The Evergreen Courant's Sports Flashback for March 15, 2021

Tom Neville of Montgomery 

15 YEARS AGO

MARCH 16, 2006

The Sparta Academy power lifting team competed in the state power lifting meet on March 8, 2006 at Pickens Academy. Winners in their weight class were Chase Brown and Gaston Bozeman. Pictured are Myles Wiggins, Erik Morris, Callahan Bush, Patrick Stoddard, Peyton Thompson, Chase Brown, Casey Pierce, Zack Smith, Gaston Bozeman and Perry Thompson.

Hillcrest High School’s 6-7 senior forward Chris Hines has been named to the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s all-star basketball team.
Hines and his Alabama all-star teammates will compete against the Mississippi all-stars March 24.
Hines led the Jaguars to the school’s first ever state championship earlier this month when the team defeated Anniston’s Saks High School, 35-32, in overtime in Birmingham.
Along with being named the most valuable player in the Final Four tournament, Hines was also named most valuable player in the Southeast Regional tournament in Troy.

T.R. Miller head baseball coach Jim Hart reached a milestone in his career recently when he collected his 200th career win.

He is the son of Jerry Hart of Evergreen and the late Wendell Hart, who coached many years at Evergreen High School.

25 YEARS AGO

MARCH 21, 1996

World Champion Turkey Caller Eddie Salter has done it again. On March 12, Eddie won the Buck Burns Memorial Turkey Calling Contest in Tuscaloosa. Eddie has won numerous turkey calling contests over the years, including the World Championship twice, the Alabama State Championship five times and the Southern Open Championship six times.

Hillcrest High School finished in fifth place in the 1996 Monroe County Bench Press Meet held Sat., March 16.

Individual results were as follows:

100-pound class: Ben Hunter, benched 85 pounds, second place; Donnie Campbell, benched 75 pounds, fourth place; Nathanie Ray, benched 70 pounds, fifth place.

115-pound class: Marquis Straughn, benched 105 pounds, third place; Ronald Grace, benched 85 pounds, fourth place.

130-pound class: Robert Burt, benched 190 pounds, third place.

205-pound class: Wesley Fountain, benched 325 pounds, second place.

The Hillcrest girls track team finished in first place and the Hillcrest boys finished in fourth place in a track meet held March 12 at Hillcrest.

(Hillcrest’s girls 400-meter relay and 3,200-meter relay teams captured first place in those events. Members of the 400-meter relay team were Stephanie Rogers, Kristie Merrills, Tiffany Marfo and Elena King. Members of the 3,200-meter relay team were Jennifer Batchen, Wilene Cook, Monique Johnson and Elena King.)

50 YEARS AGO

MARCH 18, 1971

Pro football star Tom Neville of Montgomery will be the featured speaker for the youth day services tomorrow which will climax the Spring Revival now in progress at Evergreen Baptist Church. Neville is an offensive tackle for the Boston Patriots. He graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery and played his college ball at Mississippi State where he graduated in 1965. He earned All Southeastern Conference honors in 1963 and 1964 and was an All-American in 1964. Tom is an active member of the Normandale Baptist Church in Montgomery and is active in youth work in his and other churches.

Turkey season open Saturday: In the wee hours of March 20, many households will be disturbed with the hurried preparation of avid turkey hunters as Alabama’s spring turkey season begins.

The gobble of the wild turkey will excite hunters in all or parts of 51 counties in Alabama during the spring season which extends from March 20 to April 26.

With the exception of the northern one-fourth of the state, Henry County, Dale County, east of U.S. Highway 231 and Baldwin County south of U.S. Highway 98, the gobbler will be fair game.

Alabama’s law permits the taking of five gobblers (no hens) during the combined fall 1970 and spring 1971 seasons.

The big ones were biting in Florida last weekend. Jerry Brundage brought home these two each of which weighed 14 pounds.

56 YEARS AGO

MARCH 18, 1965

Ronnie Shaver and this fine fat calf are a reminder that the annual Conecuh County 4-H and FFA Fat Calf Show will soon be here. The show will be held at Conecuh Cooperative Stockyard’s show arena next month. Ronnie and his calf which took Reserve Champion honors in last year’s show are featured on the current calendar of the Evergreen’s FFA Chapter. Ronnie is an outstanding member of the chapter which has Dave Fleming as advisor.

74 YEARS AGO

MARCH 20, 1947

Hunter Kills Big Deer; Excitement Too Much: JAMESTOWN, N.Y. – Delae E. Johns shot a deer, then excitedly shouted: “I got him… I got him.”

Relatives on a hunting trip with Johns at nearby Ellery Center rushed up to view the kill. They found the hunter dead. Jones had died of a heart attack.

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Turkey Season Open Beginning Today: MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Come Thurs., March 20, and the turkey hunters will be in their glory – that’s when Alabama’s annual spring turkey hunting or gobbling season opens. These hunters are in a class unto themselves. Fanatical about their sport as the best girl is about her hair-do, they will leave home long before daylight, sit quiet as a church mouse for hours on end in the wildest kind of woods while they turn female impersonators and try to lure the wily old gobbler within shooting distance with allegedly seductive turkey hen calls on box, leaf, turkey bone or mouth callers.

Only one gobbler a day may be killed and bag limit of five for the season must include those killed in both the fall and spring seasons. Hunters will have until April 15 to prove their ability to outwit the suspicious old gobblers.