Coo Coo Marlin's one-time escape attempt wasn't so great

Tom Higgins' Scuffs is serving up some significant memories of a long-ago Talladega race weekend and Coo Coo Marlin, who died Sunday.

By TOM HIGGINS

It was quite a "morning after" for two of the most colorful, fun-loving characters in NASCAR history, Clifton "Coo Coo" Marlin and Charles "Hoss" Ellington.

They had partied full-bore the night before, and wound up doing what we’ll call "The Jailhouse Rock."

Nowadays, racing team public relations representatives would be doing everything possible to cover-up such an incident.

What a difference a quarter-century makes.

Twenty-five years ago the ebullient Ellington couldn’t wait to get to the track to tell about it.

That track was Alabama International Motor Speedway, now known as Talladega Superspeedway.

Hoss and Coo Coo had somewhat run afoul of the law in nearby Anniston, where most of the NASCAR entourage stayed during race weekends in those days. Naturally, the law won.

However, Hoss Ellington won, too, because he came out of the experience with a funny story.

Here’s how I recall Hoss telling it in the garage area that morning once he and Coo Coo got out of the hoosegow:

"We had eaten dinner at this nightspot in Anniston and stayed over to listen to the band. We had a few drinks. Well…a lot.

"When we left we had sense enough to let Eula Faye (the late Mrs. Coo Coo Marlin) drive the car, ‘cause she didn’t drink. The cops were watching the place, and they stopped us just down the street.

"The blue lights about scared Eula Faye to death, and in her excitement she couldn’t get the power windows down on the car to talk to the cops. It was pretty comical, but the police weren’t amused.

"They took me and Coo Coo to headquarters and booked us for being loaded. Then they took us down to the cells, which were in the basement.

"It was already dark down there, and as the jailers left they turned off the lights.

"We were down there all by ourselves and it was pitch dark. I said, ‘Hey wait a minute, what if one of us has a heart attack?!!!’

"The jailers didn’t even turn around as they went back up the stairs. One of them said, ‘Then I guess you’re gonna die.’

"I knew right then there was no hope of getting out ‘til morning, so I got in a bunk and went to sleep.

"Sometime later a pounding noise woke me up. I admit it scared me.

"I said, ‘Damn, Coo Coo, what do you reckon is making that racket?!’

"Coo Coo calmly, matter-of-factly said, ‘It’s me. The jailer left us a metal cup to drink out of. I’m beating on it with one of my boots. I’m makin’ us a key!’"

There was no "Great Escape," of course, for the two old friends who had raced each other as independent drivers without big backing.

Upon being released, they came to the race track to continue the weekend, Hoss as a team owner and Coo Coo as a spectator to watch his son Sterling drive.

Coo Coo Marlin, who saw Sterling become a two-time Daytona 500 winner, passed away Sunday at the age of 73.

Part of his legacy is the tenacity and talent he showed in winning dozens of short track races in the Nashville area many years ago.

Another part is all the amusing tales that pals like Hoss Ellington will be telling about his antics for years to come.