Northeast Mississippi Community College honored four former athletes and a former men’s basketball coach at its second annual Northeast Sports Hall of Fame banquet Thursday, August 13.
Northeast honored three former Northeast basketball players, a former football player, as well as the former coach at the event held in the Claude Wright Room in the Haney Union on the Booneville campus.
Former Tigers and Lady Tigers joining the Northeast Sports Hall of Fame were former basketball players Gerald Caveness, Clyde Jones, Evelyn Thompson, and football player Larry Parker along with former Tiger basketball coach Harvey Childers.
Caveness helped lead the Tiger basketball team to a pair of national tournaments during his time on the hardwood for Northeast. Jones was a standout on the Northeast basketball team from 1950-52 before moving onto Delta State University where he continued his basketball career. Thompson made an impact on the Lady Tiger basketball program during her first year at Northeast appearing on the court for Northeast from 1986-88, helped the Lady Tigers capture the national championship in her initial year with the program.
Parker carried the load for the Tiger football team during the 1976 and 1977 football seasons. Parker toted the ball an average of 23.5 times during his tenure at Northeast averaging over 100 yards a game for the Tigers. Childers spent seven seasons at the helm for Northeast guiding the Tigers to a 192-34 record including five North Division titles, one Mississippi Association of Community/Junior Colleges title and three Region XXIII championships. Childers parlayed those three Region XXIII championships into three National Tournament appearances taking the Tigers to the NJCAA National Championship game in 1988-89 with a 23-3 record.
This was the second class of hall of fame selections following the inaugural inductees of ten former coaches, players and supporters of Northeast Mississippi Community College athletics. Harold T. White, W.B. ‘Bill’ Ward, Ken Lindsey, Chuck ‘Doddle’ Floyd, Gene Garret, Adrian Smith, Kenneth ‘Cat’ Robbins, David ‘Nub’ Strickland, Earline ‘Woodsie’ Woods and Bonner Arnold were all honored as members of the college’s first class in last years ceremony.
Accepting the award plaques were (back row l-r), Ramona Caveness (wife of the late Gerald Caveness), Evelyn Thompson, Clyde Jones, Wesley Parker (son of the late Larry Parker), (front row l-r), Kelli P. Cross (the daughter of late Larry Parker), Leah P. Garner (the daughter of late Larry Parker), and Harvey Childers.
