Randy “R.T.” Tackett
Football team manager
Bloomington South High
On his time with Rex Grossman
I’m almost 50 years old, and I can remember when the Colts weren’t here. I can remember as a kid watching black-and-white TV, seeing Dick Butkus and Doug Buffone and Bobby Douglass and Gale Sayers, and I can go on and on. . . . With Rex, when you know someone, and they’re from your town–he’s the reason why I’ve got these (Indiana state championship) rings at home. I mean, there’s just no way in the world I’m going to root against Rex, Colts or no Colts. . . .
My biggest moment with him, to me, was 1997. We played Penn for the state championship and we lost 21-20. It was really neat to go to the state championship game, but it really kind of hurt to lose , especially when you go all that way. We got back, we sat in the locker room, things were pretty quiet. I went and I put my arm around him and told him, “You work hard this summer, we’ll be back next year.” . . . He said, “Boy, I don’t know, we’re losing a lot of people.” I looked at him and said, “If you work your hind end off, we’ll be back next year.” And then the kids came up with shirts that said “Unfinished Business,” and we came back the next year and I mean we just totally blew people away. . . .
[He was] kind of laid-back. But when he was on the football field, he was all business. . . . He was the leader.–As told to Brian Hamilton
