By Mike London
Salisbury Post
ROCKWELL — Claude Morris (C.M.) Yates Jr., one of the most famed athletes in East Rowan history, died on Nov. 2.
He was 72.
Yates always will be fondly remembered as the quarterback of the 1969 Mustangs, who went 13-0 and won the championship of the Western North Carolina High School Activities Association. That team was coached by W.A. Cline, the man to whom East’s football stadium was dedicated earlier this year.
Yates did a lot to bring the forward pass to Rowan County football.
The county passing record when Yates arrived at East Rowan as a sophomore in the fall of 1968 was the 1,631 yards Boyden’s Eddie Kesler had thrown for in four varsity seasons (1956-59).
Yates threw for 3,910 yards in three varsity seasons, breaking the previous record by almost 2,300 yards. His biggest season actually was in 1970, his senior year, when East’s defense wasn’t as dominant as it was in 1969. Cline, a conservative coach who believed in the running game, had to throw more in 1970.
Yates was the first in Rowan County to put up serious TD passing numbers — 12 as a sophomore, 16 as a junior, 22 as a senior — 50 in all.
Yates held the county career passing yards mark until 1992 when North Rowan’s Carvie Kepley passed him.
Yates made the Shrine Bowl and East-West All-Star teams.
Not may sentences about Yates ever have been written that didn’t also include his classmate, Johnny Yarbrough, the other half of the “Y Boys.” Yarbrough caught 43 touchdown passes, still the county record.
Yates’ high school debut in 1968 was a home win against South Rowan on Sept. 6. He threw for 212 yards and three touchdowns, two to Yarbrough. The 27 points scored by the Mustangs were the most they’d ever scored on opening night. Those 1968 Mustangs went on to win the school’s first conference championship, setting the stage for the greatness that came in 1969.
Books could be written about East’s 1969 season, as the two most memorable games in East football history were played back-to-back in the WNCHSAA playoffs. Besides throwing passes, Yates was East’s placekicker. Besides catching passes, Yarbrough did the punting.
North Piedmont Conference champ East played South Piedmont Conference champ Concord in the Piedmont (Bi-Conference) title game. Yates got pounded hard on his first two pass attempts and was intercepted early. But then he found Yarbrough on the sideline, and Yarbrough was gone.
The Piedmont Championship Game was a game the NPC rarely won and the rural schools never won, but Yates’ 40-yard touchdown pass to Yarbrough with 1:22 on the clock gave the Mustangs a 23-22 victory. Concord had just taken the lead, but it took East less than a minute to strike back. Yates connected with Yarbrough nine times that night
The Shelby game that followed for the WNCHSAA title was a 26-21 East victory. Yates ran for two touchdowns, including the game-deciding sneak with 1:06 left, and threw a touchdown pass to Yarbrough. Yates was named MVP in the biggest game East football ever has played.
Yates was a fine baseball pitcher, part of the rotation as a 16-year-old for Rowan County American Legion’s state championship in the summer of 1969. Yates pitched a one-hitter in a 2-0 win that clinched a playoff series against Thomasville. He also won the final game of a playoff series with Greensboro Cone. He was 5-1. His only loss was against Wilmington in the state championship series.
He suffered a concussion in the regional that knocked him out of East’s early games in the 1969 football season. but the Mustangs’ defense was stout enough to win those.
Yates also pitched for East Rowan’s 1970 WNCHSAA champs.
Yates grew up playing backyard football — tackle football with no equipment. By the time he was playing Gray-Y football in the fourth grade, he was a proficient passer and kicker.
He played on the first team at Erwin Junior High in 1967. Reid Bradshaw coached that team, and Yates and Yarbrough led an undefeated season.
Yates got married in the summer of 1972 to Barbara Kay Johnson. Yarbrough was an usher.
Yates graduated from Catawba College — he played some football and baseball for the Indians – in 1975.
He served as East Rowan’s head coach for the 1981-82 seasons, but those were tough times for the Mustangs, and Yates only got to experience one win. That was a 7-6 victory against Bowman High of Wadesboro in 1981.
Most of Yates’ working life was spent with the City of Salisbury Parks and Recreation Department where he was an expert in field maintenance.
His son, Chad, was the third baseman for East Rowan’s 1995 baseball state champions.
His grandson, Kendal Sifford, a senior at Carson, was the Rowan County and South Piedmont Conference Pitcher of the Year last spring.
Yates was an humble, gracious guy, who always deflected as much glory as possible to his coaches and teammates.
When West Rowan was marching in 2009 toward being the first Rowan football team to go undefeated since 1969, Yates sincerely wished them well.
“These are young men representing Rowan County, and I hope they get to experience that same feeling we had in 1969,” he said. “I can tell them that going undefeated is something they’ll never forget. And if they do it, it won’t take anything at all away from what our team did. We’ll always have 1969.”
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The family will greet friends and relatives on Saturday, Nov. 8, 10:30-11:45 am at Nazareth Community Church, Rockwell. The memorial service will follow at noon
Memorials may be made to Tucker Hospice House, 5003 Hospice Ln, Kannapolis, NC 28081.
