head coach had already paid his mother a visit. He told her that her son had something special about him, that he had the potential to be great IF he just stuck with it. Those were bold words coming from a man who hadn’t seen Blair play football in a game against competition.

Tracy returned reluctantly to practice the next day. “I was mad. I didn’t want to be out there.” But Blair made the best of it. He began learning the game. “Marshall was the fullback,” Blair said, “and he would tell me what hole to go through and how the play was going to work. Then he’d clear it out and I’d run through it.”

Blair’s career would begin when an injury sidelined the team’s starting running back. Blair scored the very first time he touched the ball. The rest was history, VHSL (Virginia High School League) history. Blair explains it this way: “I could go run around you, over you, and past you. And I didn’t fumble.” But what Blair really prided himself on was “to make something out of nothing.” That’s the thing that separates the greats from the good players: the ability to make something out of nothing. “I could do that,” said Blair. And he did.

For the next 30 minutes Blair told me about his fascinating high school career. The stories including running over (and humiliated) a D-1 prospect linebacker and winning the district championship while playing in one of the toughest high school districts of the day. After amassing 4,684 rushing yards in 3 years–including a season where he rushed for 2,037 yards–Blair appeared in a 1978 Sports Illustrated feature, “Faces in the Crowd.”

Blair was recruited by just about every major team in the country. One of the more interesting recruiting stories was when Blair visited Nebraska. Blair recalled that “it was like pro facilities. Everything was decked out, man, laid out for the players. But what I remember most was that all the players were big. Heck, even the coach was big. Tom Osborne was a lot taller in person than he looked on TV!” Blair told me that the Nebraska experience opened his eyes to how serious it was to be recruited by big-time programs.

Tracy Blair #27 (second row, far right), freshman football team, NC State Univ.

With every big time program knocking at his door, Blair decided to take his talents to North Carolina State. And Blair had no problem adjusting to life on the D-1 gridiron. But it was the distance from home that didn’t settle well with him. “It was my first time being away from home. I started getting homesick. Some of my teammates would try to encourage me, telling me to just stay one more week, that it was going to be good. But I still missed home.”

When asked about the competition, Blair recalls that he was right in the mix of things. “I’m not bragging or anything, but I was just as good as–and probably could have been better than–any back they had.” And judging from Blair’s career exploits, talents, and field vision, there’s no doubt he’s right.

But Blair’s NC State career ended when he decided to leave the school. The distance from home, along with the sudden death of the coach that had recruited him–Robert Edward “Bo” Rein, who died in a plane crash–prompted him to leave.

Monte Kiffin, Tracy’s NCSU coach (from historicalstate.lib.ncsu.edu)

Blair gave leaving a lot of thought. And, if given another chance today, Blair might have made a different decision back then. “That was something, man, now that I think about it–to give up a free ride like that.”

Tracy performed in an era where there were no on-line recruiting databases, no ESPNU programs following top-tier high school players, and no modern-day training techniques and equipment. Listed at 5’10’ and 185 lbs., Blair possessed freakish strength and speed. “It was definitely God-given,” Blair said, “because I didn’t lift a whole lot of weights.” But he’d carry tacklers and fly by the defenses, doing both naturally and with ease.

Tracy Blair’s has a legacy. He’s still the topic of many “I remember” conversations around here. And you may catch him racing cars or motorcycles at the East Side Speedway or playing in a city league softball game. Still active and still competing, he could probably still play football. He really hasn’t missed a beat.

Blair is active in community affairs, too. He devotes a lot of time mentoring local youth, hoping to keep them on the right track.

Courtesy: NewsLeader

Life for Blair today isn’t different from what it was years ago.

What he learned in the 10^th grade still rings true: Tracy can walk away from the game, but the game will never walk away from Tracy.