In His Time: Produced by Tate Johnson, MocsVision Production Director. Story written by Shane Shoemaker, GoMocs.com writer. Contributors: Chris Goforth, Interview/Historian.

For every great head coach, there's usually a set of great assistants that stood right by their side in a collective quest to build a winning team. In 35 seasons as head coach for the Mocs, Scrappy Moore had his fair share of assistants. People like Billy O'Brien, who coached ends; Joe Geri, who coached the backfield; Mickey O'Brien, who was the first trainer under Scrappy; and Harold Wilkes, who eventually took the reins when Scrappy retired from coaching.
 
There were two assistants specifically that left their mark on the university nearly as much as Scrappy did. So much so that when you mention Scrappy, their names closely follow. These two particular men were a large part of the legacy that Scrappy made while at UTC. Therefore, the story of Scrappy Moore is incomplete without them. 
 
Andy Nardo and Sandy Sandlin were men of a different time. Assistants like Nardo and Sandlin didn't seek higher paying positions elsewhere that were offered to them. Firstly, because it wasn't the era of big money coaching contracts. Most coaches back then had some sort of secondary source of income. But, secondly, loyalty seemed to precede everything else. "Once you meet Coach Moore, he gravitated toward you, and you gravitated toward him also," former four-year starter for the Mocs from 1958-62, Ronnie McClurg said about why coaches stayed with Scrappy as long as they did. 
 
Andy Nardo
Perhaps Scrappy's most trusted and loyal assistant was Andy Nardo. The gruffed voice, lineman coach was an assistant under Scrappy for nearly four decades. He stayed with Scrappy through it all, up until his untimely death in February of 1967. In the time he had, he certainly made his impression upon UTC as he helped produce a number of talents at the linemen position, which included 12 Little All-Americans. Nardo was also head wrestling coach for 15 seasons (1953-67) with a record of 78-29-5, and still considered one of the best to ever hold that title at the university. 
 
It's hard to fathom most head coaches in today's coaching world staying four years, much less forty, and even more so from an assistant coaching position where there's either the appeal for promotion or potential to be fired, all within a short period of time. Much like Scrappy, for Nardo, there seemed to be that of a strong appeal to the city of Chattanooga as to why he stayed. "Andy was not a person looking to leave Chattanooga, either. He built a legend for himself here that was the most positive atmosphere, and we always did like that," former punter for the Mocs from 1964-67, Ron Wade said.
 
Again, college football coaches weren't anything close to wealthy back then as they are now. That sort of boom for higher salaries didn't begin until around the 1970s. Jerry Harris said that Scrappy told him that one of the last paychecks he received was for $11,400, so an assistant like Nardo was making less than that. According to Stephen Byrum's book, Nardo had plenty of offers from other universities that would have paid him more than Chattanooga was, but never accepted any of them because "as long as Scrappy was around, UC was where Nardo wanted to be." Some of these offers were from schools like Georgia Tech, Alabama and Tennessee. "For him to stick with Coach Moore in the way he did, speaks volumes," Byrum said.
 
Nardo stood through thick and thin with Scrappy, year after year, where it was only Nardo's death that ended their tenure together. They were close, and more than just fellow coaches on a staff, but ultimately great friends. "I do think that Nardo completed Scrappy in some ways," Byrum said. "I think that Nardo could be that bad cop and Scrappy could be the good cop sometimes. I also think they had a mutual respect. I think Nardo really learned football from Scrappy and was able to actualize in the coaching he did, the ideals that Scrappy had. I think that he could trust Nardo in ways that you would really need an element of trust with an assistant coach. And I think that Nardo saw him as a consummate teacher."
 
Angelo "Nubby" Napolitano wouldn't have become a UTC hall of famer if it wasn't for Andy Nardo. 
 
After paying for his first semester at UTC, the New Jersey native Napolitano was hoping to earn a scholarship for the remainder of his college career. One day after a spring practice going into the 1967 season, Napolitano was called in to meet with Scrappy and Nardo in Scrappy's office and Napolitano said Scrappy told him, "Well now, Nubby, you did good, but I don't think I can give you a whole lot money-wise." Napolitano replied, "Well, coach, only way I can stay here is to have a scholarship. I didn't have any money to stay down here. I gotta go home." As Napolitano made his way out of Scrappy's office, prepared to go back home to New Jersey, Napolitano said that Nardo quickly caught up with him and said, "Hang on, hang on. Hang around here, we'll get this worked out." Nardo made good on his word as Napolitano would play two more seasons for the Mocs where, at the time, he would set multiple school records at the tight end position. "Loved, loved, loved the man," Napolitano said. "Andy Nardo's the reason I stayed in Chattanooga. It was thanks to Andy Nardo that I got a scholarship here."
 
Sandy Sandlin
Davis "Sandy" Sandlin was the head athletic trainer for the Mocs from 1938-74, and, like Nardo, was one of the most trusted assistants Scrappy ever had. Needless to say, if Nardo was Scrappy's right-hand man, then Sandlin was his left-hand man. Byrum said that Sandlin was the guy that was keeping things in check behind the scenes, knowing everything that was going on within the program and making sure things were according to plan the way Scrappy had asked. "I think if you were to talk about somebody that was your chief of staff, your personal assistant, your man for all seasons — I think Sandy Sandlin was all that for Coach Moore," Byrum said. 
 
While his technical job title may have entailed him for such responsibilities as preparing athletes physically before games or helping them heal any injuries that they may have had, Sandlin was said to be much more than that. He was said to be the type of coach/trainer that nursed players' mental health just as much as their physical health. "I think today he would probably be as much a psychological coach as he was a physical fitness coach," Byrum said.
 
Sandlin was there for his players, whenever and wherever they asked, and because of that, he was loved and respected by those players wholeheartedly because he selflessly put them before himself. "Sandy was probably one of the deepest loves we had," Ron Wade said. "Sandy was like the real father, that if we needed, he would talk to us, help us in any way [he could]. If you needed to call him in the middle of the night, then he'd do so. We certainly wanted to be sure that was someone we did not disappoint."
 
"Sandy was a character, he was your friend," son to Andy Nardo, Skipper Nardo said. "He'd always call you a pal — 'Hey, pal' — when the coaches were on your butt pretty good one day and you're feeling pretty low. He'd pump you up. You might say he was a spiritual healer, too, as well as a physical healer."
 
Chattanooga sportswriter Roy Exum, who used to cover the Mocs, said there was a player during one instance that "he had a complete nervous breakdown." Exum said the player was so unwell at the time that he climbed to the top of the Chamberlain Field bleachers with the intent to jump. Sandlin was sent for and went up to talk to the unnamed player. Perhaps it was his gentle tone and caring attitude, but Exum said that Sandlin did engage with the distraught young man and said to him, "I put two aspirin on your arm and a piece of tape on it and you'll be fine," and eventually talked him down. Later, it was said that the young man told others he had every intention of committing suicide. "[Sandy Sandlin] was the nicest, gentlest guy that's ever been. Everybody loved Sandy," Exum said.
 
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The trio of Scrappy Moore, Andy Nardo and Sandy Sandlin may never be duplicated. They had a level of trust and loyalty toward one another that seemed as great as any coaching staff in not just college football history, but sports history in general. Consider that they dealt with lower salaries, subpar facilities and half the talent as other programs they went up against at times, and it's beyond impressive what they accomplished. "Between Coach Moore, Coach Nardo and Sandy Sandlin, I think you had a kind of triumphant feeling that it's almost like if one of them spoke they were speaking for all three," Byrum said.
 
It says a lot about the head coach who hires assistants like Nardo and Sandlin. It says that the head coach was sound in his judgments by hiring men whom he found the utmost trust in, to share in a belief towards a singular goal. It says that the coach was intelligent, thoughtful in his decision making, ultimately knowing how to delegate the greatest of responsibilities. Those included but didn't stop on the football field, also extending toward the classroom and life after. "At the end of the day, we had great coaches," Skipper Nardo said. "We had good human beings, and they cared about the players. They cared about what happened to them after they graduated — and they cared that they did graduate." 
 
These three men are a huge part of why the UTC football program is where it is today.