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Pat Loggans was quarterback of Gate City's first football state championship team in 1970

Name: Pat Loggans

Born: Oct. 13, 1952

Where: Kingsport

Residence: Gate City

High School/Colleges: Gate City/Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Tech, East Tennessee State

Then: Pat Loggans has an encyclopedic knowledge of Gate City athletics.

He has spent more than four decades as football team manager, an all-around athlete and the high school’s director of sports medicine. Loggans was Gate City’s only five-sport letterman, earning 13 monograms.

He was quarterback of the Blue Devils’ first football state championship team in 1970, played guard in basketball, patrolled the outfield and pitched for the baseball team, sprinted and long-jumped in track and field, and was a member of the golf team.

“I’m a Blue Devil through and through,’’ he said. “My father (Lynn), mother (Charlotte) and brother (Tony) all played ball for Gate City. My wife (Lisa) and daughter (Rebecca) were Gate City cheerleaders.’’

Toni Loggans, a niece, pitched the Lady Blue Devils to a softball state championship.

Pat Loggans was a team manager at age 6 and dreamed of becoming a player. The highlight of his life was pulling the offensive trigger for the Group AA state champion Blue Devils. Loggans played through a knee injury and a case of ulcerative colitis, which worsened when he got to college.

As a senior, he was hospitalized twice. He had health problems just as the state playoffs started. “I kept getting thinner,’’ he said, “but I wanted to play ball.’’

A two-year starter at quarterback, Loggans answered the phone at 7:30 every Saturday morning. It was coach Harry Fry on the line for a meeting of minds before the team began preparing for the next opponent.

“Coach Fry would pick out a team’s strongest defensive point and attack that until it broke,’’ Loggans said. “He was a pretty good tactician. He didn’t get a lot of credit for knowing the game, but he knew it.’’

With playoffs about to be introduced in Virginia, Loggans said the general feeling was that Gate City would have a decent shot at winning a state championship in 1970 after tying Clintwood 26-26 and beating Elizabethton in 1969.

Attorney George Maddux, then a coach, had laid the foundation for the state title in 1966 by producing Gate City’s first undefeated eighth-grade team. The Devils were well schooled in fundamentals.

To be eligible for state competition, the Devils’ schedule had Northeast Tennessee schools Dobyns-Bennett, Elizabethton and Sullivan Central designated as Southwest District games.

The best team Gate City played that season was preseason district favorite Tazewell. The Devils came back from a 6-0 halftime deficit to beat the Bulldogs 20-6. To qualify for the playoffs, the Devils defeated Elizabethton 40-0. Gate City’s closest game in the playoffs was a 16-8 win over Dublin in the mud.

Fry gave Loggans strict instructions on how to handle the offense: “If you break a leg or get your head chopped off, get the ball to Phillip Rogers. No matter what else happens, give it to him.’’

Loggans said that was easier said than done. “Phillip was so fast, I had to step forward to hand him the ball. He was the real deal — the best athlete I’ve ever been around. I’ve never seen anything he couldn’t play.’’

In a 52-0 win over Graham, Loggans had difficulty getting Rogers the ball on a wet field. He simply ran behind him and was accorded player of the week honors by the Times-News.

To make sure his players stayed focused, Fry took them to the championship site two days early and they toured Washington, D.C.

Gate City defeated homestanding James Monroe 40-8 at Fredericksburg for the state crown. “The bumps and bruises were about even,’’ Loggans said.

When the team — arguably the best in Southwest Virginia history — returned home, its motorcade was greeted on campus by 1,000 or more Big Blue rooters.

The core of the team included Loggans, Phillip Rogers, George Wolfe, Frank Castle, Mike Wolfe, Bob Robinette, Charlie Tittsworth, Danny Enix, Gordon Quillin, Stan Rogers, Don Frazier, Danny Smith, Mike Collins, Marshall Lane and Gary Frazier.

Gate City, after losing 27-12 at J. Fred Johnson Stadium the previous year, avenged the defeat before a crowd of 10,000-plus with a 44-16 home victory and made friends in the process. The day Gate City beat James Monroe, it was announced during a basketball game in D-B’s Buck Van Huss Dome: “Our friends to the north in Gate City have just won a state championship.’’ This brought a roar of approval from the Kingsport crowd.

“The things you remember most are the friendships, not the games,’’ Loggans said.

An outfielder by trade, Loggans was called on to pitch baseball as a senior — something he hadn’t attempted since his Pony League days. He went 4-0 overall and hurled a no-hitter against Church Hill.

Blessed with 4.5 speed, good hands and vision, Loggans signed with VMI and was listed as a wide receiver/safety. His stay there lasted only nine days. The colitis took its toll and Loggans spent a year at home before enrolling at Virginia Tech. He later transferred to ETSU.

Inspired by ETSU’s legendary trainer, Jerry Robertson, he entered the field of sports medicine. “Jerry had such an impact on me,’’ Loggans said.

Now: Loggans owns more state championship rings than anybody else in this region. He earned one as a player. Being the trainer over a 35-year period, he has received a ring for each state title.

After spending several years in the sporting goods business. he served as Scott County’s administrator for seven years before retiring in 1997.

He and his wife, the former Lisa Quillen, have two children. Scott completed a tour of duty in Iraq and works for a defense contractor. Rebecca is ready to begin a teaching career.

Bill Lane is a Times-News sports writer. E-mail him at blane@timesnews.net.

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