The I-40 exit for Highway 13 is pretty typical, as these things go. There’s a McDonald’s, three gas stations, a couple of chain restaurants, four motels. Numerous signs tout Loretta Lynn’s Ranch and Resort, just up the road. A little north of Loretta’s place, 15 miles from the exit, sits the town of Waverly, Tennessee, home to 4,000 people and the site of a horrific disaster on the weekend of August 20th.
A freak storm hit the mountains to the east of Waverly that night, dumping 17 inches of rain in six hours near the hill town of McEwen, all-time record for the state. The only outlets for the water were five streams: Trace Creek, Blue Creek, Hurricane Creek, Tumbling Creek, and the Piney River. Waverly has the misfortune to be split by Trace Creek, normally a small clear stream, maybe 30 feet wide, three feet deep in its pools. But on this night, the placid little waterway became a deadly funnel for the torrential rain coming out of the highlands. Dozens of houses along the creek in Waverly, mostly modest frame structures, including some public housing — what locals call the “projects” — were inundated by the wave.
Twenty people were killed. Twin seven-month-old babies were ripped from their father’s arms; two teenage sisters were separated in the deluge. One survived; the body of the 15-year-old, last seen clinging to a piece of debris being washed downstream, was later found. Houses, cars, furniture, appliances, and the contents of more than 100 homes were flushed away.
As you enter Waverly, nothing seems amiss in the business district, which is on higher ground a couple blocks from the creek. But the two streets nearest the stream are a nightmarish wasteland: Houses sit in the middle of streets; cars are stacked against trees like ladders; washing machines, boats, fencing, furniture, books, televisions, and other human detritus are strewn everywhere. At a gas station, a house sits near the pumps, as if looking for fuel. An enormous dead wild boar floats belly-up in a backwater pool.
A freak storm leaves Waverly, Tennessee, in a state of catastrophic despair, with 20 people killed. (Photos: Bruce Vanwyngarden)
I wander the area, taking pictures, trying not to bother the National Guard and other salvage and cleanup operations. A Tennessee park ranger pulls up as I survey the trashed but now-tranquil stream.
“Is this your property?” he asks.
“No, I’m from a Memphis newspaper, up here to do a story.”
“Good,” he says. “All this just disappeared from the news in one day, and it’s just unbelievable what happened here. Go ahead, just be careful.”
I approach a man and woman sitting on the porch of a white frame house that looks largely unaffected by the storm. Across the street, a house sits cockeyed on its foundation with a pickup truck standing nearly vertical in the yard. Tricia and Chris Wilcher, mother and son, have stories to tell.
Tricia was home and saw the water rising, which isn’t uncommon in Waverly. Creeks rise. “We’ve lived through lots of flooding here, but nothing like this one,” she says. “People were out looking at the water. At first it looked like a monster crawling around on the ground between the houses, then BOOM, it was like a tsunami — and everything just got swept away.”
How does a tsunami happen in the middle of Tennessee? The current thinking is that a massive amount of water pooled behind a railroad track bed that suddenly gave way. Chris Wilcher says he witnessed it. “I was on my way home from work in Nashville and I stopped in Gorman because the roads were getting flooded. You could see the water building like a huge lake behind the railroad tracks up there. Then it started pouring over the tracks, then the bed gave way, and all that water just rushed out at once. It looked like a dam had broken, or like the levees with Katrina.”
“Chris saw that and texted me and said, ‘Mom, you have to get out. Lots of water is coming,’” says Tricia. “A friend of his came and got me. Water didn’t get into our house, but it came up to the porch. I’m still having nightmares about it. I’m still shaken.”
She’s not alone. A lot of people are shaken in Waverly. A week after the horror, they stand watching bulldozers clear the streets, everything they owned, gone or destroyed.
On my way out of town, I notice a young woman in shorts and tank-top walking in Trace Creek with a wading stick. She pokes at debris, moves tree limbs, then wades on, looking for something, something that’s likely gone forever.
For information on how you can help, call the Red Cross Disaster Health Services in Waverly: 1-800-REDCROSS.
No college football coach has begun his career in quite the way Ryan Silverfield has at the University of Memphis. His very first experience in command on the Tiger sideline occurred on December 28, 2019, in what happens to be the biggest game in the program’s history. Having been promoted from an assistant’s position to succeed Mike Norvell (who left for Florida State after Memphis won the American Athletic Conference championship game), Silverfield — then 39 years old — led the 15th-ranked Tigers against Penn State in the Cotton Bowl, one of the four most prestigious postseason games in the land. Memphis came up short (53-39) in an exciting game, but Silverfield had his platform for the next era of the program’s growth.
Not quite three months later, Silverfield’s program essentially shut down as the coronavirus pandemic took hold of organized sports all over the globe. The young head coach would learn the ropes under conditions unlike any of his predecessors — or any of his competition — had experienced before.
“Who would ever have thought my first three months on the job would be the easiest,” wonders Silverfield. “It became a totally different deal [during the pandemic] than when I took the job. It was a new era for Memphis football, and I felt like we had some momentum going in. Our kids left for spring break, and we ended up having about a three-month spring break. Anytime you’re trying to get a staff together, to learn from each other and build relationships, it’s never easy. Doing it via Zoom, not being able to be around [the players] … so much of college football is about relationships. You’re dealing with 125 17- to 22-year-olds. We need to be there for them in everything we do. Our administration handled it the right way, and our kids persevered. It was a trying season, in more ways than one. The opt-outs [players choosing not to play under the pandemic restrictions], not knowing your schedule, getting tested [for Covid-19]. I’m proud of those who persevered and came out on top. Credit to all those around me. You want to forget, but I’ll always remember a season that was unique to me and everyone else.”
Senior Calvin Austin III led the Tigers in 2020 with 63 receptions for 1,063 yards (Photo: U of M Athletics)
Even with the stifling restrictions, Silverfield’s first season was a success. The Tigers went 8-3 and won the program’s first bowl game since 2014 (a victory over Florida Atlantic University in the Montgomery Bowl). But Memphis missed out on the AAC championship game for the first time in four seasons, so there’s ground to gain (or regain) in 2021.
Entering his second season, Silverfield has a closer-to-normal football atmosphere around him. (As camp opened in August, players who had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus were required to be tested for Covid-19. Near the end of the month, Silverfield said more than 80 percent of the Tiger roster has been vaccinated, with the goal being 100 percent.) And part of “normal” for college football coaches every summer is the task of addressing significant departures. Former quarterback Brady White leaves the most significant void, having won the most games (28) and passed for the most yardage (10,690) and touchdowns (90) among all signal-callers in Tiger history. Also gone are placekicker Riley Patterson (second in career scoring for the U of M with 432 points) and a trio of impact-making transfers: offensive lineman Obinna Eze (to TCU), wide receiver Tahj Washington (to USC), and defensive back T.J. Carter (to TCU).
Safety Quindell Johnson intercepted three passes in 2020 and led the AAC with 60 solo tackles (Photo: U of M Athletics)
But there is returning star power for Memphis. If you enjoy “watch lists” — those preseason projections of which players will contend for which postseason awards — you’ll need a deep breath before reciting the Tigers’ candidates: Calvin Austin III (Biletnikoff Award for outstanding receiver and Maxwell Award for most outstanding player), Sean Dykes (John Mackey Award for best tight end), Quindell Johnson (Jim Thorpe Award for best defensive back and Chuck Bednarik Award for outstanding defensive player), and Dylan Parham (Outland Trophy for best interior lineman).
These kinds of preseason nods tend to go to programs that have enjoyed seven straight winning seasons, a pair of AAC titles, and three Top-25 finishes (in 2014, ’17, and ’19). The Tigers enter the 2021 campaign on a 15-game home winning streak (fifth in the nation), the kind of utter dominance expected of blue bloods in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, or Columbus, Ohio. Since 2014, the Tigers are 41-5 at the Liberty Bowl. (For perspective, Memphis has won more home games over the last seven seasons than the program did the previous 14.) So yes, expectations are high. Again.
Sean Dykes holds the Tiger career record for receptions (80) and yards (1,169) by a tight end. (Photo: U of M Athletics)
Just Watch!
There’s some irony to the watch lists, as you won’t find a Tiger among candidates for the Davey O’Brien Award, given annually to the country’s top quarterback. Having suited up Paxton Lynch (2013-15), Riley Ferguson (2016-17), and White (2018-20) over the last eight years, Memphis has found not just stability behind center, but profound, record-breaking success. Silverfield opened camp in August by declaring any one of four quarterbacks capable of continuing this unprecedented stretch: Keilon Brown (a dual-threat redshirt freshman from Zachary, Louisiana), Grant Gunnell (a junior transfer from the University of Arizona), Seth Henigan (a freshman from Denton, Texas), and Peter Parrish (a sophomore transfer from LSU).
Despite nursing an injury through much of training camp, Gunnell fits the picture — and brings the most experience — for Saturday’s opener at the Liberty Bowl. [Editor’s note: Silverfield had not named the starter at press time.] Based on his size (6’6”, 228 lbs.), Gunnell fits the prototype for a drop-back gunslinger, the kind Memphis has gotten used to over the last decade. As for credentials, Gunnell shattered state records as a high school player in Houston, passing for 16,108 yards and 195 touchdowns over four years. In his two seasons at Arizona, Gunnell played in 12 games, completed 66 percent of his passes and connected for 15 touchdowns (with only three interceptions).
“First and foremost, it’s intelligence and accuracy,” says Silverfield, in emphasizing the qualities he wants to see from his quarterback on a weekly basis. “He needs to display leadership and arm strength and be athletic enough to get you out of trouble. Can he handle the offense? Is he a quick thinker, able to process information?”
Silverfield chuckles when asked if the Tiger offense will remain a run-first attack. “I’m an offensive-line guy,” he says. “We’ll base it on personnel. Brady White was a great drop-back passer, so there were times when we had to lean on the pass. We’ve also had NFL-caliber running backs recently, so it made sense to run first. A lot of it is what the defense gives us.”
In Austin and Dykes, the Memphis quarterback — whoever he might be — will have a pair of veteran game-breakers to target. A former walk-on from Harding Academy of Memphis, Austin caught 63 passes for 1,063 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2020, filling the void left by Damonte Coxie, who opted out early in the season. Dykes hauled in 47 passes for 581 yards and seven touchdowns and already owns the Tiger career records for catches (80) and receiving yards (1,169) by a tight end. The top returning ball-carrier is Rodrigues “Dreke” Clark (561 yards last year), but Marquavius Weaver (from Bartlett High School), Kylan Watkins (Whitehaven), Cameron Fleming, and Brandon Thomas give the running back position every bit as much depth — or question marks — as quarterback. “We started seven different running backs last year,” notes Silverfield. “Probably not where you want to be, but our bell cow [Kenneth Gainwell] opted out five days before the first game. We’ve got to figure out who that guy is [this season].”
High Expectations for Tiger Talent
The Tigers have become one of the top-scoring programs in the country, with averages (points per game) the last five seasons of 38.8, 45.5, 42.9, 40.4, and 31.0. Conversely, the Memphis defense has allowed its share of points, with averages (since 2016) of 28.8, 32.5, 31.9, 26.4, and 27.9 last season under first-year defensive coordinator Mike MacIntyre. A pair of ugly losses at Cincinnati (49-10) and Tulane (35-21) exposed the Tiger defense in ways that even a prolific offense couldn’t hide. This year’s defense will be led by a pair of preseason all-conference selections, first-team lineman Morris Joseph (seven quarterback sacks in 2020) and second-team safety Quindell Johnson. As a sophomore last season, Johnson led the AAC with 60 solo tackles, pulled down three interceptions, forced two fumbles, and recovered another.
“Quindell is an extremely smart football player,” says MacIntyre. “He can cap the defense and see what’s going on with the offenses [we face]. Not only does he have the ability to make plays on interceptions, but running the alley, making checks, and just his great football savvy.”
As high as the expectations have become for the Tigers here in the Mid-South, the program has drifted back into a middle tier when measured nationally. Only one AAC team (Cincinnati) cracked the AP’s preseason Top 25, Memphis not so much as receiving a vote. As for their conference standing, the Tigers are projected to finish fifth in the AAC by media pollsters, behind the Bearcats, UCF, SMU, and Houston.
Silverfield takes the stance of a coach with many more years behind him when it comes to such prognosticating, or circling games on the Tiger schedule. No one has won (or lost) a game yet, so paper standings in August mean zilch. And yes, he’s circled a game on the Memphis schedule: the opener this Saturday against Nicholls State. (September 18th might be highlighted on a few Memphis refrigerators. Mississippi State visits the Liberty Bowl for the first time since 2011. The Tigers haven’t beaten the Bulldogs since 1993 and not since 1988 on their home turf.)
“This is a winning program now,” stresses Silverfield. “The city embraces Memphis Tiger football. The love for the players grows, year in and year out. It’s what makes this place unique. Our players appreciate the support they get from the city. We know what a home-field advantage we have.”
Silverfield learned much about himself over his rookie year — that unique rookie year — as a head coach. “As a first-year coach, you want to control everything,” he says. “Nothing kicked me in the teeth like the pandemic telling me, ‘Hey, you have very little control over everything.’ I control what I can. But every day there is going to be something, and I have to deal with it the right way, to have patience but act swiftly. I’m still gonna coach hard and hold people accountable. But when issues arise, I better be level-headed in order to figure things out.”
2021 TIGER FOOTBALL SCHEDULE • September 4 (6 p.m.) — Nicholls State • September 11 (6 p.m.) — at Arkansas State • September 18 (3 p.m.) — Mississippi State • September 25 — UTSA • October 2 (11 a.m.) — at Temple • October 9 — at Tulsa • October 14 (Thursday, 6:30 p.m.) — Navy • October 22 (Friday, 6 p.m.) — at UCF • November 6 — SMU • November 13 — East Carolina • November 19 (Friday, 8 p.m.) — at Houston • November 26 (Friday) or Nov. 27 — Tulane
Graham Winchester, drummer in numerous Memphis bands, admitted he was having a rock-and-roll moment. On the last song of a Turnstyles set at Railgarten last weekend, he kicked his drums off the stage. Almost immediately, two guys walked off with pieces of his kit. Winchester took to Facebook with photos and a plea for help.
In a happy turn, Winchester reported the drums were found and returned: “I’m not interested in naming names or blasting anyone. That’s just not my style.”
Milk Crate Challenge
Posted to YouTube by Ken-Tenn Kustomz
Ken-Tenn Kustomz streamed Whitehaven’s huge milk crate challenge last week on YouTube.
This summer’s viral challenge has people climbing milk crates stacked like stairs. They fall, and the hilarity is the internet magic. But its danger brought an official tweet against the challenge from the FDA last week.
Dozens gathered at Whitehaven Lane Park last week to watch a handful try the challenge in a stream that lasted more than an hour.
Good One, Gold Club
Reddit user Adventure_Thyme13 captured some timely and fleeting humor last week from The Gold Club. “Sorry about OnlyFans,” read its sign. “We’re hiring.”
This year’s Zine Fest has a new component — the Memphis Listening Lab/WYXR inaugural Record Swap. According to Zine Fest curator Erica Qualy, this is such a perfect pairing because the birth of zines as we know them today was started as a response to the punk music culture in the 1970s, when copiers were made available commercially. People started creating fanzines and raising awareness in a way they hadn’t been able to before.
Qualy remembers hopping on the zine scene more than a few years later. “My friend and I first found out about zines in high school while browsing at the local library. We came across the book Zine Scene: The Do It Yourself Guide to Zines by Francesca Lia Block. We were entranced.”
She says they immediately went home and started brainstorming. They pulled an all-nighter until their first zine was born. Nearly 20 years later, Qualy is curating Zine Fest 6.
“Funny how seemingly small instances in your life can be the building blocks for a future,” says Qualy, inviting the public to join the revolution. “You don’t need to wait for anyone else to publish your stack of poems, your short stories about alien invasions, your comic about the dog and cat duo that saved the world. You can do it yourself. Make a zine today.”
Zine Fest 6 will be held in the upstairs Central Atrium of Crosstown Concourse, with DIY zine-making stations and vendor booth spaces.
The record swap will take place on the bottom floor of the Central Atrium. The Memphis Listening Lab, outside vendors, and the radio station inside Crosstown Concourse, WYXR 91.7 FM, will be selling music and merchandise.
Surely it was but a coincidence, not an omen, but on Monday evening, at which time Memphis Councilman JB Smiley Jr.’s gubernatorial ambitions were becoming public, a double rainbow appeared in the western sky.
At the very least, each of these overlapping phenomena constituted solid proof that the unexpected can — and occasionally does — happen.
A first-term city councilman running for governor of Tennessee? Something like that hasn’t happened since — well, since first-term Memphis city Commissioner Bill Farris, a presumed unknown in state government, ran for governor in 1962.
Farris didn’t make it, but he ran a solid race, finishing third to then-former Governor Frank Clement and Chattanooga Mayor Rudy Olgiati and establishing himself as a major player in local, state, and even national politics for a couple of generations to come.
JB Smiley Jr., who hasn’t formally announced yet but has filed preliminary paperwork with the state for a governor’s race, is optimistic, but even he is somewhat dazzled by the uniqueness of it all.
“Is the state ready for a candidate like myself?” he mused out loud Monday night. “I’m Black, I’m unmarried, I’m from West Tennessee. …” Of course, that description, while arguably atypical of a serious statewide candidate, also fit Harold Ford Jr., the Memphis congressman who came within a handful of votes of winning a U.S. Senate race in 2006.
As it happens, Smiley has had conversations about running with Harold Ford Sr., who was in Congress before his son was and was the best-known political broker in these parts since the legendary E.H. Crump. “I’d like to have his support,” Smiley said, stating the obvious.
Like former Mayor A C Wharton, Smiley’s given name consists entirely of his initials, and he shares the name with his father, “an Army guy, a Bronze Star winner,” and a former military-recruitment official from whom, the junior Smiley says, he learned a lot about dedicated effort and about connecting with people.
Smiley has demonstrated his own possession of those traits during his Council term, where he has been a vocal exponent of racial equity and is currently co-sponsor of a preliminary city-county consolidation effort with white Councilman Chase Carlisle.
“I can broker deals and move issues,” says Smiley, who lists among those that he would take statewide the need for improving education and expanding Medicaid and broadband services, as well as easing state control over the prerogatives of local government.
So maybe Smiley’s a long shot. So, for that matter, are two other Democrats who’ve filed papers with the state regarding a gubernatorial race. They are Nashville physician Jason Martin and Memphis activist Carnita Atwater.
They all understand the difficulty of unseating an incumbent, in this case Republican Governor Bill Lee. And they all surely grasp something even more basic: You can’t win if you don’t run.
• Shelby County Democrats elected Gabby Salinas their new party chair via a well-attended Zoom convention on Saturday.
• Meanwhile, wheels are beginning to grind on the redistricting front.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton has named three Shelby Countians — State Representatives Karen Camper, Dwayne Thompson, both Democrats, and Kevin Vaughan, a Republican — to the General Assembly’s 16-member redistricting committee.
And the Shelby County Commission, looking to its own imminent reapportionment, voted Monday to hold a series of public meetings on the matter, starting next Wednesday.
I cracked a tooth last night. I’m not entirely sure how, not that “how” really matters. However it happened, it means I’ll be calling the dentist’s office today after we ship this issue off to the printer. There was a time, though, when I wouldn’t have been so calm about scheduling an appointment with the dentist, not out of any phobia, but because teeth are expensive.
For a time, I didn’t have health insurance. I had never even been to a dentist until the summer after my senior year of high school, when I chipped a tooth. I guess I must grind my teeth. (Okay, I know I grind my teeth. The dentist told me. I also used to have a “Savoy Truffle”-level sweet tooth, which I’ve since gotten in check. It would seem, though, that the damage has been done.)
Later, when I was two months into a job that would, at the 90-day mark, come with precious health insurance, I cracked another tooth. So my aunt took me to her dentist, and we hoped the bill wouldn’t be too steep. I sat in the office while the dentist lectured me about investing in my teeth. There was a time, he told me, when no one had insurance. They just paid for necessary procedures like rational adults, no need to involve some third-party company. I suppose he thought I should just cool it on the avocado toast for a month and spend that money on dental care, as if those were equal line items on my budget. This gentleman, well meaning though I’m sure he was, was clearly out of touch. I left, worked with a painfully cracked tooth, and sought treatment from a different dentist when my probationary period at work ended and I had insurance.
You think that’s something? I once went to work with a broken foot. Of course, I didn’t know my foot was broken, but I did hear a sharp, sudden crack! when my foot landed wrong on a floor tile. That was when I was in college, just before the beginning of a new semester. I waited until the semester began so I could be sure the university clinic was open. The doctor advised that I get a cast, but a post-surgical boot cost about $15. I bought the boot, and my toes still pop and sting in the cold.
My point is, if you don’t have much contact with a system, any system, it’s natural to view it with some skepticism. And in a state that holds the second spot on the list of most hospital closures since 2010 (we’ve had 16), where the U.S. Census estimates that 836,000 Tennesseans don’t have health insurance, is it surprising some people don’t trust doctors? “Oh, sure, but you’ll go to a hospital when you can’t breathe and think you might die,” some self-righteous jerk writes on social media.
Well, yeah. This might come as a surprise, but when the other option is a painful death, people will try just about anything. Even guzzling horse dewormer or malaria treatments.
And yes, that is mind-numbingly stupid, but people make stupid decisions. More so when they’ve been fed a steady diet of alarming disinformation.
This May, NPR published an article about the “Disinformation Dozen,” 12 people responsible for more than 65 percent of misinformation about Covid and vaccines, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Not surprisingly, some of these people are “alternative health entrepreneurs” and “even sell supplements and books.” I see.
Last week, The Hill published a story about researchers at the intelligence firm Logically who identified QAnon member GhostEzra as Floridian Robert Smart, who used his reach to spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. As the story says, “Smart appears to have previously run at least four QAnon Twitter accounts.” Who knows how much bonkers QAnon “information” this guy spread just so he could stir a little hateful anti-Semitism into the word soup?
We’re in crisis — health, climate, social services, poverty — and states like Tennessee are disproportionately affected. We need to revitalize our healthcare system and expand access to it if we’re going to get out of this pandemic and prevent the next one. The same can be said for climate change and energy infrastructure. It’s hard to win a good faith argument, especially when your goal is to get people to act against their own interests. So why argue in good faith?
I understand the barriers of cost or knowledge that make it so easy to mistrust medical experts, but if someone, especially someone online, is telling you to inject bleach or drink livestock dewormer, consider that they likely have an ulterior motive. Your sweet great-aunt shared that article, but it might have been written by a hateful bigot or someone who needs to sell more books or they’ll be compelled to return their advance.
