Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Evergreen Courant's Sports Flashback for July 31, 2014

Evergreen's Ottis Johnson
37 YEARS AGO
JULY 31, 1977

“These youngsters took part in Red Cross approved swimming lessons at the Murphy Club with Mrs. Fred (Alice) Stevens as instructor: IV Wolff, Jeff Brundage, Cynthia Pugh, Meredith Wilson, Dawn Baggett, Stacy Holmes, Kim Brooks, Amy Hendricks, Kenny Bledsoe, Abbie Till and Truman Hyde; Harold Jeffers, advanced beginner, David Jeffers, Donnie Jeffers, advanced beginners Leanne Wall, Rodney Pugh and Michael Bledsoe, and Tracy Holmes, Page Whatley and Kelly Whatley. Rob Stuart was not present when the picture was taken.”

“Peacock drowning shocks all county: The drowning Monday afternoon of Jerry Willard Peacock, 18, shocked this entire county.
“Jerry was a popular member of this year’s graduating class at Sparta Academy. He was an outstanding athlete and student and took an active part in all school and extra-curricular activities.”

52 YEARS AGO
JULY 26, 1962

“Sr. League Stars To Play Tonight: Evergreen Senior League President Byron Warren Sr. has announced that the League’s All-Star Game will be played at 7 p.m. Thursday night, July 26. Members of the champion Braves and the fourth-place Indians will oppose members of the second-place Tigers and the third-place Pirates. Each team will have 15 members.
“The Braves-Indians combination will be composed of Claude Aaron, Ronnie Jackson, Sammy Brown, Johnny Brown, Larry Ellis, Terry Coleman, Eddie Moseley and Grover Jackson of the Braves, and Jimmy Warren, Bob Ivey, Jimmy Ellis, Mike Minninger, Jimmy Weaver, Stan Coker and Paul Deason.
“The Tigers-Pirates aggregate includes Sid Lambert, Joe Sasser, Willie Mack Pate, Mitch Kilpatrick, Mike Fields, Wayne Tolbert, ‘Bubba’ Faulkner and Calvin Smith of the Tigers, and Benny Burt, Robert Rigsby, Steve Baggett, Scott Cook, Ronnie Hayes, George Fontaine and Eddie Thornley of the Pirates.
“The players were chosen by League officials.”

“EHS Loses Ramsey To Brookwood Hi; Allmon Is Named: Lewis Ramsey, assistant football coach and head baseball coach at Evergreen High School this past year, has resigned to accept a position as head coach at Brookwood High School, Tuscaloosa.
“The announcement is made today by Principal Morris Ward and Head Coach John Law Robinson. Both state that they regret very much to lose the services of Coach Ramsey, but at the same time rejoice in his promotion.
“Principal Ward termed Ramsey an excellent coach and fine teacher and said that he had rendered valuable service to the school program here.
“Robinson said that he had enjoyed working with Ramsey and found him to be not only a fine man in his profession, but also a wonderful leader of youth. Ramsey has worked in the city recreation program this summer concentrating on the junior and senior baseball programs.
“A new assistant has been named although he has not yet been officially confirmed by the County Board of Education. He is Fred Allmon, a 1962 graduate of Livingston State College.”

67 YEARS AGO
JULY 31, 1947

“Greenies Take Loop Lead; Play Here Today: By virtue of two victories last week, the Evergreen Greenies moved into first place with a slim lead of 1-1/2 games. With only nine games remaining to be played, the Greenies will have to hustle all the way in order to stay on top, since Atmore and Flomaton are still in striking distance.
“Atmore will furnish the opposition for the Greenies Thursday in a twin bill at Brooks Stadium. Manager Hart (11-2) and Edsel Johnson (4-0) are slated to start for the locals while ‘Root’ Lowery will send ‘Lefty” Vickery and Charlie Lowery to the mound for the visitors. Manager Dick Fore will bring his rejuvenated Flomaton nine to two for the week’s second doubleheader and will probably call on Gatlin and Vickery to handle the pitching chores. Manager Hart had not named his starters when this paper went to press. Game time for both Thursday and Sunday is two o’clock.
“Edsel Johnson ran his winning streak to four games last week as the Greenies came from behind in the last inning to down a stubborn Monroeville outfit, 5-4. Trailing 4-0 as the final stanza came around, the Greenies stated a five-run rally after Tolbert had lined to short for the first out. Carpenter started the fire works with a double and took third on Floyd’s muff of a grounder by White. Harper walked and McDonald grounded out to first, scoring Carpenter. Bolton then drew a free pass to fill the bases with two outs. Whit two strikes against him, Ottis Johnson, lined a base-cleaning triple into left field that tied the score. A single by Edsel Johnson drove in the winning tally and the ball game. Ottis and Edsel Johnson and Wade Nobles shared the batting honors with two bingles each.
“The Greenies came from behind again in the last frame of Sunday’s contest to rack up their twentieth win of the season against six setbacks. With two outs and nobody on board, Greenies started a five-run rally after Newell, Atmore shortstop, made a bad throw of Carpenter’s easy bounder. Edsel Johnson drove a single out into short right field and Carpenter held up at third. Ottis Johnson’s Texas Leaguer into left field cleared the bases and gave the Greenies a one-run margin. Carpenter and Ottis Johnson were the big offensive guns for the Greenies with four safeties equally divided between them while Edsel stole his eighth base of the season.”

82 YEARS AGO
JULY 28, 1932

“Evergreen Defeats Greenville 5 To 4 (From Greenville Advocate): What was probably one of the best ball games of the season was played on Black’s Field last Thursday when Evergreen defeated Greenville, 5-4. Greenville’s team made several errors in the first part of the game which were responsible for the first two scores made by Evergreen. With the exception of the errors made in the first few innings Greenville played ‘heads-up’ baseball. Evergreen also played a very good game. Greenville made 10 hits against Evergreen’s six. On the other hand the locals made six errors to the visitor’s three.
“Claude Dees, pitching for Greenville, played a game that would be a credit to anybody’s ball team. He struck out 14 men, got one hit, and made one run. He made two putouts and five assists.
“Tom Melton, Greenville’s catcher, played a very good game.
“Edward Howard, playing in left field, was in the game from the start. It was hit two-bagger in the fifth that brought Jones in for one of Greenville’s four scores.
“Claude Wilson, playing in center field, made one put out and one hit. He also got a free trip to first, being hit by a pitched ball.
“Willie Black, first baseman, played a good, consistent game, being credited with 10 put outs.
“Joe Stewart at second made two of the longest hits of the afternoon, both being good for two bases. Another time at the bat he hit a ball that fouled just out of the left field. This ball was the longest hit of the afternoon, and, had it been fair it would have been good for a home run.
“Foots Brown did good work at shortstop. He got two hits and made one run. Joe Hartley, in right field, got one hit. Sam Jones, at third, got two hits and made one run.
“The players in the field didn’t get a chance to enter into many of the plays as Dees allowed so few to be hit at all and only a very few went to the outfield.
“The Evergreen team, like the Greenville boys, all played a good game. Hyde pitched for the visitors and struck out six, allowing 10 hits. Moorer, shortstop, was outstanding in the infield. He was responsible for two put outs and six assists. Moorer made one run. Gaston, center field, made two, but didn’t get a hit. Dunn, first base, put out 12 men, got one hit and one run. Hansen, second base, got one hit, as did Gaston, third base and Northcutt, right fielder.
“Even though the breaks seemed to go against Greenville, the game was a clean, hard fought one, and one that pleased the fans.”

97 YEARS AGO
JULY 25, 1917

“Miss Roberta Johnston spent last week fishing down on the coast of Florida.”

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