BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: THE POETRY OF BASKETBALL AT WHITE HALL HIGH SCHOOL

October 13, 2009

Fred Allen Engle The Richmond Register Tue Oct 13, 2009, 07:23 AM EDT

After a recent column in which I wrote about trips to the state tournament by basketball teams from Red House High and Waco High, I received requests to reprint an earlier column about a 1931 state tournament trip by the White Hall High girls’ basketball team. So, here it is once again. Members of the 1931 White Hall girls’ team were Virginia (Hogan) Brandenburg, Stella (Emmitt) Bowling, Alice (Walters) West, Dorothy (Walters) Richards, and Margaret (Dunn) Martin, Gladys (Whitlock) Flannery, Audrey (Tipton) Weigott, and Edna (Cox) Strong. John Spencer Jones was the coach. The team won the regionals and went to the finals of the state tournament.

Diana Wells Ross brought this team to my attention. So Madison County had state tournament teams in 1929, 1931 and 1932. The team won the regional championship and went to the state finals of the state tournament.

Mrs. Thomas Newton Cotton wrote a poem about that team and a second poem about the boys’ team, and her grandson, Tommy Cotton, made them available to me. They are displayed above.

“To the White Hall Girls Basketball team - 1928

White Hall girls how we love you.

With all your good will and mirth

And with all your shining countenances

You’re the fairest gals on earth.

Your gentle ways and manners

Your morals and your worth

All give to you these banners

As the best girls on this earth.

Your passes, my what grandeur

Your guarding was fast and right

And the way you put the ball through the net

Was simply a vision of delight.

You girls are the dearest

To ere a school was given

And you were nearer to the trophy

Than any other school that had striven.

For of all the teams in the county

There was but one other which was as lucky

As the team that came from

White Hall High School in Madison County Kentucky.”

“To the Boys - 1928

Here’s to the White Hall boys team

Each separate and remote

Who are always on the job

To get the other team’s goat.

First there’s Minter the captain

Going down the court in a rush

Look! The ball is in the air

Then thru the net with a crush.

Then Meeks our six foot center

Who generally gets the tip

And carries the ball down the floor

And through the net with a cryp.

Next comes Harris our forward

One of the on our team

The way he plays basketball

Certainly is a scream.

Then comes Curtis our back guard

Of whom we are all proud

The way he steals the opponents’ balls

Just suits the White Hall crowd.

Then there’s Cotton our running guard

Who is here, there and every where

He is sure to get the ball

From the floor or from the air.”

Diana Wells Ross also provided a list of some members of the 1928 boy’s basketball team at White Hall High School. Included on this team were George Allen Cotton, Silas Minter, Tom Meeks, Overton Harris and William (Kit) Harris. She also recalled some other basketball players from that era: McClellan Dunn, Oscar Dunn, Joe Brandenburg, Earl Frye, Douglas House, Red Foley, Russell Forbert and J.A. Walter Jr.

These then are some of the Madison Countians who played basketball 77 years ago. Thank you Diana Wells Ross and Tommy Cotton for sharing this bit of Madison’s heritage.

Erratum — special information

The old Richmond Register building was located on South Second Street and not South Third. Sorry for the typo. Elizabeth Sallee Wells informs us that there was a school named Slick Rock in the Newby area. It closed around 1941. Harry Johnson tells me he was a full-time register employee for 50 years. That is wonderful — a record.

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BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: THE POETRY OF BASKETBALL AT WHITE HALL HIGH SCHOOL

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