Wayne Turner Set to Begin 26th Season as Tyner’s Head Coach

Chattanooga-(WDEF) Nobody defines old school coach like Tyner’s Wayne Turner. The voice, the beard, and of course, the shorts.
This fall Turner will begin his 26th season as the Rams head coach.
Said assistant coach Jackie Buttram-“You have a lot of coaches hit and miss. They don’t have a good season, and they go on. But this coach right here is a different type of breed.”
Said Turner-“I’m the type of person that has never liked to move around and change locations. I was at Kirkman for 15 years before I ever came over here. Had Kirkman stayed open, I’d probably still been down there.”
Reporter-“How would you describe Coach Turner?”
Said running back Keiontae Halfacre-“He’s a hard-hitting coach. He loves football I know that for a fact.”
Said assistant Rob Flowers-“There’s no doubt that they know when they strap it on for Coach T that they’ve got to come play. He doesn’t except anything less than the best.”
Said Turner-“I have mellowed over the years. I think Coach Buttram would attest to that because when he played for me, there wasn’t much mellowing going on. There was a whole lot of hard nose going on back then.”
Reporter-“Do you get a lot of comments about his coaching shorts that he has worn?”
Chuckles Flowers-“Yeah, those old shorts I think they’ve been around about as long as he has.”
Added Turner-“Lot of people like to talk about my shorts and my pants. I used to wear those long pants, and I used to have high socks. Years ago I would wear them all the way up to my knees.”
Reporter-“They named the field out here for you. That had to be tremendous.”
Said Turner-“My mother got to come over here for the ceremony, which was real good before she passed away, so it meant a lot to me.”
Said Turner on the team’s nickname, ‘Ram Train’-“The way we got to be known as the Ram Train was years ago, when we were in the playoffs, we’d start playing home games at seven o’clock. There would always be a train that would come by there and blow that whistle at seven o’clock. So that’s how we got to be known as the Ram train.”
Reporter-“How many more years do you think you can coach? Got another 26 in you?”
Turner-“Well, I don’t know about 26, but we’ve got a few more.”