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Pirate
Time
Machine
No. 35
(2005)

With Ron Cherubini
©2001-2005 Bonesville.net

Damon Pope

Stellar Tight End
Part of ECU Lore

Always a Winner, Damon Pope Learned
the True Meaning of Winning as a Pirate

By Ron Cherubini
©2005 Bonesville.net

Damon Pope plows ahead in his East Carolina playing days
(Photo: ECU SID)

Damon Pope was always a winner. Bigger than his peers from his earliest days in sport, Pope always attracted attention and found winning to be a recurring theme in his football career.

In fact, winning was so normal for Pope that a tough freshman season at East Carolina in 1981 brought the promising tight end to a crossroads that he would later learn was more about manhood than about football.

He nearly left the program because it wasn’t a winner. In the end, he stayed and learned as his journey unfolded that a winner created from within stands much taller than the guy who rides shotgun with a winner.

It has paid dividends in life well beyond the glory and disappointment of the college gridiron. Today, Pope is a co-owner of a pair of medical supply stores in the Atlanta, GA, area. He is a successful entrepreneur, an involved and loving father, and a bigger ECU fan than ever.

Though he always worked hard, football success seemingly came easy to Pope from a young age. He found himself gravitating to the challenges of being the youngest in the group.

“You know, I was a typical child who loved to be outside all the time… I stayed outside constantly playing with all my neighborhood friends,” Pope said. “I always tried to hang with my brother and his older friends. Dexter (Pope) was seven years older than me, but hanging out with older guys is where I learned how to play football. I started playing organized football in fifth grade with a recreational team in Athens (GA). From that point on, I got into it and stayed with it until the end of college.”

It was through his brother that he found the one ingredient he needed to exploit his talents and make his own way.

“Sports teaches you a lot of lessons,” he said. “I played football, baseball, basketball… all of them. I attribute it to my brother – who is now deceased. One day I was with him and I was very shy and quiet at that time in my life. I was with him and he walked me up to the coach and said to him, ‘He wants to play football.’ So the coach asked me if I wanted to play and I said, ‘Yes.’ From that point on, he told me to be there the next day and what to do and I was there the next day and I was into football ever since.”

Until then, Pope’s only football experience had been in the neighborhood games. But those games were sufficient instruction for an emerging ball player.

“My first position was tight end and I’ve always played that and defensive end since I started,” he said. “Even in high school, I played tight end of course and up until I was on the varsity, I was tight end and defensive end. Once I was on the varsity, I was faced with a decision (to choose between) defense and offense and I chose offense. I guess it was the thrill of catching the ball and touchdowns. Offense was always a little more glamorous to me. I wanted to score the touchdowns.”

While Pope evolved as a prep player, he did it mostly under the observation of his brother.

“At that point in time, my dad was doing construction work and he was pretty much out of town on the weekdays and came home on weekends,” Pope said. “He traveled all over the country with his company. He was a foreman – actually a carpenter by trade – and he pretty much traveled and got home when he could. Mom was there keeping the household together. My dad eventually began to work within a radius where he could come home on a daily basis by my junior year. He was a big football fan, definitely. Mom was not worried about me at all. At least she never admitted that she worried about me getting hurt, even though I have had pretty much every injury you could imagine.

“I was always bigger than my peers at that point in time I was always bigger – skinny – but pretty much bigger than my friends and so I stood out anywhere we went.”

Football was a natural fit for Pope.

“I guess I took to football the first time I played organized ball,” he said. “I tried baseball but what took me away from that as a child was that I played with older guys and I could never hit the ball and it frustrated me. I struck out every time at bat. I was playing with guys three years older than me. I ran track and loved to swim. Stayed in the pool constantly during the summer. I played a little basketball. I tried it but I wasn’t too good at it. Couldn’t dribble too well.”

Pope knew he would be testing his abilities among some of the finest prep footballers in the country at Clark Central High School.

“In high school they had the 8^th and 9^th grade teams, the junior varsity and the varsity,” he said of Clark High. “It was a big deal to me to try and make the C team and that was a big deal for me to make that team being in middle school, but playing high school football... that is where I guess the love for football really began. I also started developing a name for myself right then as a good all-around tight end. I did a lot of blocking and made some catches. It was the position I had fallen in love with. I could always catch… that was not a problem, catching and running. But, that is where I began to develop a name for myself at the high school level. I played two years of C team football in my 8^th and 9^th grade year. Then I skipped over junior varsity and I started in 10^th grade on the varsity team.”

Once again, Pope found himself competing with more mature athletes.

“It was an eye opener because I was playing with guys much older and bigger than myself and yet I was there,” he said. “At that point in time with Clark Central we were one of the national powerhouse teams in high school football. Basically, it was an honor just to be on the team at Clark Central and that was the mindset around there at that time. Being a sophomore playing on the varsity team was a big deal… a very big deal. And to start? Actually, the starting tight end got injured and there were other tight ends on the team, but with my ability being equal or a little bit more, I was the starter.”

Pope was simply excited to be there. His thoughts were not on college football at all.

“My 9^th grade year on the C team I didn’t know much about college,” he said. “I was the first of the entire Pope family to go to college. Not knowing anything about college, I’m seeing the older guys on the team and coaches coming in from colleges and I’m overhearing the guys talking about taking visits to colleges on weekends and traveling. I’m listening to this and I see myself shining at Clark and all of a sudden I’m like, ‘I want to do this some day. When my senior year comes I want to go to college and I don’t want my parents to have to pay for it.’ I actually made the decision after a game we had played down in Macon, GA, for a spring jamboree and I had a very good game that day – caught several passes, scored some touchdowns and had a great day.

“There was a college coach from USC (South Carolina) watching another player, and my coach at the time told me to watch out for him. I knew that coach; it was Ray Goff who had been the quarterback at Georgia years before. He was my 6^th and 7^th grade physical education teacher when he was student teaching and I got to know him back then. So he recognized me and from that point on our relationship evolved and he kept his eye on me and USC was one of the schools that offered me (a scholarship).”

Though he grew up in the shadow of the University of Georgia, Pope never dreamed of playing there.

“I never really was a Georgia fan being less than three minutes from campus and my mom working at one of the dorms at campus, I was over there quite often,” he said. “I wanted to get away from home, so Georgia was never a factor in my college choices. The Bulldogs were never in the running. I wanted to get away for college.”

Though his second year at Clark was a bit abbreviated, Pope began establishing himself as a player.

Pope on a more recent visit to the East Carolina campus (Photo: Choo Justice)

“Sophomore year, we went to the playoffs and lost one or two games in the regular season,” he said. “I had weak ankles and they stayed sprained all the time. I started my first three games and then injured my ankle and that knocked me out for the rest of the season. My junior year, I was starting and played to the third game again and then broke my ankle and knocked me out the rest of that season. We won every game and won the state title and finished in the top five in the nation. I made it back for the state championship game, and of course I couldn’t play and I was so upset. That was a very hard pill to swallow.”

With little action on the field as a sophomore, even a good junior season didn’t bring the interest from colleges Pope was hoping for.

“Honestly, I got no attention,” he said. “The first letters I began to receive from college (came) my senior year in pre-season. I got a lot of letters from Georgia Tech and a coach came down to see the spring game. I didn’t understand how I started to get all the attention. I had only played six games on the varsity in two years. All of a sudden, I’m getting letters and I’m ranked as a top-10 player in Georgia. I’m trying to figure out how that happened. No one has seen me play really. But, I guess someone knew something I didn’t know. From that point on, letters were coming in from all over. We had Billy Henderson who was one of the top high school coaches in Georgia. He is known widely. He of course got my name out there to teams to let them know what I could do.”

His senior year, Pope found his name on a lot of college A lists.

“Once the season started, the coaches could see me,” he said. “And I didn’t get hurt all season. I was glad my dad, Charlie Pope, got to see that season because I usually told him about it and he wasn’t at the games. He made all the games that year. He was big supporter. Dexter was alive then… my brother passed in 1984. Actually, I was coming back from school when he died of pneumonia. I got in and learned he had passed. He never saw me play college ball, but he saw Little League and high school. My mom passed in 1997 and my dad is still alive now and I’m with him a good bit trying to take care of him.

“Anyway… my senior year, I delivered on my promise. I made first-team all-state, all-area… a lot of honors. I delivered… I scored touchdowns and got my name in the paper.”

East Carolina Takes Note

Though ECU was keeping an eye on Pope, the school wasn’t even on his radar screen. But ECU had a secret weapon in its recruiting arsenal that would ultimately make an impact with Pope.

“How did East Carolina come into the picture? That is a good question,” he said. “I had never heard of East Carolina before. They were recruiting my teammate, P.J. Jordan. He played linebacker for us at Clark. They were there watching the game film, they saw me. From that point on, they started recruiting me also. I visited and liked the campus but didn’t see myself coming there. I didn’t know much about the school and didn’t see myself there. All these other schools, Clemson, Minnesota, Auburn, Georgia Tech, South Carolina were recruiting me. But over time, things started happening at the other schools and when I began weeding out schools, ECU was still in the picture.

“It came down to East Carolina and Minnesota. I had committed – back then there were two signing days, one for the Letter of Intent and the other for the actual scholarship signing. First I signed the Letter of Intent with East Carolina University and then after a while I said, ‘No.’ It was going to be Minnesota. But right before the signing, Coach Emory’s wife (Nancy Buie Emory) came in and she signed me. She is who got me. There was no one else who would have flown down here and called me darling, honey, baby… I couldn’t say no to her. The coach from Minnesota flew down to sign me personally and I couldn’t do it. She was the only person who could have got me there… no one else… it was her.”

His family approved of the choice.

“My parents were really just happy that I had an opportunity to go to college and that people were interested in me,” he said. “It was good for them to see their son prosper. I hope one day to see my boys do the same.”

Though he we a star on a nationally recognized prep team, Pope knew in short time as a frosh at ECU that college was a whole new level of football.

“You come in like everyone else… with no name,” he said. “Not knowing too much about ECU – their record, the players, nothing – everything was fresh and new to me. Especially coming from a program like ours. I lost a total four games in high school. I didn’t know anything about losing. I came to ECU and we won our first game against Western Carolina. We played Miami that year when Jim Kelly was the quarterback and he threw that ball all over us that day. That is when it really hit me. Then we played Carolina with Lawrence Taylor and Kelvin Bryant who set a record on us that day.” (Editor's note: UNC-Chapel Hill won that game 56-0.)

It was a major moment in Pope’s life. It was a moment in time when Pope had to look in the mirror and find out who he really was.

“I was ready to leave (ECU) after that,” he admitted. “I picked up the phone. I’m like, ‘I’ve never lost a game like this. I’m not about losing. You guys may be satisfied but I’m not.’ I called Auburn and Georgia Tech and I really was on my way to transfer out of there. It just so happened that that spring we got a new offensive coordinator, from Wichita. He installed a new offense and I loved that offense, man. The tight ends were catching the balls a lot and standing out and were seeing the field a lot better and making calls. That kept me there… that is what kept me in the ECU program. P.J. and I were roommates that year. We were really trying to leave the school. We had never, never lost like that year (5-6 record, including the humiliating loss to the Tar Heels) …I had never experienced that before in my life.”

Introspection came a little later.

“I never thought about becoming a winner. I was like, ‘I am a winner, you guys are the losers.’ I really didn’t accept loving well. I was like, ‘I gotta jump ship now, I’m out of here.’ Really. I was like, ‘I got to go.’ I know, but that was my attitude at the time.

“From that point, things improved. We had a good season the next year when we went 7-4 and then of course the following year, in 1983, we had that great year.”

That 1982 season, his sophomore year, Pope had found his way into the Pirates lineup.

“I was the number two tight end and was backing up Norwood Vann,” he said. “Even though I was No. 2 with the offense we were running, I started most of the games. We had a two tight end set. It didn’t bother me because I was in as much as he was. Sometimes I might be out if we went with one tight end. I played a good bit and graded out quite well and had a decent year. I was improving.”

As a junior on the rise, Pope looked at 1983 as a year for him to enhance an already improving career. For Pirates fans, 1983 was a wake up call… one that opened a world of opportunity for the program as Emory’s boys shook up the college football world, going 8-3 with near misses against Miami, Florida State, and Florida.

“We knew we had a special team, we just didn’t know how special we were,” Pope recalled. “We had key people in key positions and we knew we were going to shine. It was the Florida State game that confirmed it… we all knew right then. We were score for score with them. That is where we gained our confidence. We realized we could play with anyone. The year before, they beat us before we even had gone out on the field. Now we were in it. The only thing that beat us was the Florida State name. Of course, also there was also that (pass interference) call no one can find on the film.”

Pope certainly knew during that fateful campaign what the impact on the program was going to be.

Pope visits the East Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame  (Photo: Choo Justice, October 2004)

“That season really put East Carolina on the map,” he said. “Even though we didn’t get the recognition we deserved with a bowl, people knew. We had really good athletes at that time. When I think about that team... they were winners. Coach Emory was a good hard-nosed coach. Of course, he was one of the first coaches who implemented four-a-day practices. I don’t have anything bad to say about Coach Emory. He gave me a chance and I truly appreciate him for thinking enough of me to want me to come play for him. I thank him a lot. I came up to the Hall of Fame this past October and I got a chance to see him and it was an honor.”

His success as a junior validated that Pope was much more a winner by his own merit than by those he associated with. And with that knowledge, he was able to more easily digest the 1984 season.

“At the time, we had good players and we weren’t really aware of Ed’s issues with the administration,” he said. “We had two rookie unknown quarterbacks. Nobody stood up and took charge at that position. So, we did the best we could do. We just did what we could and it was not fun (enduring a 2-9 record).”

Post-Collegiate Opportunities

Despite that dismal 1984 season, Pope’s abilities were not overlooked and he had chances to play on the next level.

“Dallas is where I signed,” Pope said. “I signed a free agent contract with Dallas that year. Dallas surprised me because – not knowing how well I did my senior year (in high school) and then I have college scouts coming out to see me and are looking at me – I’m wondering, ‘Why are they looking?’

“We didn’t have a good record that year but I had received a letter to go out to Tempe, AZ, to go to the combines. At the time, I didn’t know what that meant, so I didn’t think too much of it. At the combine, that’s when I realized that this is about the NFL and that these guys were looking at me. I never thought my career would get to that point. I did quite well out there. It was something else… it was cold back in Greenville, it was winter and I stepped off that plane out there and it was so hot. All of a sudden it’s like all the coaches are there and people putting us through a whole host of activities. I did the best I could do. We had to do sprints, catching, jumping, weightlifting… pretty much everything. They wanted to evaluate you on everything possible, even things that you did back in grade school, like jumping activities.”

Going to the combine not only opened Pope's eyes to what was needed on the next level, it also opened his eyes to the possibility that he might actually have a shot.

“That set the stage for me to start thinking, ‘Whoa, I can play on the next level,’” he said. “All the different agents at this point in time are calling me up and telling me I am one of the top tight ends. I am trying to figure out how this is happening. It was just strange for me because my senior season I only caught one touchdown pass and maybe had six catches the whole season. But I began to believe it, and the next thing, I was there. Dallas was wooing me for a whole week. Indianapolis and also Buffalo were looking at me. Indianapolis, during the draft, the coaches called me and said they had just finished the draft and they wanted me to sign with them and wanted to bring me out. I was like, ‘Whatever you all want.’

“They called and said they really wanted me. But Dallas had been in Greenville all week and it was just easier to sign with them. I went on and signed with Dallas. It was something to fall back on even though another team wanted me to come there. I signed with Dallas the day after the draft and then I was down in Dallas. That quick. I felt like with Dallas it was every bit a cattle call. There were so many guys there at the time. Dallas signed hundreds of free agents and most teams were not doing that. It was a roundup. I stayed there a few weeks before the season started. I was cut within the third or fourth week, right before the season started. From that point on – of course it was devastating because I had no control of it – and I was so determined to make it work. Then I started to deal with life issues. I thought the NFL was my destiny and it was taken from me when Dallas cut me.”

Pope, for the first time in a long time, was not sure of anything.

“I came back to Athens and began working with Georgia Power and I felt real lucky to have gotten on with them,” he recalled. “I still feel my experience (in football) helped me get that job. But, football was still in my system and hadn’t quite given it up. I was with Georgia Power for about six months and then I signed with the L.A. Raiders. I went out there and practiced and prepared for camp. At that time, (former ECU star) Stefan Adams was out there, so I had a familiar face and he was also a fraternity (Kappa Alpha Psi) brother and I spent time with him.

His fraternity has always been a big part of his life, so it was no surprise that Adams, a brother in the fraternity, paved the way for him in L.A.

“Most of the organizations and things I’ve been affiliated with have truly helped me in life,” Pope said. “Being a member of Kappa Alpha Psi helped open up doors in the business world. It is basically who you know, not what you know, and so the frat was truly a blessing and also giving back to the community through the civic duties is a big part of that life. That was from ECU and of course we had the parties too and that was good. Doors that might have been closed opened for me because of Kappa Alpha Psi.”

Though he got out to the Raiders’ camp, Pope found himself in a difficult predicament.

“I felt like I got somewhat of a fair look,” he said. “But it was hard to say because I was running with the No. 2 team and sometimes No. 1. And, of course, that is when Todd Christiansen was the starting tight end. In the pros, I truly noticed a lot of politicking. Basically, I saw a lot of very good athletes who were cut for various reasons. Some guys were out of this world and not making mistakes and they were released. This is what made me give up on pro ball because I couldn’t change it myself. If you didn’t have a coach in your corner, you were done. I saw tremendous guys released and on the flip side, very average guys being kept. But they were who the coaches liked.

“That really, truly, turned me against wanting to play, even though I had another opportunity with Buffalo and I did go out there and worked out... but by then I had such a bad taste in my mouth. Same thing at a different place. Even in Dallas – of course Doug Cosby was one of the best tight ends ever and I was truly a back up there – but my weight was up and my speed was great and I think that is what really got me in Dallas, was my contract and the stipulations in it. That is what got me cut and that hurts when you are cut the day before you are going to be paid. I really think my contract (and its built-in incentives) was the problem there.”

After the Bills’ camp, that was it for Pope.

“Buffalo was my last run and I knew that if things didn’t go the way I wanted, I would re-evaluate and lie low and get my head right,” he said. “In the process of reevaluating, well the next thing you know, two, three, five years go by and you wake up and you think, ‘Wait, this wasn’t in the game plan, me not playing anymore.’ ”

Back Home in Georgia

After Buffalo, Pope explored his opportunities and, for a small while, thought he would be back in Greenville again.

“After football, actually I was on way back to North Carolina to take an internship with the Secretary of State at Corrections – I had minored in Criminal Justice,” he said. “But, then I was offered a position with the county police department in Athens. It was pretty much the same type of work (as in North Carolina) and Athens was home so I made the decision to stay here and work instead of going back to Greenville.”

Pope settled in to police work in Athens.

Damon Pope, Reggie Branch and former East Carolina
athletic department staffer Choo Justice reunite at an
ECU football game (Photo: Choo Justice)

“I worked with the police department about 2½ years,” Pope explained. “My last day with them was in July of 1989. I enjoyed every bit of it, but I just couldn’t see living on a policeman’s salary. I didn’t see how people could live on that. I needed a whole lot more than that. I knew I needed to get into a profession that would allow me to net the income I wanted to make in order to do things that I wanted to do in my life.

“I began working with an insurance company – Independent Life – and I became a sales agent for them. I stayed with them 10 years. By my fifth year, I was a sales manager and that promotion led me to Atlanta. Then, I got married and had my second child with my wife. We moved to the Atlanta area and stayed the next five years with that company. We had another son. We did eventually separate and divorce there, but from working with Independent Life, I transitioned after a buyout of my company. There were a lot of things within the new company that I couldn’t take as a manager, so I transitioned to Kaiser Permanente and began working within their Medicare department for a couple of years.”

It was in this position that Pope began laying the framework for his own future.

“Doing that and dealing with seniors, enrolling them into the Kaiser HMO program, I began dealing with medical supply sales on a part time basis – which is the company I own now,” he said. “There was a layoff back in 2001. Around the first of January, Kaiser laid me off. When that happened, I was like, “Whoa!” because it was the first time in my life that I didn’t have control over my career. Getting caught up in that layoff… I had been doing the medical supplies sales part time and saw its potential to be lucrative. So, eventually, I put more time and effort into and it truly paid off.

“A year and a half later, I started a company, D&T Custom Medical Care, with a partner, Tandra Davis. Basically, within three years we opened up a second store (in May of 2004) and things are going quite well in the medical supply industry. I always had a desire to start some form of a company, but didn’t know what lifeline field to go into. Anything dealing with patients, medicine, you are going to be in business for a lifetime. That was how D&T came about. I have a sales force with about 10 employees across the state of Georgia and a small staff of administrative personnel. We are small, but we are on the way… growing.”

Pope’s business is burgeoning and he is in a great place these days. And East Carolina is just as big a part of his life as always.

He hopes to get back to his alma mater more regularly in the future.

“This past year was my first time getting back to ECU since the 1980s,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, I was overwhelmed with the football facilities. I was amazed to see what they are working with up there now. I was amazed and thrilled and happy for them, but yet I was disappointed we didn’t have it when I played. I believe it would have made a difference for us back then.

“I do follow the team. I try to attend a game every year. Normally I will make an away game. I have not done the Greenville trip until this past October. I am a Little League football coach now, too, and it takes up a great deal of my time on Saturdays. I have a son (Daylen) who plays outside linebacker on the team and he is doing quite well, I have to say. I’m not ready to put the younger one (Davion) on a field yet… don’t want him to get hit and his career end (mentally) on one lick. I’ve got to get him a little older for that. I am right there with my boys and I hope that one day I get to experience what my parents did, getting the joy to travel and watch them play.”

Though he hasn’t seen the current Pirates much, Pope weighed in on the program from his perspective. (Note – this interview took place prior to John Thompson’s departure at the helm of the Pirates program.)

“The only thing I can judge the team on lately is on the one game I saw in person,” he qualified. “I did ask Coach T about the offense being run. Last year, I noticed that the size linemen we’ve got, they are not sustaining blocks long enough. There is a hold for a second but it collapses. I wanted to know if there would be any changes there. Even now, I don’t know what the problem has been this year, but (from) the stats on paper, I’m seeing an offense that is not clicking. And on defense, I don’t know if it is the guys not making the plays or if we are not athletic enough to compete. Are they not coaching them? We should be doing something differently.

“I was never one to blame the coaches. I would look at the players first. I haven’t seen any games, but I wouldn’t put the blame on the coaches if they did a good job preparing.”

Aside from those analytical reasons, one thing clearly doesn’t set well with Pope.

“I don’t like the losing,” he said. “It is embarrassing. I fly the flag on my car on Saturdays and it is my school. You see scores like that 50-something to 7 and you ask, is it the coaching or the players? Right now, I’m leaning toward the coaching. Even though Coach (Steve) Logan had success, in the second half of the games in his last season, I saw it with his players. Maybe we don’t have the right players for the type of schemes we are using. Last year, I thought we needed bigger players or we needed to change the scheme.”

But with changes at the top, Pope sees a bright future.

“I believe (the Terry Holland hire) is a great opportunity for the program,” he said. “He is a big plus. With us not having an AD, the issues were not in hand. Having a guy like Holland there is going to be big plus all the way around."

Pope's bottom line take on Thompson's status turned out to be prophetic.

"As for the football coach, the second year, you have to see improvement," he said. "Third year, it has to be there and I am not seeing past two for this coach. I want to feel good about my team. I want us to beat teams like Miami and other name schools again like we used to.”

He sees Holland as potentially leading the Pirates to a new level of football.

“I think that ECU needs to be in the ACC or the Big East,” he said. “The reason is the level of competition. I always felt we should have been in the ACC when I was there. No doubt, conferences help attract players. At the time I went to ECU, it was because of being an Independent. You got to play anyone and travel around the country. Then, not being in a conference was a plus. Now, you got to be in a conference… a good conference… a BCS conference. I think that will be the big focus (of Holland’s tenure.)”

Until that happens, Pope has some advice for Pirates around the world.

“Right now, we’ve got to focus on keeping the players pumped up and doing whatever it takes to get things going with them,” he said. “Either get better coaches, players or both. We all have to continue to support the sports program through the hard times or the program is going to go down. Continue sending in dollars and soon enough, our money is going to work for us. The facilities are there… the stadium is there; we got to get a winner back in there, that’s all. (We) cannot abandon the program. We’ve been down before and came out and were successful. We can get back there again. We have to get the players excited, the fans excited, future players excited… and maybe we ought do some prayin’ …that goes a long way, too.”

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