Courant readers John Law Robinson, Wayne Bell and Sherry
Johnston helped me clear up a number of sports-related questions during the
past week, including the location of an old athletic field that hasn’t been
used for decades.
Regular readers of The Courant’s weekly Sports Flashback
feature will probably remember reading references to a Gantt Field, where local
football and baseball games were played for years prior to the construction of
Brooks Memorial Stadium in Evergreen. Over the years, I’ve tried to pinpoint
the location of this now defunct sports field, but no one could tell me exactly
where it was located.
I mentioned Gantt Field in this space last week, and last
Thursday morning while visiting the library Sherry showed me a map of Evergreen
that had Gantt Field clearly marked on it. According to the map, Gantt Field
was located on the east side of Bruner Avenue in a lot just north of Oak
Street.
John Law and Wayne also compiled some material for me
regarding Evergreen High School’s football team during the 1940s. According to
their research and recollections, football at Evergreen High School was
discontinued after the 1936 season.
The school revived its football program in the fall of 1943
with E.L. McInnis as head coach. John Law remembers this season well because he
was the team’s water boy and manager.
The team that year used old equipment found in the attic
over the school auditorium, and the helmets were so flimsy they could be folded
in half. Instead of cleats, Hubert Holcombe glued leather strips on brogans.
For jerseys, the team had cotton sweatshirts, which John Law took to the top of
the stadium, where painted black numbers were put on them prior to their first
game.
Methodist preacher Arthur Carlton served as Evergreen’s head
coach in 1944, and assistant county engineer David Petty was the team’s head
coach in 1945. Cliff Harper became Evergreen’s principal in 1946 and hired
Wendall Hart as head football coach. Also that year, the first night game ever
played at Brooks Stadium took place.
In 1948, Jack Finklea replaced Harper as principal after
Harper was named the head of the Alabama High School Athletic Association.
Evergreen’s new gym, which was named Memorial Gym, was first used for
basketball during the 1948-49 season, starting after the Christmas holidays
that year.
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The tenth week of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em
contest is history, and the standings at the end of this week show that Glennis
Curry remained in sole possession of first place for the fifth week in a row.
Steve Stacey remained in second place for the second
straight week, and Mike Dailey went from fifth place to third place. Mark
Peacock dropped from third place to fourth place, and Rickey Powell dropped from
third place to fifth place.
Sharon Peacock and Rod Sims were tied for the sixth-place
spot. They were both tied for fifth place last week. Johnny Davis went from
ninth place to eighth place.
Arthur Ingram III and Ricky Taylor finished the week in a
tie for ninth place. Ingram was in tenth place last week, and Ricky was in
eighth place.
If you’re playing this local contest and didn’t finish in
the Top 10, don’t fret. This contest will run for four more weeks, and it’s a
marathon not a sprint. You’ll find that the standings will change a lot over
the next month.
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In
the SEC this week, there are four head-to-head games between conference
opponents on Saturday and two other games involving SEC schools. For what it’s
worth, here’s how I see each of those games playing out. I like Alabama over
LSU, Auburn over Texas A&M, Florida over Vanderbilt, Georgia over Kentucky,
Mississippi State over UT-Martin and Ole Miss over Presbyterian. Missouri,
South Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas do not play this week.
Last
week: 4-3. So far this season: 64-19.
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