The offering of a prayer muted the whistle.
Major Shelton had just made a key decision while officiating a high school game in Chattanooga when the late, great TSSAA Hall of Fame coach Henry Bowles informed Shelton of his intent to lift up Shelton.
“Coach Bowles looked at me when I ran by him,” Shelton said, “ and he said, ‘Major, I’m going to go to church tomorrow and pray for you.’
“You can’t tee up a guy who’s said he was going to pray for you.”
Shelton’s contributions and memories from officiating Tennessee high school sports, primarily basketball and baseball, touch five different decades and nearly total a full 50 years; he’s the October recipient of the TSSAA’s Distinguished Service Award.
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