Thursday, November 6, 2014

Readers clear up mystery over the location of Gantt Field in Evergreen

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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