Ryan Casey
RENO, Nev. — Tom Southall was born with one arm, and as he grew up, his parents impressed upon him that he was no different than anyone else.
His induction to the National High School Hall of Fame says otherwise.
Southall, the 1981 graduate of Steamboat Springs, joined the very exclusive group along with 11 other members on Saturday night in Reno. He is the 22nd person from Colorado to join the NFHS Hall of Fame, and eighth athlete. Only Ohio (29) and Illinois (26) have more.
The National Hall of Fame, Southall said, “is one of those things where you just say, ‘Wow, the people that are up there, they’re some pretty significant names in Colorado high school sports and activities.’ But you don’t really put yourself into that picture or that perspective.”
A star in football, track, basketball and music at Steamboat Springs, Southall was born without an arm below his right elbow. He grew up as the seventh of eight kids in an athletic family — a “big, supportive family, a loving family,” Southall said.
“We were always doing something,” he added. “There was always somebody to play with, whether it was sports or games or anything. … I just grew up not knowing I wasn’t supposed to play.”
Southall remembers going to Children’s Hospital when he was five or six to get physical therapy and learn how to use his prosthetic arm. While there, he would see children who were born with minimal appendages due to a nausea medication, Thalidomide, their mothers took during pregnancy.
“I’m seeing these kids with little or no arms or legs out there rolling around, having fun, playing kick ball,” Southall said. “But they’re out there just enjoying the freedom of being active. I learned really early that granted, there are some things that are more difficult for me to do, but I really didn’t have it that bad.”
Southall played all kinds of sports when he was young, and specifically got interested in football because his older brother played.
“I idolized him,” Southall said. “I just assumed that when I was old enough, it would be my turn. My parents never discouraged me from doing anything.”
But when Southall’s freshman year at Steamboat came around, a doctor wouldn’t sign off on his physical because of his right arm. They eventually found another doctor to sign the slip, and his high school career took off.
He would set a state record in the 2A long jump (23 feet, 4.5 inches), and helped Steamboat’s track team win three championships from 1979-81.
Southall was twice named the football player of the year, and in 1979, Steamboat won the 2A football title.
He was an outstanding basketball player who set school records for steals and assists. He was all-state in music while playing the trumpet, and participated in jazz, band and the concert band.
Southall graduated among the top-10 of his class.
In 1981, Southall won the prestigious Freddie Steinmark Award, given annually to the top student-athlete.
Tom Southall. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“Everybody kind of took a particular interest with this little skinny kid with one arm,” Southall said. “You know, ‘How was he going to do it?’ I can remember going back and fielding punts or kicks. Half the time everybody would get up in their seat and go, ‘Oh, shoot, he’s going to drop this one.’ Rarely did.
“High school sports gave me an opportunity to find my niche in my school.”
One of Southall’s best moments came in the 2A state football semifinals during the 1979 season. He rushed for 412 yards on a cold day against Sheridan, setting the state record.
“It was Thanksgiving weekend, and it had snowed for four or five days — the good Steamboat powder,” Southall said. “They had to plow the field with a road grader; they painted the lines with yellow parking lot paint. And it looked like Arena Football because there was so much snow on the sides.
“Thinking back on it,” Southall continued, “we didn’t have a track, so we were always out in March and April when there’s still a foot of snow on the ground. So we would always be out on the snow running, and I was used to running on snow and ice and being able to make cuts and change directions. We really had the home field advantage that day.”
Southall’s brother was an assistant coach and noticed he was approaching the record, which had been set earlier in the season by Broomfield’s Guy Egging.
“So he called down to the head coach and said, ‘Why don’t you put Tom back in for a couple plays.’ And he’s going, ‘Why? Why?'” Southall said. “So he says, ‘He’s at 300-some yards.’ So I didn’t know about it, but the coaches were aware of it. I had my brother watching my back, so to speak, to put me back in the game.”
A year later, Flagler’s Bob Trahern eclipsed Southall’s mark.
“I had gotten to know him during summer basketball,” Southall said. “So it was fun to at least have it for a little while.”
Southall moved on to Colorado College, where he led the nation in punt return yardage and set a Division III record for kickoff return yards.
“Nothing — there’s nothing he can’t do,” said former Colorado College coach Jerry Carle in an 1983 video produced by NFL Films about Southall. “That’s why he’s back there. You think I’m playing favorites? Hell, I want to win. He’s back there because he deserves to be back there.”
Upon graduating from CC, Southall attended to University of Denver to get his master’s in accounting, and then spent five years working for a CPA firm. During that time, he got his feet wet in coaching and teaching.
This coming fall will be Southall’s 25th year of teaching. Over the years, he has coached football, track and basketball, and is currently a track assistant at Cherokee Trail.
He is heavily involved in the Special Olympic and Paralympic races at Colorado’s state track meet, and over the past decade or so has embraced a role as an advocate for those athletes.
“Special Olympics or Paralympics are great programs to give kids an opportunity to experience being on a team,” Southall said. “A lot of times, they’re with a case manager with class or things, so they really don’t get that interaction, whether it’s social or team-building, which is such a great aspect of high school sports and activities.”
Southall, who was inducted into the CHSAA Hall of Fame in 1999, said he draws on his experiences as an athlete learning how to compete with his disability — things like coming up with a way he could lift weights — in his role as an coach.
“Now as a teacher and a coach, the exciting part is being in a position where you are experimenting — you’re faced with a new challenge,” Southall said. “In athletics, you may have a situation like mine where you’re dealing with someone who has a physical impairment. How are you going to make it work? How are you going to train that person as an athlete? You need to have an idea of what they can’t do, and try and make adjustments to it, but focus on what they can do.”