1982-1986

At E.C.J .C.... Restoration is no-w coinplete----

One usually thinks of restoration as rebuilding an old house, touching up a damaged painting, or putting an old 11'Cit0mobile in perfect condition. 1 At East Central Junior College, the word restoration can be applied to the cleaning, repair, and reorganization of the photographs, trophies, and memorabilia honoring ECJC's athletes. In 196S, the ECJC Alumni Associa– tion undertook the task of finding a way to honor these athletes who had excell– ed during their careers at the coliege. Photographs of these "stars" were framed and hung in the coaches' offices of what is now called the old gym– nasium. Later the photos were moved to the Physical Education Building or new gym, but were unorganized, faded, and tom. Now, due to the work of a committee recently appointed by Dr. Eddie Smith, ECJC president, 164 8xl0 photographs of ECJC's most outstanding athletes hang, chronologically arranged, in the lobby of the new gym. Lucille Wood, committee chairman, said, "It was decided the guidelines for being included in this group of honorees would be that the individual must have been selected as a member .of the All– State, All-Region, or All-American first team in football, basketball, or baseball, or the athlete must have been a state win– ner in tennis or golf." Wood added, "The pictures were in terrible shape, some of them were miss– ing, and they were in no,. particular order." Wood, along with committee members Sammy Pace, Larry Gressett, and A.J. Kilpatrick, began, in March

1986, cleaning the old photograpns and searching for information concerning those athletes whose pictures had never been displayed. Most of the research for this project was done by Wood who also engaged Ann and Roger Burkes of Decatur to copy, from annuals and old newspapers, photographs that were unavailable. Mrs. Burkes said, "It was a difficult job because some of the annual pictures were no more than three-fourths of an inch by one inch square." "Some of the old photos would have three or four people in them, and we would only need an 8x10 of one per– son," she said. Burkes and her husband spent about 80 hours on the project. Also, Barbara Deaton and Gloria Rigdon, college secretaries, typed all of the name labels that accompany the photos, while Larry Blackburn, cabinetry instructor, cut wooden blocks used to support some of the framed memorabilia. "It is an asset to our college to have the prints arranged this way because ,visitors to the campus will be able to en– joy them," Wood said. The group of athletes displayed begin with some members of the 1936 ECJC women's basketball team and the 1936 football team. Other honorees from the five county area included in the group of photos are ~ootball all-stars Lamar Blount of Decatur; the late Bill Baucum, a native of Newton; Freddie Bagley, Forest; Steve Breeland, Philadelphia; Eddie Ware, Carthage; and Timmy Irons, Union.

Among the men's basketball all-stars pictured in the gym is the late Howard Sessums, Harperville; Richard Harris, Hickory; and Wayne Tullos, Arlington; while the women's basketball all-staters include Evelyn Bender, Newton; Esther Thomas, Louisville; and Diana Lyons, Neshoba Central. Lamar Buntyn of Morton is honored as an all-state tennis winner, while Roy Baker of Louisville and Joel Nelson of Newton are featured as outstanding athletes in track and golf. Other honorees such as past winners of the Alumni Memorial Awards are displayed, and a brief history of the col– lege is shown, while drawings of the women's basketball players scoring 1000 points during their EC careers are also shown. The drawings were done by students in the art department. The trophies displayed in the gym have been cleaned and rearranged, and framed news articles and team pictures have been· added to accompany the trophies. The news articles and pictures were added to give an explanation of the teams that played and the places where the trophies were won. "We have photographs of every previous head coach too," Wood said, "and I hope we will one day be able to include these with the collection." The committee chairman concluded by saying no other junior college iri the state has its outstanding athletes displayed in such a unique way. Visitors to the ECJC campus and those who attend basketball games will now be able to enjoy a graphic presen– tation of athletic events and outstanding athletes which are a part of the college's history.

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