The signature plays in which the 1958 Gaylesville Trojan football team was known were called the belly series. Head coach Roy Knapp installed the option-style offense, and it was up to senior quarterback Bob Wheeling to run it properly.

Knapp had so much confidence in the 5-foot-9, 150-pound Wheeling to run the offense. He turned over almost all the play calling duties to Wheeling, in which he had the option to hand the ball off to the Trojan fullbacks or keep the ball himself at the last second.

“I was just fortunate to have the ability that I did,” Wheeling said. “I was real fast. We’d run options and roll out passes where I could see over the linemen, and it worked out real good. I was playing against some bigger boys, but I was pretty stout. I didn’t go down easy.”

It was almost as if the offense was tailor-made for Wheeling and fullback Carl Sanford. The duo provided a solid 1-2 punch in the Trojan backfield. Wheeling recalls one game in which they executed one play to perfection.

“I believe we were playing Appalachian one night, and I pulled the ball back just as Carl was getting hit and I ran for a touchdown,” Wheeling said. “I looked back, and the officials were unstacking the pile. They thought Carl had the ball. Carl told them ‘I don’t have that thing.’ I was already in the end zone, and not one soul touched me the whole way.”

A single soul might not have touched Wheeling on that play, but whether he knew it or not, Wheeling was touching the souls of the Trojan faithful that year.

Without the benefit of a football field to call their home, the Trojans marched on the road every week and on to an undefeated season in 1958. Now, Wheeling is marching into the Cherokee County Hall of Fame.

Wheeling is one of three influential individuals comprising the Class of 2009. Former Cherokee County and University of Alabama football standout John Miller and former Cherokee County and University of Auburn offensive guard Brad Johnson will join Wheeling when they are all formally inducted on July 18.

The ceremony will be held July 18 at 6 p.m. in the Gadsden State-Cherokee banquet room. Tickets are $20.

Wheeling said he was humbled when he found out of his nomination.

“It’s a real honor,” Wheeling said. “That was the biggest surprise I ever had. It was something I never expected to happen. I never even thought about it. It’s just unbelievable to me.”

Wheeling will be inducted into the Hall of Fame by his son Scott.

“I couldn’t be any more prouder for anybody,” Scott said. “Nobody deserves it more than he does. He was raised around sports. It’s unreal some of the things he’s done. I’ve got clippings of him running 80, 90-yard touchdowns, going 10 for 10 passing, rushing for over 100 yards. It’s really something to be proud of, but it goes a little deeper than sports. He’s just a great man. You can’t find anybody any better than him. I’ve always looked up to him and I always will look up to him.”

Wheeling joins Knapp and Sanford as representatives from Gaylesville in the Hall of Fame. Knapp was inducted in 2005. Sanford was elected in 2007.

Sanford, who went on to play football at Mississippi State, recalls Wheeling as being “a natural athlete.”

“He could get things done,” Sanford said of Wheeling. “We were not expected to go undefeated that year, but he was a big instrument for us in getting that done. We had been losing for so long we just got tired of that and refused to get beat.

“The two of us knew what to expect from one another, and his ball handling was very key. We had a lot of what they call the option now. The defense would see the ball in my gut, and it was up to Bob to decide what to do. I attribute his skills and his ball handling to our attack.”

Wheeling attributed the Trojans’ success that season to Sanford and the Trojans linemen.

“We had a line that enabled me to most of the things I did,” Wheeling said. “I never got sacked. Lynn Fitzpatrick was the center, and I don’t ever remember him ever making a bad snap.”

Wheeling also recalls the Trojans being able to adapt under adverse circumstances.

“I think we had 18 ball players that year,” he said. “When we would scrimmage, we’d scrimmage the right side of the line against the left side on defense. We had to play both ways. We had a lot of boys coming back who liked to play ball, and Coach Knapp got us in shape to play both ways. You knew you were going to have to play both ways.

“We didn’t have any water until after practice. When we went to games, we didn’t even take a water bucket. You got a drink at halftime. The other team would call timeout and water would be brought out on the field. We’d just stand there and look at them. We got to where we didn’t need it. We got used to it. I doubt if any coach would do that now.”

As much of a talent as Wheeling was on the football field, he was just as talented on the basketball court.

During his senior year in 1958-59, Wheeling averaged 23 points per game as a point guard. He set a single game school scoring record with 37 points against Cherokee County, and helped lead the Trojans to a county championship over the Warriors. Gaylesville finished the regular season with a 25-3 record.

“I could shoot real well, but I was short,” Wheeling said. “I didn’t do a whole lot of rebounding. We had four seniors and one junior on our starting team, and we had some tall boys. They got all the rebounds.

“Every time the opposing team shot the ball, I was to go towards our goal. They would get the ball and relay out to Bob Davis, who was our other guard. I’d already be towards the other goal on a fast break and he’d relay the ball on down to me. I made a lot of points just on layups.”

The numbers Wheeling turned in night after night on the court could have been higher. A lot of Wheeling’s shots were beyond today’s 3-point line, which wasn’t instituted in his day.

“When I scored 37 against Centre, I might would have had 60 points that day,” Wheeling said. “I shot a lot of long shots. That was just one of those days where I could have shot with my eyes shut and it would go in. I had a lot of 27, 28-point games. In a district tournament, I hit about 10 in a row that would have been 3-point shots in the first half.”

Buddy Knapp, the son of Coach Knapp who followed Wheeling at quarterback, said his father thought highly of Wheeling. Knapp passed away in 1992.

“Bob was a very gifted athlete, and I’m sure if dad were to put together his top 25 athletes of all time, I’m sure Carl and Bob would be on that list,” Buddy said. “In his later years, when he mentioned Gaylesville, he was going to mention Carl and he was going to mention Bob, not only just as a football player, but as a basketball athlete.”