Chuck loved to play ball. Growing up in a cotton mill village in Columbus, Ga. he was what some would call a gym rat. Everyday when he wasn’t in school he would join dozens of other youth in the mill gym or baseball field to play whatever sport was in season.
He wasn’t very big, only standing 5’8″ and weighing 130 lbs in the ninth grade. However, he grew a few inches every year and at 6-4 and 220 lbs. his senior year, he attracted the attention of Auburn, Georgia, and Georgia Tech. It was the Auburn and (later) Georgia coaching legend Erk Russell that recruited him to play for the Tigers.