By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
MARTIN, Tenn. – As the Tennessee Tech football team locks horns with the UT Martin Skyhawks on Saturday, there's a lot on the line. The Golden Eagles are very much in the hunt for the Big South-Ohio Valley Conference Football Association championship and the annual battle for the Sergeant York Trophy is at a fever pitch.
For Tennessee Tech's Tim Coutras, the battle for the Sergeant York Trophy cuts a little closer to home. After all, Coutras is the eponymous war hero's great-nephew. Alvin York's sister, Hazel, married Tim's grandfather Nick Coutras.
Tennessee students have studied York's exploits in World War I for over a century as the Pall Mall native was one of the most decorated American soldiers of that conflict. As a corporal in the 2nd battalion in the 328th Infantry, York earned the Congressional Medal of Honor as he led an attack with sixteen other soldiers on a German machine gun nest, capturing 132 prisoners during the Battle of the Meuse River-Argonne on Oct. 8, 1918.
The patrol group, under the command of Sergeant Bernard Early, captured a group of enemy soldiers, then German small arms fire killed six Americans and wounded three others. As Early's group returned fire at the German troops, York took another group and attacked the machine gun position, which was preparing a counter-assault.
A German officer overseeing the machine gun, Imperial German Army First Lieutenant Paul Jurgen Vollmer, emptied his pistol firing at York, missing every shot. The officer, seeing his mounting losses, offered in English to surrender and York – a devout Christian in the Church of Christ denomination and, at first, a conscientious objector – accepted the officer's request. York and his men brought the 132 prisoners back to their unit's command post.
Brigadier General Julian Robert Lindsey remarked: "Well, York, I hear you have captured the whole German army.'
York replied: "No, sir. I got only 132."
For his actions, York was promoted to the rank of sergeant and received the Distinguished Service Cross, the French Croix de Guerre, the French Legion of Honor, the Croce di Guerra of Italy and the War Medal of Montenegro among 50 decorations. He received the Medal of Honor after returning stateside in 1919.
The citation reads: "After his platoon suffered heavy casualties and three other noncommissioned officers had become casualties, Cpl. York assumed command. Fearlessly leading seven men, he charged, with great daring, a machine gun nest which was pouring deadly and incessant fire upon his platoon. In this heroic feat, the machine gun nest was taken, together with four officers and 128 men and several guns."
During the 1919 investigation that led to the Medal of Honor, York reportedly told General Lindsey, "A higher power than man guided and watched over me and told me what to do."
York's story was immortalized in the 1941 Warner Bros. film "Sergeant York" with Gary Cooper in the title role.
Following his return, York put his efforts into various charitable and civic causes, especially in his native Fentress County, roughly an hour away from Cookeville. To support economic development, York campaigned the state to build a highway through the mountains to aid his region. He later founded the Alvin C. York Foundation to expand educational opportunities in the state, which helped to lead to the founding of Jamestown's York Agricultural Institute – and the school stands to this day. York also oversaw the creation of Cumberland Mountain State Park's Byrd Lake.
His farm in Pall Mall was preserved by the state as it became the Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park. The Veterans hospital in Murfreesboro also bears his name along with several other governmental buildings.
Coutras, who is in his second season with the Golden Eagles and has been a standout on defense, had a tremendous career at Nolensville High School, where he was the 2019 Tennessee Titans/TSSAA Class 4A Mr. Football winner and was named the Football Player of the Year by The Tennessean.
After a two-year stint at Liberty, Coutras has thrived as a safety. Last season, he collected 55 tackles – 24 solo and 31 assisted – with 4.5 for-loss, while also leading the team with four interceptions. He had a season-high nine tackles against UT Martin last season. Coutras was a first-team All-Big South/OVC selection.
This season, he hasn't let up. Coutras has 47 tackles so far this year with two games remaining with 38 solo and nine assisted. He also has three interceptions with picks at Gardner-Webb and Southeast Missouri, with one at home against Charleston Southern.
With a fantastic career of his own, the significance of his heritage isn't lost to Coutras and with the deciding game for the Sergeant York Trophy coming up Saturday, it's an added incentive to make sure the Golden Eagles win the day and bring Sergeant York's likeness back to his home area.
"Playing for the Sergeant York Trophy means a lot to me not only because he is family," Coutras said, "but because it would be big for the community and our University. To be able to win that trophy would be big for a program as well, because we haven't won it in a while."
2024 marks the 18th season of competition for the Sergeant York Trophy. The Golden Eagles have officially owned shares of the trophy four times but actually possessed the trophy just twice with the 2009 season and the Spring season of 2020-21.
The Nashville Sports Council and the Ohio Valley Conference started the trophy in 2007 as a round-robin between the then-four Tennessee schools in the league. Austin Peay dropped out of the trophy's contest following the 2021 campaign. Now the race stands between UT Martin, Tech and Tennessee State with the Skyhawks and the Golden Eagles both 1-0 coming into Saturday's contest.
It's a special award because it is only the second traveling trophy that involves more than two teams in college sports – the other is the Commander in Chief's Trophy between Air Force, Army and Navy.
It'll be a challenge on Saturday, but like the trophy's namesake and the insurmountable odds he faced over a century ago, it's not an impossible task.
Kickoff on Saturday is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday. Roger Ealey and Dylan Vazzano will have the call on 106.1 The Eagle, while the game will also be broadcast on ESPN+ (subscription required).
