Museum event produces wealth of Union County sports memories

A roomful of sports fans and former athletes gathered at the Union County Heritage Museum Thursday to share stories and highlight some of the many accomplishments of the community’s individuals and teams.

The event was to help gather information for a permanent sports history exhibit, The Sporting Life Exhibit, at the museum.

Museum Director Jill Smith said the exhibit will feature basketball, football, baseball, softball, tennis, soccer, hunting, fishing and more.  “The players who have gone on to professional careers such as Eli Whiteside, Armentie Price, John Stroud, Gene Howe, Wayne West, Earnest Kennedy, Marcus Green, Chase Porch, Janice Downs Davidson, Boy Boyd, Doc Marshall and there are many more,” she said.

“There is a long list of great players and great moments in the sporting life of this county in professional sports, in college and in high school, and the goal of the museum is to capture them all.”

Some of the clippings and photos.

Tables full of photos and clippings were on display and a slide show included a variety of clippings and photos showing subjects as far back as the early 1900s. “This is not comprehensive by any means,” Smith said.

The museum is in a continuing effort to collect memorabilia and documentation and record video interviews with as many sports figures as possible.

She added that the display, now under development, will be in the front lobby. “There won’t be room for everything,” she said, “so we will have a big database.” The database will be searchable and accessible to the public. What is shown in the exhibit will be on a rotating basis.

Smith said based on what information is available the museum board decided the exhibit will first focus on the years 1900 to 1942, then group information by decades.

Because of the potential wealth of outstanding sports history and individuals, she said they are concerned about leaving anyone out that they simply aren’t aware of. The museum has nomination forms available and she urges anyone who knows of sports figures to pick up one of the forms.

From left, Sam Mosley, Charley Neal Huffstatler, Robert Merritt, Tom Haynes and Bob Cossitt.

Many of the comments and anecdotes Thursday had to do with basketball because it has been the dominant sport for the county, historically. Other sports were touched on as well, however.

A panel including Bob Cossitt, Robert Merritt, Tom Haynes, Charley Neal Huffstatler and Sam Mosley recalled significant events in the county’s sports history, adding often colorful personal reminiscences as well. Those in the audience participated also.

The popularity of basketball was evidenced by a large photo brought by Merritt. It showed the 1978 New Albany Invitational which no doubt drew the largest crowd in Memorial Gym’s history. There literally was no place for anyone else to sit on stand with crowds packed up to the court boundaries and Merritt said more crowds were outside listening to games through open doors.

“Those were the two best boys games I ever saw (New Albany playing Booneville and Ingomar playing Tupelo),” he said.

Bob Cossitt gave another example of the importance of sports in those days. “On Tuesday, everybody was at Stokes or other stores waiting for the Gazette to come out,” he said. That’s because they were waiting to ready sports editor Bill Cossitt’s column, “Speaking of Sports.” “He carried a lot of influence and people would be in the parking lots Tuesday waiting on the Gazette,” he said.

Sam Mosley provided history from the perspective of the African-American community, whose sports may not have been as widely known. “There’s not a lot of pictures,” he said. “We were segregated then.”

That doesn’t mean those athletes did not have successes and they did play with white athletes as well. He talked about a team including Earnest “Dude” Kennedy, Clarence Estes and Nathaniel Johnson that went seven years without a loss. Charlie Woodruff was coach.

He also mentioned Arthur Lee Simpson in the 1950s, whom the Harlem Globetrotters tried to recruit. “But he was just a homebody,” Mosley said, and he turned them down.

More contemporary athletes such as Eli Whiteside and John Stroud were there as well as coaches including Harvey Childers, Elvis Thomas and Warner Bradford. “Some of the best coaches ever,” Cossitt said.

Of course, some of their achievements were mentioned and Jim Henson also didn’t want football to go unnoticed.

While New Albany did not always have winning football teams (sometimes losing every game in a season), it did have outstanding teams.

In 1961, for the first time ever, New Albany defeated Starkville at Starkville after having lost abysmally for years. Henson said there was pandemonium, goal posts were torn down and other excitement. Superintendent W. P. Daniel had always said the day New Albany beat Starkville he would walk through downtown New Albany in his pajamas.

He was true to his word and a photo of the event from the Gazette was on display at the school for many years.

Even more notable, the 1962 and 1963 football teams were undefeated and won the Little Ten Championship. In 1963 New Albany won the Little Ten Championships in football, basketball, baseball, tennis and track – an unparalleled accomplishment.

The Sporting Life of Union County will also include the hunters such as Chico Foote and others as well as the nationally-known bird dog trainers Gordon Simmons and Clyde Morton, whose record of National Field Trial wins still stands.

Jill Smith

Smith added that the exhibit will include figures who were important to sports if not actual athletes themselves. Scout Gerald Snider who was welcomed and known in every gym in North Mississippi, and colorful super fan Wes Schooler were examples.

According to Snider’s obituary, “at its peak, more than 400 college programs subscribed to the Gerald Snider Basketball Recruiting Service. For three decades, he helped high school and juco players in Mississippi and surrounding states get seen by college coaches.”

Smith did not say when she expected the display to be ready and open to the public but some sports memorabilia is on display now and visitors may see more. She also reiterated her wish that anyone who knows of Union County sports individuals or teams get some of the nomination forms so the museum staff can get in touch with them.

Call the museum at 662-538-0014, email at uchm@ucheritagemuseum.com, or stop by the museum, located at 114 Cleveland Street, New Albany, MS.