Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / March 24, 1994, edition 1 / Page 5
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hh Thursday, March 24, 1994 -THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Page 5A Jimmy Littlejohn going into Sports Hall of Fame take advantage of their talent. Gene said we should Editor of the Herald 5 | | f 3 3 have a team anyway and build for the future. Nol Hl 11S acts "We decided to have a team in 1990, but we had no Pdi Jimmy Littlejohn played football at Kings idea that we'd have all of our Kings Mountain guys ountain High School from 1955-58, he wasn't a star. back on the same team," he said. "I went to meetings In fact, he wasn't even on the starting team. m Date Monday, April 8 in Shelby and they said they wouldn't release roy As Littlejohn himself says, he was a "scrub" - one of By GARY STEWART to play for us, so I didn't even go to Bessemer City. the bench-warmers...a guy with a lot of love for the mTime = 7:00 pm But some people familiar with the Legion baseball game but not a whole lot of athletic ability. program told me there was a new rule which stated Most of his playing time was confined to kick-off um Place Community Center j that if I could get affidavits signed by every ballplayer teams, but what Littlejohn learned on the sidelines they could come back to Kings Mountain. That got us from outstanding coaches such as Shu Carlton, John , going but we were going to have a team no matter Gamble and Don Parker helped prepare him for a life m Cost $10.00 pel person what. We were lucky in that respect, and we've been of service to young athletes in the Kings Mountain : doing good ever since." area. w Speaker Jeff Mullins With dedicated behind-the-scenes effort from le- For his contributions to young people in 34 years as Basketball Coach gionnaires and volunteers, outstanding player talent a Pop Warner football coach, 30 years as a youth and the field leadership of former KMHS coaches league basketball coach and as the "reorganizing" ath- UNC Charlotte Bruce Clark and Ronny Funderburke, the program not letic officer of the Post 155 American Legion baseball only got off the ground but flourished. While critics team, Littlejohn has been selected as one of the four HB Inductees Zeb Plonk were saying a team drawing from just one small high inductees into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of school couldn't compete against schools drawing from Fame Monday night, April 18 at 7 p.m. at the Kings Grace Page several large schools, Post 155 was posting four con- Mountain Community Center. ; a secutive winning seasons and playing for the Area IV For all of the people who have worked with Jimmy Littlejohn : championship twice. In 1990 they were eliminated Littlejohn over the years and have witnessed his un- from the playoffs by a Caldwell County team which sung commitment to young people, his selection was 1955 KMHS Football Team eventually played for the Southeast Regional champi- overdue. But Littlejohn accepted the announcement . onship, and in 1992 they eliminated a powerful with humility. : Pineville nine before losing in the Area IV finals to "It's scary, really, just being mentioned in the same selves going to Bessemer City and Shelby to see their Taylorsville which went on to finish second in the breath with people like Shu Carlton, John Gamble, own hometown favorites play for other towns. state. Don Parker, Kevin Mack, Pat Murphy, and the other "I went up to Shelby to see Shelby play Bessemer "I'm not taking the credit for it," said Littlejohn. great athletes and coaches who are in the Hall of City in the Area IV playoffs, but it was like Kings "There's a bunch of people at the American Legion i Fame," he said. i Mountain playing Kings Mountain," Littlejohn said. that got the program going. I was just the athletic offi- | Littlejohn has spent just about every late summer "Bessemer City, which was supposed to be the best cer." ; ) and fall afternoon for the past 39 years at City team, had Chad and Chris Plonk, Paul Brannon and a But, much of the success goes back to that same Stadium. When he was a player at KMHS, the couple other guys from Kings Mountain, and Shelby love of the game and commitment to young people Mountaineers played their home games there. The Pop ~~ had Stuart Spires, Keith Allen and some others, and that kept Littlejohn coming back to City Stadium day Warner teams still play their games there and, rain or Shelby eliminated them. Gene Tignor and I were talk- after day for 34 years. . shine or in 90-plus degree heat in August or sub-freez- ing and he said it sure would be nice to have all of "Sometimes you wonder if anybody knows you're N ing temperatures in late-November, Littlejohn is just as those boys back on the same team. I said we couldn't down there but, even if they don't, it's worth it," he : : La \ much a fixture as the old concrete bleachers which get them on the same team because people would say says. Jimmy Littlejohn was a reserve linebacker on the Mountaineer fans packed into to see the championship =~ We were having legion baseball just for one year to Now, he knows. Somebody was paying attention. 1958 Kings Mountain High School football team. teams of the fabulous fifties. i “ * "I've been going to City Stadium every summer and a : ; j fall for a long time," says Littlejohn. "Every year peo- ple ask me when I'm going to quit. It gets harder every year but I'll probably do it as long as I feel pretty good." : Littlejohn has missed only one football game since some friends talked him into helping with the West School midget team in 1960. : "I helped David Marlowe with what was a little pick-up team really," he recalled. "The city decided to have a four-team midget league with teams from West, Central, North and East. Fhe school system -didn’tii «| | sponsor the teams but we took our names after the schools. Jake Early (former major league baseball player and then City Recreation Director) got us some equipment." The teams played each other twice during the regu- lar season, plus picked up games against teams from other towns. At the end of the season the first place team played an all-star team comprised of players from the other three squads. A few years later, Grover and South joined the league and midget football was alive and well in Kings Mountain. Several years later the Optimist Club began co-sponsoring the program with the city and junior pee wees, pee wees and junior midgets teams were added. Several years later the midget program was dropped when the school system went to a middle school con- cept and began drawing players from the same age group as midgets. Littlejohn tried to pass along the knowledge he gained from his high school coaches to his young play- ers. "Coach Gamble taught me all the football I know," he said. "I don't know why, but when Coach Gamble would get his captains together he'd take me along with them. I guess I was kind of the captain of the sec- ond string." : y Through the years Littlejohn has coached some Li a : = S si players who went on to become outstanding high 1991 AMERICAN LEGION TEAM - Jimmy Littlejohn helped revive American Legion baseball in Kings Mountain in 1990.He is pictured here with the school players. One, Kevin Mack, even wentonto ~~ 1991 Post 155 team. Front row, left to right, T.G. Goforth, Mike Smith, Todd Ware, Raymond Couch and Rusty Burgess. Second row, Tommy Payne, Doran help lead Clemson's Tigers to the NCAA champi- Moore, Chris Rider, Rick Marr, Stephen Fisher and Damon Putnam. Third row, Jimmy Littlejohn, Doug Bridges, Caja Ormand, Shane Webb, David Jenkins, onship and became Rookie of the Year in the NFL ‘David Bell and Robbie Ruff. with the Cleveland Browns. - While turning out good high school players is fine, Littlejohn said his primary goal is to give the young- sters an opportunity to play and have fun at an early age. "The main thing is to give them a place to play," he says. "If kids are playing ball they're not getting into trouble. We're out to help the community more than the high school. I'm not saying the boys are any better or worse off from playing football, but at least during the time they're practicing and playing ball they're staying out of trouble." Although football is his first love, Littlejohn enjoys all sports and helped develop outstanding basketball and baseball programs for the city. In the early sixties, he was the first coach of the Optimist Club boys basketball team and he remained in that position until just a few seasons ago. Littlejohn, Mearl Valentine, former Recreation Director Roy Pearson and several others around town organized the league. "We didn't even have uniforms," Littlejohn recalled. "We just had jerseys. We started out with four teams and I coached the Optimist. I don't remember who sponsored the other teams." Littlejohn left the basketball program four years ago to pursue another dream. Being a long-time member of American Legion Post 155, he had a burning desfre to revive the legion baseball program. With the help of retired Kings Mountain Fire Chief Gene Tignor and many other baseball enthusiasts, the post launched a major fund-raising effort which allowed them to begin the program again in 1990. What really spurred the interest was the 1989 pe os 4 Bk a A 9 Tk oe ¥ KMHS baseball team which caught fire late in the sea- i ai : x het AN son and won the state 3-A championship after finish- 1961 MIDGET CHAMPIONS - This is Jimmy Littlejohn's West midget team which won the city championship in 1961 with a 6-0 record. Front row, left ing second in the regular season Southwestern to right, Fred Clary, Tommy Day, Wayne Mullinax, Ray Henderson, Ricky Grahl and Gene Putnam. Second row, Ray Miller, Wayne Odell, Mike Goforth, Scott Conference chase. Kings Mountain fans, not wanting Cloninger, Fred Wright, Ricky Stewart, Gene Hammett. Third row, Jimmy Littlejohn, Ben Grimes, John Van Dyke, Steve Wilson, Dean Henderson, Jay Powell, to stay away from the game after that, found them- Phillip Putnam and Coach Vick Smith. Not pictured, Terry Bridges, Roy Medlin and Mike Boheler. = ce a tent A te de Ae a a Be Rt ss nd aie veneer pt i ob AS A ll A a a HT & 2 Noe
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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March 24, 1994, edition 1
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