From CONTEXT on line Oct 1998
UT Honors Alumni Marine Generals
UT honored two alumni in September who had distinguished careers in the U.S.
Marine Corps. Both have the distinction of having been the two highest
ranking UT alumni in the Marine Corps.
Plaques honoring the late Gen. Clifton Cates and retired Brig. Gen. Austin
Shofner were unveiled in Stokely Athletics Center.
Cates, born in Tiptonville, Tennessee, played football and baseball at UT
before receiving the bachelor of law degree in 1916. He entered the Marine
Corps as a second lieutenant in 1917, saw duty in both world wars, and
earned more than 30 decorations. He retired in 1954 after serving two years
as commandant of the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico, Virginia. He died in
1970 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Shofner, a Chattanooga native who grew up in Shelbyville, earned the
bachelor of science in commerce at UT in 1937. Like Cates, Shofner played
football at UT and continued as a player and coach with the San Diego
Marines in the late 1930s. He was captured by Japanese forces at Corregidor
but led a prison camp escape and returned to the battlefield in the Pacific.
He retired from the Marine Corps in 1959.
Shofner, who attended the ceremony, now lives in Shelbyville.