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Sports I 'WP gSgBKi jj3BHB '» ' JH a t ' l . ft — MONEY TIME Present for the presentation oj a $1,500 check from Weyerhaeuser to the Perry Recreation Depart ment are Danny Redmond, chairman of the Perry Recre ation Commission, Jody Johnson, director oj the Recre ation Department, Perry Mayor Jim Worrall, Janet Weyerhaeuser shares $1,500 with / * Perry Recreation Department From Staff Repoktc Several members of the Perry Recre ation Commission were on hand Dee. 29 when Janet Mcßanie of the Weyer haeuser Company Foundation present ed a check for $1,500 to (he depart ment. Jody Johnson, director of the depart ment, said the funds will be used to purchase piping and materials to add an irrigation system to soccer fields at Perry struggles in holiday games with Northside By ALLINE KENT Home Journal Sports “We are stniggling right now..’we have been struggling." That was how head Panther basketball coach Carl Thomas summed up his team’s loss to Northside Dec. 30. "The struggling starts with me." "We have gone through a spell for awhile where we have been practicing well and not playing so well," Thomas said. Perry seemed to have broken their State all-time best athletes includes many famous stars Now that we've reached the end of the 1900 s, I thought it would be interesting to look back through history and look at some of the greatest athletes the state has produced over the decades True, we have to depend on sta tistics and hearsay in the case of many of our greatest athletes. Keep in mind, many of the stars who perform, or who have per formed, in Georgia weren't Geor gia natives, so they don't quality. Ty Cobb would certainly have to make the list. The Royston native is one of the all time great major league baseball players and an original member of the base ball Hall of Fame. 1 lis career bat ting average of .367 is the best in baseball history. 71 years after his retirement in 1928. Cobb help ed fund establish ment of the Ty Cobb Healthcare System in his hometown of Roys ton. At one time, the state had an official museum of Cobb memora bilia in Royston but closed it about 20 years ago during a bud get crisis. Herschel Walker used his amazing athletic ability to become perhaps the best football player ever to don the red and black at the University of Georgia. As a freshman. Walker led Georgia to the national championship, and as a junior won the Heisman tro phy as the best college football player in America. Walker enjoyed a long and successful profession al career with several teams. Bobby Jones’ credentials as the best golfer of all time are indis putable. Jones, as an amateur, entered 21 of golfs major tourna ments. and won 13 of them. He won the grand slam in 1930 and retired at the age of 28. Jones grew up in Canton where his family was in the tcxti! husi ness. The golf course then r named for him. Jones earned both Rozar Park and Creekwood Park. He said city of Perry and community volunteers would install the equipment to save on the total cost of the project. Mcßanie said the foundation was “pleased to present this check to the Perry Recreation Department." Weyerhaeuser, with a major pulp processing plant at Oglethorpe, has provided substantial donations to the department in the past. losing streak early in the game as Kris Asbury hit a trey to open the game. I’erry’s defense kept Northside from scoring until several minutes into the game. Although Northside came on strong when they started. Perry retaliated and held their own. Whenever the Eagles would tiy and pull away, the Panthers would close the gap. Until the third quarter, that is, when Northside dominated control of the ball and the scoreboard. Phil Clark Hume Journal Sports degrees from both Georgia Tech and Harvard, where he earned a law degree. He co-founded the Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament. Wyomia Tytis of Griffin is one of the most remarkable athletes ever to come from the state, lyus was the first runner ever to win back to back Olympic Gold medals in the 100-meter dash, winning in 1964 in Tokyo and in 1968 in Mexico City. Fran Tarkenton, who was still called Francis when he played at Athens High School and the Uni versity of Georgia, helped lead the Bulldogs to the 1959 Southeast ern Conference championship. He went on to lead the Minnesota Vikings to three Super Bowls, although his team lost all three. When he retired in 1975, Tarkenton was the NFL’s all time passing leader, and because of his scrambling ability, was the all time rushing leader among quar terbacks. Paul Anderson of Toccoa looked like anything but ari athlete with his short, bulky frame, but in 1954 he became the first person to exceed 1,000 pounds in the Olympic lift. Anderson set world records by pressing 402 pounds and jerking 425.5 pounds in 1955. Dubbed the "world’s strongest man . Aiderson used his tame to gain financial backing to establish Home Journal Photo by Jj Johnson Mcßanie of Weyerhaeuser, Bob Malone, past chairman of the Recreation Commission, Perry City Councilman Bobby Glover and Mike Hardin, a member of the Perry Recreation Commission. the Paul Aiderson Youth Home in Vidalia. Luke Appling played shortstop for the Chicago White Sox from 1930 to 1950. He owned a .310 lifetime batting average, with two American League batting titles, including his .388 in 1926, the highest by a shortstop in the cen tury! In 1984, at age 75, Appling hit a home run off Warren Spahn in one of those Cracker Jack senior all-star games! Johnny Mize of Demorest was one of my all-time favorite base ball players, with the St. Louis Cardinals, the New York Yankees and the New York Giants. Mize was a good hitter for average, with a .312 lifetime average, but he could also hit for power, leading his league in home runs on four different occasions. The left hand ed hitter was nicknamed “The Big Cat". Mel Blount of Vidalia became one of the NFL’s all time great cor nerbacks during his 14-year career with the Pittsburgh Steel ers. Teammate Jack Ham once said of Blount, “if you were to design a prototype for an NFL cornerback. you'd use Mel Blount". Blount was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame his first year of eligi bility. Bill Elliot of Dawsonville was the dominant NASCAR driver dur ing the mid-80s. Earning the nickname "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville", Elliot won the 1985 Winston Million and the 1988 Winston Cup points champi onship. He won 40 NASCAR races. Roger Kingdom of Vienna was a football and track star in the early 80s. He earned a scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, but when he was redshirted as a freshman, he gave up football to concentrate on track. K > '■p | _- ■' Page 5 Wed., Jan. 5,2000 Perry Mayor Jim Worrall said, “Wey erhaeuser has been a consistent sup porter of the recreational complex for many years and we very much appreci ate their donation." Weyerhaeuser employs several Per ryans at the Flint River Operations plant. The company has some 400 workers at the Oglethorpe plant. Wey erhaeuser will celebrate 100 years as a company Jan. 18. Thomas called Northside, “easily the best team we have played against this season Andrew Scogin continued his scoring lead for the Panthers, picking up 18 points in the contest. Michael Robin son added 13 of his own. Region play resumes this week with Panthers starting a string of region games including Dodge County on Jan. 7 at home. See PANTHERS, Page 6 Houston Him Jams! Reporter finds fun atmosphere at Perry Panther practice session By ALLINE KENT Horn JouajtM. 8t»o«Ta Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon, I spent watching Coach Carl Thomas take his Perry High Panthers through their drills during one of their reg ular prac tices before region play resumes this week. I had pret ty much fig ured how practice would unfold; a lot of hollering and screaming about past mistakes, a lot of kids hanging their heads down low after being bawled out. What 1 saw was nothing like that. Thomas and his two assistants. Coaches Hardy and Sherwood, seemed to have only one goal on their minds , to bring out the best in their players. Period. Yes, they play Dodge Jan. 7. Yes, this is a Perry team that has had more successful seasons. But the emphasis seemed to be on improving the kids game without much mention of past failures. The players entered the gym and spent the first 20 minutes or so on their own without their coaches even in the gym. 1 was ready for intense. 1 was ready for seri ous work. What I got to watch was “fun.” The young men were laughing, smiling, even jok ing around with each other. They spent the time applauding each others skills, and as teen-agers will, applauding themselves. They laughed at their mistakes. 'lTiey showed off a little for each other. They had fun. When Thomas entered the gym, the attitude in the gym didn't cease. Although he spent some time in seri ous conversation about upcoming games and goals for the team, the manner was still low-key and play ful. The players returned to The decision was a good one for Kingdom. He won the Olympic gold medal in the 110 meter hur dles in 1984 and 1988, the first back-to-back winner in the event since 1960. He set the world record in the event in 1989. King dom still holds the Georgia High School Association state record for class AA schools in both the 100 hurdles (13.7) and high jump (610"), both set in 1981. The fieldhouse at Dooly County High School in Vienna is named for Kingdom. William Andrews of Thomasville went on to an outstanding career at Auburn before joining the Atlanta Falcons, where he became a crowd favorite. Andrews rushed for more than 1.000 yards during four different seasons, but earned his reputation as one of the most punishing blockers in Falcon his tory. Buford's Cindy Brogdon was one of the best high school bas ketball players ever produced in the state. Brogdon began her col lege career at Mercer, but trans ferred to the University of Ten nessee where she was a three time All-American. Another of the state's best bas ketball players was Cairo's Teresa Edwards. She was an All-Ameri can at Georgia, has been a mem ber of the U.S. Womens' team for 16 years, and if she makes the 2000 Olympic team, Edwards would become the first basketball player to appear in five Olympics! Louise Suggs is simply the best golfer ever to play the game. She won 14 titles as an amateur before dominating the profession al ranks. Suggs was a founder of the LPGA and a charter member of it's Hall of Fame after winning 50 LPGA events including eight majors! Suggs is also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Atlanta native Marty Marion. the floor and continued practicing shots taking along with them their good natured attitude. They did the things that you expect to see at basket ball practice and they did them as a team. There didn’t seem to be much emphasis on starters and nonstarters. Thomas expected and got the same level of determina tion and participation from each young man there. Thomas took the players through their offense, begin ning with his starters, but began substituting almost immediately. I was very impressed with how the young men who were not on the floor were studying the moves of the ones that were while hanging on to every word of their coaches. The longer the kids were out on the floor, the more intense the practice became. The mood elevated as the kids got tougher and played better. You could see the change of emo tion in their faces, you could see it in the way they played. It seemed to me, as I watched the team, that those three coaches had much higher goals than a winning basketball season and making it to the state tournament. Here were men who wanted to help develop better students and finer citizens. Basketball was just a means to the end. After the practice was over, I got an opportunity to speak with Ramon Foster, a junior on the team. This is Foster's first year as a play er after spending last year as one of the managers. His comments on the practice and the Panther team prob ably summed my own thoughts better than any thing 1 could write. “For us, practice is full speed the whole time. There no trips to the foul line, no time outs. We are at con stant movement. “As a team, we have a clear mind and a will to win. We are all real good friends and stick together. All we want to do is put Perry on the map. All of us" BP» -■- **"**■' Jf£s9i Kent who played at Tech High and Oglethorpe University, became one of the best shortstops in major league history. Nicknamed "Mr. Shortstop" while enjoying a long career with the St. Louis Car dinals, Marion was an eight-time all-star, and won the National League MVP award in 1944. Marion was also known by his friends and teammates as “Slats" because of his slim, 6’5" frame. Griffin’s Jesse Tuggle is a great example of getting the most out of your ability. After being named his team’s MVP in high school, Tuggle was a three-time all-con ference player at Valdosta State University. As a member of the Atlanta Falcons, Tuggle has been among the best linebackers in the NFL, and is the leading tackier among active NFL players. Aitonio McKay was another of those high school track phenoms who went on to further stardom. Mckay was a member of the U.S. Olympic gold medal winning 1600 meter relay team in both 1984 and 1988, and like Kingdom, still holds a couple of Georgia High School Association records for class AA schools. He set the 200-meter record of 21.4 and the 400-meter record of 46.98 while running for Roosevelt High School in 1982. W.L. “Young” Stribling of Bain bridge won 225 fights as a profes sional. losing 13 with 15 draws. A member of the International Box ing Hall of Fame, Stribling’s biggest moment of glory came in 1931 when he lost to Max Schmeling for the world heavy weight championship. Stribling boxed out of Macon. Finally, I think I would include Norm Nixon of Macon, one of Southwest Macon's all time greats. Nixon played 10 years in See CLARK, page 6