Sober 17 years since 1/10/1981 when he went into a coma for 19 days, Chuck is a strong speaker with a back woods Georgia accent.
Chuck's parents were fairly old when he was born. His dad was a tobacconist who served in several different countries. He had four different high schools in his senior year.
Chuck got a sense of unity from sports but off the field he was alone.
At 16 he joined the drinking crowd though he did not like alcohol or cigarettes because of alcoholic family members and those who were angry at them.
He went to the University of Georgia and got a walk on baseball scholarship that he lost after two years for drinking.
His ROTC got him in Army Officer's Training School in Columbus, GA. In a blackout he signed up for the Airborne Rangers, ended up wounded in the Korea War and finished in Europe.
He came back to Georgia, got married and went back to UGA and graduated. He got great coaching jobs to start but became progressively worse as his alcoholism got worse.
Toward the end he was locked out of the house drinking in the backyard with the pet raccoon who liked beer. He was a great listener. A nature center took the raccoon on and got him sober before Chuck got sober.
Chuck went to treatment at the veterans hospital, stayed sober for three months, then went a second time when he went into the coma.
The doctor told him about AA and his journey through recovery began.