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For The Charleston Tiger Fans that doesn’t know but would like to...

Started by YC, October 14, 2010, 02:45:05 pm

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YC

Quote from: GBattack on November 06, 2015, 03:32:30 pm
Charleston became one of only 2000 schools nationwide to be named a "Super Bowl High School Honor Roll School". The NFL created the honor roll to showcase the hometown schools of Super Bowl participants. Our own Steve Cox was honored today and he matched the donation of $5000 by the NFL. It was an honor to be able to attend.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000524521/article/league-launches-super-bowl-high-school-honor-roll

Just for the record, I taught Steve all he knew about kicking...JK.

His dad kicked for one of the directional colleges in Louisiana—can't remember which one. He and his dad spent endless hours on the Alumni Stadium field during the summers. Lots and lots of practice and practice makes perfect in most cases. Steve made the statement that his dad was the best coach he ever had.

Steve was a great tight end and probably could have make it in college at that position but was such a great kicker he never got the chance.

Lineman

Of course he was way before my time, but several people talked about what a good basketball player he was. Not one person has ever had a negative thing to say about him.

YC

Quote from: Lineman on November 07, 2015, 01:41:32 pm
Of course he was way before my time, but several people talked about what a good basketball player he was. Not one person has ever had a negative thing to say about him.

He was a tremendous basketball player and probably could have made it in that sport as well.

I'm so old I only buy fully ripe bananas ;)

macadoshis

Quote from: Legend on November 07, 2015, 01:26:51 pm
Quote from: Lineman on November 07, 2015, 01:13:48 pm
Quote from: 12th Man CHS on November 07, 2015, 11:24:10 am
The irrelevant banter is the fun part of FF
Since when?
Oh thats right we arent allowed to have fun on here anymore.
No we're not allowed to make a serious post on here. If you do, simeone will make fun of you.

HorseFeathers

Quote from: macadoshis on November 07, 2015, 01:50:21 pm
Quote from: Legend on November 07, 2015, 01:26:51 pm
Quote from: Lineman on November 07, 2015, 01:13:48 pm
Quote from: 12th Man CHS on November 07, 2015, 11:24:10 am
The irrelevant banter is the fun part of FF
Since when?
Oh thats right we arent allowed to have fun on here anymore.
No we're not allowed to make a serious post on here. If you do, simeone will make fun of you.
Disagreeing with the group think on here brings the ignorance out of the woodwork

Clara Allen

I remember Cox playing in the NFL.  Thought it was cool someone from a little town in Arkansas made it big. 

YC

Something you younger Tiger fans might not know.

The regulation NFL goal post (of course high school width) was purchased and donated by Steve.

This was a great addition to add to this thread and I thank you GBattack for posting it.


Lineman

He was a few years behind my dad in school. I first met Mr. Cox at a tiger FB game many years ago. I shook his hand & couldn't believe how big his Super Bowl ring was. One of those days I'll never forget.

ChucktownTiger

Also the scoreboard in the gym. The one on the wall. Along with many other things in sure.

YC

Quote from: Lineman on November 07, 2015, 02:08:01 pm
He was a few years behind my dad in school. I first met Mr. Cox at a tiger FB game many years ago. I shook his hand & couldn't believe how big his Super Bowl ring was. One of those days I'll never forget.

Yes, and I've had that ring on my finger. It was way too big for me in more ways than one.

However I can always say I've had a super bowl ring on my finger.

ChucktownTiger

I was lucky enough to spend some time at his home when Charleston played in the state basketball tournament in Sloan Hendricks. He let us try on his ring and we played several.games of pool on his pool table which had Cleveland Browns and Redskins pool balls. Pretty cool stuff. One of my closest friends dad was good friends with Cox and he had us over. We of course ended the night with some old game film and home videos. My favorite being a music video they had made when they won the superbowl. Funny stuff!!!! Great memory.

GBattack


ReddieKnightTrojan


Okieback


Beaver Fever


smallybells

So, when they won state in 2005, did they drop down a classification or something? Bigelow, etc....  ???

RTF

Quote from: IofthaTiger on November 07, 2015, 01:28:12 pm
Just for the record, I taught Steve all he knew about kicking...JK.

His dad kicked for one of the directional colleges in Louisiana—can't remember which one. He and his dad spent endless hours on the Alumni Stadium field during the summers. Lots and lots of practice and practice makes perfect in most cases. Steve made the statement that his dad was the best coach he ever had.

Steve was a great tight end and probably could have make it in college at that position but was such a great kicker he never got the chance.

I like Steve, miss talking to him during his Arkansas days. He still sends a Christmas card of his family to some of mine.

WPWells

Quote from: smallybells on April 27, 2016, 01:26:36 pm
So, when they won state in 2005, did they drop down a classification or something? Bigelow, etc....  ???

Huh? This was the last year of the five-class system

GBattack


WPWells

Charleston has now clinched their 28th consecutive playoff berth, continuing both the longest active streak and the longest streak in Arkansas history.

CoolBreeze

Quote from: Fred Bird on November 01, 2016, 01:15:24 pm
Charleston has now clinched their 28th consecutive playoff berth, continuing both the longest active streak and the longest streak in Arkansas history.
Congrats to the Tigers. Undoubtedly a quality program.

YC


Charleston Tiger fans: We have lost a great one.


Nov. 1, 2015

Tiger football and the entire community have lost a legend. Every Thursday or Friday night that the Jr. High or Sr. High Tigers were playing at home him and his brother would be seating in the same seats at Alumni Stadium. Last Thursday night (Oct. 30) they were not in their seats. I found out Friday that he had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away earlier Thursday.

He is one of two Tiger players of the past that have had their jerseys retired at Charleston. His jersey (#20) and Sr. year football picture is on display in the Tiger Center.

He was a running back that played on the 1952-55 Tiger teams and was one of the greatest players in Tiger history. Several colleges were interested in him and scouted him his Jr. year (1954). There was most likely going to be a football scholarship awaiting him after graduation.

In the spring of 1955 he lost his left hand and wrist and all the fingers to the back knuckles on the right in a tragic accident. Everyone thought his football playing days were over. No one was more surprised than head football coach Don Floyd when he showed up for two-a-days wanting a uniform. After talking with his parents Coach Floyd did issue him a uniform.

He played some from the very start but by the third game of the season he had become the starter at fullback. He fumbled the ball only one time that entire season. His QB tells the story of how he accidently threw him a pass in a game. The QB said he never intended to throw a pass to him and realized as soon as he let it go what he had accidently done. The pass was complete as he trapped the ball against his chest.

He was the great uncle of former Tiger standout Ty Storey.

Rest in peace Robert Raible

You will be missed and remembered by all Tiger supporters and Tiger historians.

Side note: This is a very small portion and limited information of what was going to be a long chapter in a book I had planned to write about Charleston Tiger football history and the accomplishments of many of the former Tiger players. The material I had researched was lost or accidently destroyed and I haven't had the energy to start all over again, therefore that book will never be written—at least not by me.

YC


CHS Tiger fans: We have lost another great one.

Sept. 27 2016  3:55 pm
Coach Don Floyd a CHS alumni and head coach at Charleston in the early to mid 50's has passed away. I will write a more detailed account of his life and the accomplishments he made to our school, community, state, and nation. I will add it to this thread later when I have more time (hopefully tonight). I just wanted to get the information out for those who may have heard of him or perhaps knew him.

Sept. 27 2016  9:48 pm
Coach Floyd was a CHS graduate and an extremely good football player. I can't re-member whether he was a QB or RB (as stated in a post last year I've lost my notes on teams of that era and now have to go from my memory of them). After graduation he attended Arkansas Tech where he was selected to the All American NAIA team. His career at Tech was interrupted when he left to serve during the Korean War. After the war he returned to Tech to complete his degree. A knee injury ended his college career. After graduation he was hired at Charleston as an assistant coach for one year and then was promoted to head coach.

In those days Charleston was one of the smallest schools playing football and in order to complete a complete schedule they had to play much larger non-conference schools such as Greenwood, Clarksville, Ozark, Booneville, Huntsville, Paris, and even scheduled Mountain Home a couple years. Greenwood and Ozark were the only two that was played every year and the other as some point during his coaching career at Charleston. The Tigers were members of the 4-B conference (yes, it was not politically incorrect to be called a class B school at that time). Members of the conference were Atkins, Charleston, Dardanelle, Danville, Hartford, Ft. Smith St. Annes, and Ola (one year before they dropped football).  Charleston's facilities were no were near those of most of the teams they played and Coach Floyd knew that and wanted to bring them up to as close to par to the other schools as possible.

Charleston was a poor district (most small schools were at that time) and didn't have the funds to bring those facilities up to par with the larger districts. They only had a Sr. High program and he started the first Jr. High program in 1953. He then got with the powers that be and suggested since the funds were not available to upgrade the facilities perhaps they could appeal to the pride and generosity of the alumni to help with the project and letters were sent out. There were only bleachers on the south side of the field and they had to accommodate both the home and visitors fans. It probably would not seat over a hundred fifty. They were two portable set of stands that would be drug away from the sidelines by tractors after the football season was over because the football field was the outfield of the baseball field.

His project was a huge success as the alumni gave generously to the project. New and larger bleachers were built on the north side and the south side became the visitor side. Coach Floyd had a vision and he saw that vision become a reality. Because of the generosity of the alumni the field was then name Alumni Field.

The field was flipped several years ago and new and larger bleachers were built on the south side and the north side became the visitor side.

Coach Floyd was very successful at Charleston. What sometime happens when a coach has unexpected success, larger schools come calling. Stuttgart came calling after the 1956 season when Coach Floyd took a team with two returning starters with a line averaging 146 lbs. and backfield averaging 148 lbs. and had a very successful season defeating some much larger schools. Coach Floyd accepted the job at Stuttgart but what he had built and the pride he had installed lingered on throughout the 50's and most of the 60's. He later went to ASU and then was on the staff of Governor and U. S. Senator Dale Bumpers until he retired.

Over the years I've had the pleasure of talking to coach Floyd on several occasions. He was always a gentleman and a pleasure to talk with. He was a quiet and humble man and was not a bragger. One of the things I took away from talking with him was, he never lost his love for Charleston, its people, and his players. He loved all his players but I really and truly think (he did not tell me this but I think I know) he had one he was just a little more proud of.

RIP Coach Don Floyd. You will be missed.

YC


YC


I came very close to making a similar post to the following one approximately three months ago but made the decision at that time not to so. During those three months I have been unable to completely put it out of my mind because I firmly believe the Tiger supporters and players of today that don't know a lot about Tiger history need to know their roots and about some of the truly great athletes from the past. Many of these athletes have excelled not only in athletics but have made their mark on society as a whole. Such was the man this post is about.

Dr. Dairel L. O'Bar passed from this earth at Wichita Kansas Nov. 28, 2016 at the age of 70.

Dairel was an all-around athlete at Charleston participating and excelling in all available sports. He was the starting quarterback for the Tigers from 1961 thru 1963. Although he could run the ball with great success he was probably the first really great passing quarterback at Charleston. In those days three to five passes was about all you would see in a game. Dairel kind of set the trend of raising that to ten to fifteen (and sometime more) per game.

Dairel was an ambidextrous kid but did throw mostly from the right side (he thought he was a little more accurate throwing right). There were occasions when rolling left and it would be difficult throwing right he would throw from the left side and with success.

Dairel played in an era not that long removed from the single-wing offense that was for the most part being replaced with the Georgia Tech/Bobby Dodd split-T. Most schools were using the T or some form of it. It was an era when a premium was put on defense and very low scoring games was the normal. You seldom saw wide receivers as all seven linemen were bunched in on the line of scrimmage (two tight ends) with the quarterback under center and three running backs in the backfield. The offense pretty much centered on the running game. If Dairel had played in the present era with specialized wide receivers spread all over the field there is no telling what kind of numbers he would have put up.

Making matters even more difficult, Charleston was one of the smallest schools in the area playing football and was forced each year to schedule schools with twice and sometime almost three times their enrollment numbers. In the years they had enough players to scrimmage they were lucky. Most years when working on their offense they would use water boys and others holding blocking dummies simulating defensive backs.

Dairel received a full athletic scholarship to Arkansas Tech where he started for four years. He received his master's degree at East Texas State and his doctorate from the University of Kansas. He was Youth Pastor at a church in Wichita for fifteen years and later pastor at two other Churches in the Wichita area. He was forced to step down from being an active pastor when his heart condition worsened. He continued to work with the Church of the Heartland in an advisory role.

Dairel on occasions would return to Charleston for the all Charleston Schools Alumni reunion held each June. It was always a pleasure to see him and I also enjoyed hearing him speak professionally on one occasion.

Charleston Schools should be honored to have had Dairel as one of their alumnus.

Dairel was the brother of long time Charleston Schools teacher Sharon Roberts.     


GBattack

Thank you for that post...I know Sharon but was unaware her brother had passed.

YC

By Leland Barclay/Times Record
Posted Feb 20, 2018 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 20, 2018 at 2:16 PM

Charles Tadlock grew up in the integration era of the south, and was front and center for much of it.

Tadlock graduated from Warren, played collegiately at Hendrix College and coached at Charleston, all during the Jim Crow south, the Brown versus Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, ruling and finally during the actual integration of schools and athletic teams.

"Being raised in Warren, we had a black lady that at times took care of me when I was young," Tadlock said. "My brother and I would go spend the night at her house in the black area of town and play with the kids there. It seemed natural. Things growing up didn't make any sense to me that blacks had to go in the back door of a restaurant and I'd go in the front door. It didn't make sense. A lot of my contemporaries had the same attitude."

Tadlock played on Warren's undefeated team of 1955 that allowed three touchdowns, a total of 18 points, and went 11-0 under Bill Woodiel.
He went to Hendrix and lettered all four years during the abbreviated span when Hendrix brought back football in 1957 and ended it after the 1960 season. Tadlock was named an honorable mention Little All-American as a junior.

At Hendrix, located in Conway, he was close to the neighboring Little Rock Integration Crisis of 1957.

Then, he took his first job after graduation at Charleston right after Joe Ferguson and Barbara Williams became the first African-Americans to graduate from the school in 1961.

In the fall of '61, Tadlock was preparing his freshman team to play a game at Greenwood. His plans were to start Jesse Ferguson on defense that game when his assistant coach asked him if he had gotten permission from Greenwood to play Ferguson.

"We're getting ready to play Greenwood," Tadlock said. "My assistant coach, Bill Johnson, said we sure are practicing Jesse a lot. We need to start him on defense. Bill said, well, have you asked Greenwood if he can play. He said you had to have permission to play black players."

That was an Arkansas Activities Association rule that opposing teams had to give permission before an African-American player could play.

"I thought about it all weekend," Tadlock said. "On Monday at practice, I asked Bill if he was there. He looked around and said yeah, he's over there. I said you had a hard time finding him, didn't you. Jesse is light-skinned. We had white kids who were darker than he was."

Tadlock had a plan to play Ferguson.

"If he keeps his helmet on, no one is going to know he's a black kid," Tadlock said. "It's 18 miles to Greenwood, and we're going to dress at home. We'll be ready to go. There was a pretty good rivalry between Greenwood and Charleston. It was a little bit different back then. You had rocks and things thrown at you when you got off the bus. I told the kids let's have all of our gear on and when we get about five miles outside of Greenwood, we'll put our helmets on. I told them to be ready to go when we got off the bus, and keep your helmet on the whole ball game. When the game's over, we'll stay dressed and come home. Jesse played the whole game on defense, and nobody said anything about it."

There was one moment, though, when it might have been a little testy.

"In the second half, I looked down the sideline and there's Jesse down on one knee and he's got his helmet off right by the chain gang," Tadlock said. "I grabbed him up real quick and got his helmet on him. They didn't notice him, and he played the whole season."

That rule prevented Joe Ferguson from playing in all but two games the year before, before Tadlock got to Charleston.

"As I understand it, Joe may have been the best athlete of all of the Fergusons," Tadlock said. "He only got to play in two games, Huntsville okayed his play and Dardanelle. None of the rest of the schools said he could play. He never missed a practice and was as good a player as they had."

That rule was gone in 1963, and by the end of the 60s most all of the schools had integrated.

Paris, Atkins, Dardanelle, Alma and Clarksville were among the first of Charleston's opponents to integrate their football teams.

"It didn't take long for the attitude to change toward the black athlete," said Tadlock, who was voted into the Hendrix Hall of Honor last year.

Robert Williams, younger brother of Barbara, was also one of the first African-Americans to play at Charleston, and was a lineman. He was known as T.

"T was a little older," Tadlock said. "He was held back at some point. He came into the coach's office one day and said he had something to tell us. He told us he had been drafted. We asked if the Giants had drafted him or the Eagles had drafted him. He said no, drafted into the Army. He had.We were able to get him deferred. It was the build up to Vietnam. We appealed to the draft board that they couldn't draft a kid that hadn't finished high school. He left right after graduation."

Williams' younger sister, Mary, even had an influence on an Arkansas Razorbacks tradition started by Frank Broyles.

She was the dancing Tiger for Charleston's football and basketball teams as the school's mascot.

"We were playing up at Northside in basketball," Tadlock said. "She was up there as the dancing Tiger. Frank Broyles was there looking at Northside players. He was impressed with Mary as the dancing Tiger, that he said they needed to do that up at Fayetteville. She was offered a scholarship to be the first dancing Razorback. Her brother was later the dancing Razorback."


Lineman

That's a nice little history lesson about Charleston. My dad always spoke highly of Coach Tadlock.

YC

I had a lot of notes concerning that era of Tiger football at one time. Those notes were lost about twenty years ago. I now have to go from memory of those notes and from memory of conservations I had with people concerning that era.

My memory of those notes and those conservations varies somewhat from what was printed in that article. If memory serves me correctly, and I think it does, Ft. Smith St. Annes was the first to allowed our black student athletes to participate.

Leland wrote this article in the context of the Charles Tadlock era so there were other events previous to this article. The eldest of the Ferguson kids [Joe Jr.] had played against St. Annes earlier for coach Sherman Peterson.

Lineman, I'm sure you never saw the St. Annes teams play but you may have had relatives play on some of their teams in the past. I know you had one that played at Trinity Jr. High which is the Jr. high spin-off from the old St. Annes school.  If you want to find out more about their history just talk to Leon Sparks the next time he officiates a game at Charleston. I'm sure he will be more than happy to fill you in :)

YC


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