BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - Bill Traughber is the oldest former Brentwood Academy football player who played for Carlton Flatt. He has honored is former coach and Austin Peay Hall of Fame football player with a book, "Brentwood Academy Football from a Cow Pasture to a tradition 1970-2009," about Flatt and his coaching career.  

Carlton Flatt was born on April 22, 1943, to Roscoe and Ruthelia Flatt. He was a four-letter athlete at Cumberland High School in the Bordeaux area of Nashville. Coach Flatt earned a football scholarship to Austin Peay State University, where he became a senior team captain, First Team All-OVC, OVC Offensive Player of the Year and a Little All-American honorable mention. He was inducted into the APSU Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.

After graduating from APSU, Coach Flatt worked on a master's degree in mathematics as a graduate assistant at Tennessee Tech University. He coached and taught at Tech for three years, followed by two years at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tenn.

Coach Flatt became the head football and athletics director at Brentwood Academy (1970-2007), where he became Tennessee's all-time winningest football coach with a record of 355-68-3. He coached at Brentwood Academy for 34 years with a brief three-year retirement as football coach (1999-2001) and won 10 state championships in 20 appearances.

Flatt on his road to Austin Peay and the influences on his coaching career...

"I wanted to play college football. I went on a recruiting trip to the University of Tennessee, where they talked to me about being a scout team quarterback. Back in those days they ran a single-wing, and some other teams ran with the quarterback. They would recruit a person to be the scout team quarterback. But my father didn't want me to do that. That guy gets killed. I would have had a scholarship, but I would never have played in any games since I would be a scout team quarterback. I was 5-foot-10 and weighed 143 pounds. My cousin and I graduated at the same time, and the SEC teams recruited him.

I remember Coach Johnny Majors, then a UT assistant, coming to his house. I was sitting on a hill watching him. I heard so much about Majors when he was a player. I remember thinking, "Why wasn't he coming to see me?" My cousin didn't go there anyway. He helped me get a scholarship to Austin Peay. Coach George Fisher, the Austin Peay head coach, noticed me while he was scouting my cousin. They gave me an Austin Peay scholarship. Without him, I would never have been involved with football. Early on in my life I wasn't thinking about what I was going to do for a living. I always thought I was going to be a mathematician somewhere. In high school and college, mathematics and physics were things I really enjoyed doing.

Sometimes you hear that some kid got used; well, I used the system. They came to my school and told my coach they would like to offer me a scholarship. I really wanted to go to Tennessee Tech because my cousin had gone there and I knew the coach. But they did not offer, and that sort of hurt my feelings. When we played them my senior year, I really wanted to beat them, and I think we beat them, 29-0.

I threw three touchdown passes and ran for one. After the game I started to go up to their coach, Wilburn Tucker, and ask him if he thought I was big enough to play now. But I didn't do it. He looked so depressed. About six months later he called me and offered me a job working for him while getting my master's degree in math. If I had not kept my mouth shut he probably would have never done that.

Coach Smallen had an influence on how I saw football and how I thought in the role of a coach. Then I had Coach Bill Dupes, who was my college coach in my last two years at Austin Peay; my cousin, Jerry Flatt, who was the quarterbacks coach; and later Coach Tucker at Tech. All four of these men I credit for the knowledge I gained in football."

The price of the book is $40 (tax included) and can be purchased at the Brentwood Academy bookstore during the hours 7:15-8:00 am and 11:00 am-12: 30 pm Monday-Friday. To order by mail go to www.brentwoodacademy.com and find the link Alumni events and activities.