what a class it is.
Which leads to a list of Did You Knows about the seven who will be present at the
banquet on Thursday night at 6 at Southland Park:
Did you know that:
--- There will be one (Mike McCoy and his wife Janette) coming from Colorado, one (Ike
Harris) coming from Atlanta and another (Ann Carpenter, widow of inductee Lewis Carpenter)
coming from the state of Texas?
--- The only female in the group, Sonja Tate, recorded the rare quadruple double, the only
one in Arkansas State University history, when she scored 29 points, grabbed 14 rebounds,
dished out 10 assists and stole 10 balls in ASU's 86-59 win at Mississippi Valley State on Jan.
27, 1993?
---- Among the many things most West Memphians don't know about Lewis Carpenter is
that in his 10 years as a player in the NFL he was once the No. 3 quarterback for the Green Bay
Packers under the legendary Vince Lombardi? And that the No. 1 QB was Bart Starr? And that at
the very same time he was in the starting backfield as a halfback? And that playing beside him
were Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor?
---- Is that anything like being in the same batting order as Ruth and Gehrig?
--- That Marcus Brown once blocked Michael Jordan's shot in an NBA exhibition game
at the old Pyramid? And that in an attempt to defuse the situation Jordan told Brown on the way
back down the court that he let him do it?
--- How many of you really believe that?
--- That Reginald Jones, of football fame with the University of Memphis, New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns, also ran track for the U of M?
--- That McCoy was coached by fellow inductee Carpenter in the NFL with the Packers in the mid-1970s? Talk about fate...
--- That Bill Terwilliger was quite a player himself back in the day? He was an all-state forward for Fort Smith High School and that his picture is hanging in the foyer at Fort Smith Northside High School in his old Grizzlies uniform?
--- Not only that, but Terwilliger was a terror of a player in the old Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference for Arkansas State Teachers College? And that one of his teammates was John Robinson, who later was head coach at Blytheville High School in the mid-1970s?
--- That Tate was squared off in her senior year at West Memphis High against who was then thought of as the consensus top player in the state in Hot Springs' Sha Hopson? And that Tate dogged her all night, clearly winning the individual battle as well as leading her Lady Devils to a quarterfinal state tournament win in 1989?
--- That Jones signed with the University of Arkansas out of high school and played one season as a running back for Ken Hatfield's Razorbacks in 1987?
--- Carpenter had three NFL title/Super Bowl rings? In 1961 and 1962 as a player under Lombardi and then in 1968 when he was a Packers assistant under Lombardi in the team's 38-14 win over Oakland in Super Bowl II?
--- That Harris considered himself more of a basketball player in his Blue Devil days?
--- That Brown twice was a seven-foot high jumper in track and field? He did it for the Blue Devils in state competition and then did it again as a member of the Murray State track team.
--- That Tate, Carpenter and Brown are already inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame and that Terwilliger is in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association HOF?
--- That Jones' nickname in high school was Iceman? And that he played one season at the U of M with his younger brother Russell, who was a receiver under head coach Chuck Stobart?
Space limitations don't allow me to go any further, although I could. But as a West Memphian, or Crittenden Countian all of you should know something about all these inductees. You get a chance to see it all at the banquet.
Tickets are still available at the West Memphis School District's Administrative Office for $25.
- By Billy Woods, WM School District
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