Coach Connie McKelvey was longest-serving football coach in Wilcox County High School history

Coach Connie McKelvey

Barnett Field in Camden was the place to be on Friday, March 23, 1951 when the Camden High School Tigers played their annual “Blue & White” intra-squad game to wrap up spring football practice. In its day, this game was a big deal and merited front-page coverage in The Wilcox Progressive Era.

Under the headline, “Blue-White Grid Game Here Tomorrow Night,” the newspaper on the day before the big game reported that this “affair is always bitterly contested, for the boys are battling for starting positions on next fall’s varsity, and are anxious to show what they can do under pressure. The teams are evenly matched and both squads are sure of a victory.”

The blue squad planned to run from the Straight T-Formation offense, while the white team planned to operate out of the Wing-T. WCHS head coach Connie McKelvey promised fans “plenty of fireworks and two hustling squads that will go from the kickoff to the final gun.” Oddly, the game wasn’t scheduled to kick off until 8:30 p.m., which is an hour and a half later than most high school football games start nowadays.

Starting lineups for the two teams were as follows: Blue Team members included left end James Andrews, left tackle McCown Cook, left guard Mickey Tait, center Jimmy Rowell, right guard John Paul Bigger, right tackle Gene Weathers, right end Johnny Newberry, quarterback Wayne Bickham, left halfback Bill Chestnut, right halfback Buck Dobson and fullback John Espy. Players on the White Team included left end Lloyd Parsons, left tackle Ben Sanders, left guard Joe Ross, center John Harvell, right guard Tap Sadler, right tackle Clip Albritton, right end Bill Morgan, quarterback Richard Luker, left halfback Jimmy Brock, right halfback Rex Middleton and fullback Charles Gaston.

Despite the build-up for this big game, no story about how it turned out was published in the following week’s paper. It’s possible that it was cancelled due to bad weather and never played.

Spring practice that March helped Camden get ready for the 1951 regular season, which saw the Tigers go 4-6 overall. They opened the season on Sept. 14 with a loss at Florala, but they bounced back to win their home-opener the following week with a 39-0 blowout win over Dallas County. Camden went on to beat Beatrice (26-0), Uniontown (14-7) and Greenville’s B team (18-14) later that season.

The 1951 season was the fifth season for Coach McKelvey at WCHS. McKelvey coached a total of 13 seasons at WCHS (1947-1959), making him the longest-serving football coach in the school’s history. He went on to coach six seasons at Wilcox Academy, serving from 1970 to 1975.

McKelvey’s full name was Cornelius Clifton “Connie” McKelvey, and he was born in Selma in September 1924. Before getting into teaching and coaching, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He eventually passed away at the age of 75 in May 2000, and he is buried in Selma’s Live Oak Cemetery.

In the end, all of this leaves us with several questions. How did the 1951 Blue & White game turn out? Who was Barnett Field named after and where was it located? Are any of the players mentioned above still around? If anyone in the reading audience knows, let me hear from you.