Brigadier General Austin Shofner graduated in the class of 1937 with a bachelor’s in commerce. He lettered in wrestling and football at UT and continued as a player and coach with the San Diego Marines in the late 1930s. He engineered the first and only successful American-team escape from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, bringing the first word to the outside world of the death march and brutal conditions. He and an escape party of soldiers, airmen, and marines made it to safety by chopping their way through miles of Mindanao (Philippines) jungle. His reports changed Allied strategy and tactics in the Pacific in ways that saved thousands of lives. He remained in the Philippines for six months after his successful escape, leading Filipino guerrillas who rescued five hundred prisoners slated for death in one camp. He later led marine assault battalions ashore on Peleliu and Okinawa, where he earned the Silver Star and Legion of Merit. General MacArthur personally awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in recognition of Shofner’s heroism in the escape.
Captured at Corregidor, Shofner spent several months in various prison camps. He surreptitiously managed to chronicle those experiences and the subsequent escape, and the diary in which he recorded the experiences is the Tennessee State Library and Archives. In 1998 he and General Clifton Cates were honored in a ceremony at Stokely Athletics Center, in which two plaques were donated to UT by the Tennessee Chapter of the First Marine Division Association. UT President Dr. Joe Johnson presided. Shofner made an unscheduled speech following the unveiling of the plaques, speaking of his dedication to UT and his years in combat.