A Clutch Paint Job
Posted on December 17, 2024 by Marcomm
“WE’RE NO 1 IN THE NATION,” proclaims the University of South Alabama’s bus in a 1972 photo. The baseball team proudly poses alongside, celebrating the Jaguars’ first appearance at No. 1 in national polls.
The creator of that paint job was also the bus driver. And mechanic. Joe “Clutch” Smith, an Army veteran of Vietnam, began a 38-year career at South in 1970 as a jack-of-all-trades in maintenance. When the University founded its transportation fleet by acquiring a former Greyhound bus (a General Motors PD-4104), Smith got handed the keys.
“I had good times with the bus,” says Smith, now retired in Semmes, just northwest of Mobile. Sure, it had logged more than a decade and maybe a million-plus miles on the road. The gears would grind, which is why the players nicknamed him “Clutch.”
And it was a little shabby. But Smith could fix that. Three weeks of prepping and painting (with some equipment borrowed from a body shop) left the bus gleaming in red, white and blue: Blue for the stripe and big lettering on the sides, white for the roof, wheels and small “University of South Alabama” lettering, and red for the roof stripe and the big, boastful “1.”
“It looked really good,” Smith says. He’s right. It really did.