EMCC - Athletics: Sports, News, Players, and Coaches. Go Lions! - EMCC to honor 2010 Sports Hall of Fame inductees during homecoming weekend

SCOOBA – As part of East Mississippi Community College’s homecoming festivities this weekend (Oct. 15-16) in Scooba, eight new members will be officially inducted into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame.

EMCC’s 2010 Sports Hall of Fame inductees will be honored on the Scooba campus with a Friday night reception and banquet. The eight-member class is also scheduled to be recognized Saturday afternoon at midfield prior to the Lions’ 2 p.m. homecoming football contest against Pearl River. Saturday’s inter-divisional gridiron battle will take place at EMCC’s Sullivan-Windham Field.

The 2010 class of the EMCC Sports Hall of Fame consists of: EMCC President Emeritus Clois Cheatham (Preston); the late Don Darby (DeKalb); the late Leon Garner (Avon Park, Fla./Ackerman); the late Roy Knapp (Mobile, Ala.); Jack Newell (DeKalb); Langston Rogers (Calhoun City); Fred Scoggins (Leroy, Ala.); and Jim Scribner (Martinez, Calif./Sturgis).

In addition, East Mississippi Community College will also honor the school’s 2010 Alumnus of the Year recipient (Kenard Sharp) and Distinguished Service Award winner (Max Johnson) this weekend in Scooba. The public is invited to attend a luncheon honoring Sharp and Johnson Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at EMCC’s Keyes T. Currie Coliseum on the Scooba campus. They are also slated to be recognized during halftime activities of Saturday afternoon’s EMCC-Pearl River homecoming football contest.

For additional information on these upcoming events, please contact the EMCC Development Foundation Office at 662-476-5063 or visit the school’s website at www.eastms.edu.

2010 EAST MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY COLLEGE SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

CLOIS CHEATHAM (Preston) – Preston native Clois Cheatham served as East Mississippi’s school president from 1976 until 1987, during which the Scooba campus benefitted from many construction projects, including the opening of EMCC’s Keyes T. Currie Coliseum. Prior to his decade-long administrative stint at the school, Cheatham served as a chemistry instructor at EMCC and later became chairman of the science department. As a college freshman, Cheatham was a member of head coach Keyes T. Currie’s East Mississippi basketball team. He was later instrumental in bringing back women’s basketball to the school’s sports program in serving as the team’s head coach during the program’s return to full-time status.

DON DARBY (DeKalb) – The late Don Darby ranked as the Lions’ leading scorer and rebounder as a two-time all-state basketball standout during the 1956-57 and 1957-58 seasons at East Mississippi. The 6-foot-5 center also served as a team co-captain for head coach Keyes T. Currie’s EMJC Lions after a successful prep career as a three-sport letterman (basketball, football and baseball) at DeKalb High School. Darby passed away in 1980 at the age of 44 following a bout with lung cancer.

LEON GARNER (Avon Park, Fla./Ackerman) – The late Leon “Gip” Garner was a two-year football letterman (1951-52) for East Mississippi Hall of Fame coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan. The former Ackerman High School standout went on to enjoy a stellar two-year career at Delta State, where he quarterbacked DSU to the school’s first undefeated season in 1954. A 1984 inductee into Delta State’s Sports Hall of Fame, Garner had a productive 34-year career in the education field as a football coach and school administrator. Having moved to Florida in 1969, he was working as the coordinator of personnel for the Highlands County Schools in Sebring (Fla.) at the time of his death in 1989 at the age of 55.

ROY KNAPP (Mobile, Ala.) – The late Roy Knapp registered some 250 victories over five decades serving as a high school and junior college football coach in the neighboring states of Alabama and Mississippi. After a two-year playing stint (1939-40) as an all-state back at East Mississippi, Knapp later returned to the Scooba campus to serve as the Lions’ head football coach for three seasons (1953-55) in between Hall of Fame coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan’s pair of coaching stints at EMJC. Following a successful coaching career at various Alabama high schools, Knapp was posthumously selected to the Cherokee County Hall of Fame in 2005 and remains under strong consideration for induction into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Sports Hall of Fame.

JACK NEWELL (DeKalb) – Nicknamed “Snake” by East Mississippi’s legendary head football coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan, Jack Newell was tabbed captain of the Lions’ special teams units as a freshman and capped his two-year EMJC career (1966-67) by playing in the Mississippi junior college all-star game. Newell went on to Delta State to earn his undergraduate degree in physical education/social studies and begin his long-time career as a certified driver’s education instructor at DeKalb’s West Kemper High School, Meridian High School and within the Choctaw Tribal School District. While at West Kemper, Newell spent 20 years as an assistant football coach before succeeding Billy Brown as head coach. Newell also coached varsity basketball and baseball for several years at WKHS.

LANGSTON ROGERS (Calhoun City) – Langston Rogers got his award-winning communications career in intercollegiate athletics started on the East Mississippi campus. Brought onboard by Hall of Fame football coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan, the Calhoun City native earned a baseball scholarship to EMJC. While serving as the Lions’ publicity director and team statistician for two years (1962-63), Rogers was also the editor of the school newspaper, The Collegian. Rogers moved on to Delta State, where he played baseball for Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Dave “Boo” Ferriss. After a 17-year stint at his alma mater working first as DSU’s director of publicity and later as the school’s first full-time sports information director, Rogers spent the past 29 years supervising the Ole Miss athletics media relations office until his recent retirement.

FRED SCOGGINS (Leroy, Ala.) – A native of Leroy, Ala., Fred “Tick” Scoggins was a starting lineman for head coach Roy Knapp’s East Mississippi football teams during the 1954 and 1955 seasons. Scoggins continued his education and football playing career at Livingston (Ala.) University (now University of West Alabama), where he was a two-year starting lineman (1956-57) for the Tigers. Upon graduation from Livingston in 1958, Scoggins began a 30-year career in education as well as with the Army National Guard. Earning his master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Alabama, Scoggins served administrative stints in the Clarke County and Washington County school systems prior to retiring from the education field in 1987.

JIM SCRIBNER (Martinez, Calif./Sturgis) – A member of Sturgis High School football teams that lost only one game over a three-year span, Jim Scribner played center and linebacker for head football coach Roy Knapp at East Mississippi during the 1953 and 1954 seasons. Following his stint on the Scooba campus and serving two years in Pearl Harbor with the United States Navy, Scribner returned to Mississippi and worked as the justice court judge for District Four in Oktibbeha County. He later spent some 20 years working as the transportation supervisor for the Oktibbeha County School System. Now retired, Scribner currently resides in Martinez, Calif.