When did the ‘Monroe County Educators’ appear in The Journal?

The 'Monroe County Educators' basketball team.

It’s said that a picture says a thousand words, but sometimes it doesn’t tell us everything we want to know.

Monroe County Commissioner Billy Ghee dropped by The Monroe Journal office one day last week with an old newspaper clipping that featured a basketball team known as the Monroe County Educators. The undated clipping said that the team was scheduled to play the All-Americans at Patrick Henry Junior College in Monroeville. Ghee, who many of us know from his school-teaching days and from officiating local sports, said that he couldn’t remember when the photo was taken, and he wants help determining when the picture was shot.

Monroe County Educators players in the photo included James Allen, Keith Cardwell, Billy Ghee, Bobby Marshall, Hubert Payne, George Preyear, Lester Scott, William Stallworth and Terry Wilkerson. Those not pictured included Jimmy Dale Dawson, Curtis Harris, Sam Hollingsworth, Gary Lambert and Johnny Pleasant. Monroe Journal photographer Aaron White took the original photo.

I posted the picture on Facebook Friday morning to see if anyone might be able to shed light on when the picture was taken, and I received a wide variety of interesting responses. However no one knew for sure when the picture was taken.

Lester Scott said the photo brought back good memories, and he joked that it was taken just before he joined the Globetrotters. He said the All-Americans were the Big Bam All-American team organized by the WBAM radio station in Montgomery. The Monroe County Educators won their first game against the All-Americans, but lost a second game that was played at a later day.

Aaron White, who is now retired in Excel, said that he remembered taking the picture, but he couldn’t remember the year. He did remember that the photo was taken inside the old Monroe County Coliseum, which was torn down years ago. Aaron said he watched many games in the coliseum and remembers it well.

Jimmy Dale Dawson of Excel, who lettered in football at Alabama, said that the photo was likely taken in 1975, 1976 or 1977 because those were the only years that he taught school. His best guess was that the picture was probably taken in the spring of 1976.

Mark Murphy from Excel wondered if the picture was taken before 1974 because his father, Cecil M. Murphy, taught school with the men in the photo. In 1974, James Allen was Monroe County’s Superintendent of Education, and Cecil Murphy was principal at Frisco City High School. Terry Wilkerson was named principal at Monroeville Elementary School, and Sam Hollingsworth was named principal at Monroe County High School.

Mark Murphy’s parents went to teach in Atmore in 1976, and Herbert Payne soon followed them to Atmore. Mark said that his father was probably still teaching Ag at Monroe County High when the picture was taken.

Richard Anderson, who went on to teach and coach at Frisco City High School, noted that Keith Cardwell and Lester Scott both coached him in middle and junior high school. His best guess was that the picture was taken in the early 1970s, between 1972 and 1974.

In the end, if anyone knows when the photo was originally published in The Journal, please let me know by emailing news@monroejournal.com. Not only will this put a smile on Billy Ghee’s face, but it will also satisfy the curiosity of everyone who saw the photo online.