A “Doggone” Good Decision

Mike Cahoon was given an athletic scholarship that would carry him through four years of college, but it came with a catch; a catch that he was not willing to do.

Mike and Martha Cahoon were high school sweethearts and for 65 years now they have looked to each other for every choice, from where to live, to how they would raise their children. One choice however, stands out; a choice that would make every other decision possible. At 18, Mike chose where he would play college football, but instead of thinking about his accommodations and free schooling, he thought of his soon-to-be wife, reminding us that there will always be more to life than sports.

The couple now sit in their living room, in separate leather chairs, with their feet propped up on a shared ottoman and reminisce on their relationship from when they were teenagers. Martha told a story of a young girl who stood in a hallway of a brand new high school looking back and forth at two blank doors.

Back and forth...

Back and forth.

The girl's anxiety forces a red flush up her neck as she tries to decipher which door is the women's restroom. It’s 1957, and the boy she’s just asked for help would be in her life for the next 65 years.

“We were mature for our age,” Mike said, talking about his high school self, “don’t you think?”

“I was!” Martha said quickly with an infectious laugh as Mike rolled his eyes with a subtle smile.

Mike pointed Martha to the women’s restroom without a word. She propped open the door to quickly find urinals and men facing the wall. Horrified, Martha ran out and told herself she was going to stay away from Mike at all costs.

She stood firm, until a pep rally, where she learned that Mike was named all-state and lineman of the year for football in the state of Georgia.

“I thought, ‘maybe I can get over the wrong bathroom and get interested in him,’” said Martha

And Mike thought fondly of Martha, EMBEDDED SOUND BITE

The two began dating and Martha went to college in Mississippi while Mike started preparatory school in Georgia, paid for by Auburn University. Mike had two years left in high school but Auburn heavily recruited him and so did other Southeastern Conference schools, one being the University of Georgia.

Mike was going to sign to the powerhouse Auburn, but Georgia offered him something that Auburn refused; the ability to be a married student athlete.

“I was going to sign there,” Mike said, “but they wouldn’t let me get married.”

Auburn had a strict no marriage policy for underclassmen and wouldn’t recruit anyone that was already married.

Mike and Martha didn’t see the point in waiting until Mike’s junior year like Auburn

wanted him to. So, Mike signed to Georgia. Married Martha. And lived happily ever after.

Mike and Martha share cake on their wedding day.

Well, not exactly.

“They had married housing, which was the old navy school barracks,” Martha said, “[the walls] were like thin thin paper.”

While the two were learning to be a married couple, Mike was trying to get playing time, which didn’t come as easily as promised from the Georgia coaching staff.

The 1961 Georgia Bulldogs. Mike stands in the back row wearing number 83.

“[Coach Griffith] was holding out against me and my [tight] end coach came to me said said, ‘I can’t play you when I want to play you.’” Mike said.

Coach Johnny Griffith, played into what large donors wanted to see on the field and Cahoon was not a main priority of theirs.

“It was four pretty bad years,” Martha said, “lots of politics. Lots of discouragement.”

Griffith struggled as the head coach of Georgia. Only the head coach from 1961-1963, he finished his time at Georgia 10-16-1.

But it wasn’t all horrible for Mike. While seated in the leather chair with his legs propped, he points to his son Kelly and asks him to grab him something. Kelly comes back with a football.

“I caught this ball against Clemson,” Mike said, “and the coach gave it to me after the game.”

Football program for Georgia vs. Clemson game with pages of the

team throughout. Mike Cahoon is second in the top row.

Sitting on a desk, near the living room sits that very football, some pictures of him playing, and one picture of him and his bride.

His football career was not what it could have been, had he gone to Auburn, and while Martha to this day thinks they should have gone to Auburn, Mike disagrees.

Mike would have made the same choice over and over had it meant he could be with his wife. Today, Auburn University allows for married players and currently has one on their team per Auburn football Sports Information Director Shelly Poe. As for Mike and Martha, the two live just outside the Athens area and take things day by day.