(#76)
Look at these great looking uniforms, with the block “H” on the caps. Unlike today’s teams, there was just one uniform. “What color jersey are we wearing today? Maroon. What color pants? Gray. Belts? Yes. Leggings? Maroon.” Keep it simple. We could focus on other things.
My first team at Hinds, 1984: Seated (from left to right): James Runnels (Manager), Kevin Williams (.441, 7 HR, 47 RBI; 2-1, 4.45), Keith Erhardt, Tony Triplett (.367, 5 HR, 22 RBI), Doug Watson, Alan Whitfield .293, 0 HR, 11 RBI), Edward Foil (1-0, 4.20), David Kohler (.222, 0 HR, 2 RBI; 1-2 6.56) Kneeling: Russell Carruth (.429, 0 HR, 6 RBI), Tim McMillian (.256, 0 HR, 5 RBI; 2-4, 4.33), Travis Crimm (.348, 0 HR, 11 RBI), Richard Posey (.333, 1 HR, 7 RBI), Jeff Thompson (.342, 0 HR, 8 RBI), Kevin Stone (.388, 0 HR, 4 RBI; 6-1, 4.86), Trae Autrey, Barry Breithaupt (.265, 0 HR, 8 RBI). Standing: Rick Clarke (Coach), Jamie Johnson (.297, 2 HR, 20 RBI), Ricky Ates (.394, 2 HR, 9 RBI), Guy Smith (.286, 2 HR, 24 RBI), Todd Ross (.353, 1 HR, 11 RBI), Scott Simmons, Kyle Manton (3-2, 4.20), Guy Crawford (.250, 3 HR, 11 RBI), Art Hankins (.308, 0 HR, 3 RBI; 2-2, 9.33), Randall Johnston (.345, 2 HR, 6 RBI; 4-5, 3.66).
Season one had its share of ups and downs as the Eagles experienced periods of great performances and some self-inflicted inconsistencies which overshadowed a great start.
I had just taken over the reigns of the Hinds baseball program, succeeding my good friend Bill Marchant who returned to Texas after a 30-7 season in 1983. I believe he had only come back to Mississippi because he had Delta State University on his mind. He became head baseball coach at DSU in 1989. I’ll share more on that fascinating story at a later date.
Other than Marchant’s one and done season, JUCO baseball jobs just don’t become available very often. Danny Neely coached for 10 years after Hinds reinstated baseball for the 1973 season after a 15 year layoff. I would coach for the next 22 years and Sam Temple followed me for another 16 seasons. Four head coaches, 49 years.
It may not have been a dream job for anybody else, but it was for me. When I heard through the grapevine that coach Coach Neely was leaving to go into private business, I did everything in my power to get that job, letters of recommendation, phone calls, etc. I even wrote Dr. Clyde Muse a letter before he even knew there would be an opening. I even asked “Boo” Ferriss for a letter of recommendation, and I didn’t even play for him.
In the end, Bill, who had coached at Meridian High School in the early 70’s, was hired. Dr. Muse was the Superintendent of the Meridian Public Schools at the time. Good for him. Bad for me. Marchant was a great coach and very deserving of the job, plus he was going to coach football, too. But he didn’t know what I knew about Hinds baseball…. no scholarships, district play, limited schedule, residential districts, crappy, outdated facilities, limited resources, etc.
Getting where we needed to be would take time and commitment.
I had both.
I believed I was highly qualified for the job. I had attended Hinds and played baseball in 1973 and 1974, moved on to Mississippi College where I got my B.S. degree and in my senior year was hired as the baseball coach at a small private school called Magnolia Academy in west Jackson.
What a great baseball experience that turned out to be!
In six seasons. we won 168 games, and unprecedented 26 championships, including 3 straight state championships, which everybody believes should have been four. We won 31 games in 1979 (one of three Mississippi teams that had done that) and then 40 wins in 1981, the first high school team in Mississippi to win 40 games in a season, which is still a MSAIS record four decades later.
When Bill got the job, I moved to plan B. I had already quit my job at Magnolia and began working on my Master’s Degree at MC. I met with Bill (Bill Perry made it happen) and asked him if he needed an assistant coach. He said he did and I became his “volunteer” assistant coach. We even became roommates for the year in an apartment in the new Sheffield-Woolley dormitory on the Raymond Campus. Bill’s wife, Cheryl and their two kids, Stacy and Brett would remain in Texas for one more school year.
Bill took the only bedroom, of course, and I got the couch in the den. I got to know him real well and we became good friends. He taught me a lot. He even came back to be a groomsman in my wedding in June of 1984.
When he decided to return to Texas to coach at Lufkin High School after one season, I decided my best shot to get the job was to become a squatter in that apartment. I really believe I got the job only so they could shut me up and get the apartment back… and also because I agreed to coach football. My goal was to eventually become the best baseball coach I could be and the worst football coach I could be. I did the latter first.
So on June 22, 1983, at ripe age of 28, I finally got my dream job as the head baseball coach at Hinds Junior College. My mom and dad were so proud. I would keep that dream job until I quit 22 seasons later. I made a principled decision to quit on my own terms and to show you how principled (and stupid) I was, I left Hinds lacking three years to receive my PERS retirement. A season at Pearl High School and two years as an assistant principal at Chastain Middle School made that happen.
In 1984, we played a tough 46 game schedule which included powerhouses, such as the ’84 Region 23 Champion, Delgado Community College, Mississippi State Champion, Northwest Mississippi, South Division Champion, Mississippi Gulf Coast and vastly improved programs at Utica, East Mississippi and Pearl River.
We won our first 7 games and 10 of our first 12 and lost 3 of our last 4. We finished with a respectable record of 21-13, 7-4 in district play.
Freshman Kevin Williams, from Magnolia Academy, lead the team offensively with an incredible .441 batting average with 7 home runs and 47 RBI. Tony Triplett (Forest Hill) hit .367 with 5 home runs.
Kevin Stone of Brandon led the pitchers with 6 wins and Randall Johnston of Clinton posted the best ERA at 3.66.
These 24 guys on the 1984 team set the foundation and have their fingerprints on everything that has happened at with Hinds baseball over the past 37 years.
1985– 24 wins -19 losses.
In our third season in 1986, we were 30-17, won the South Division and made our first appearance in the state playoffs. We lost to Bill Baldner’s great East Mississippi team, 4-0 and 3-2 in 10 innings.
In 1987, we finished 38-13, won the South Division again, won Hind’s first state championship in 37 years with a hard fought sweep of Terry Thompson’s Mississippi Delta Trojans, were the Region 23 runner-up to Delta, and participated in our first Eastern District Tournament.
In 1988, we were 29-12, won the South Division, lost in the first round of the state tournament in a great rematch with MDCC, 1-0 and 5-4.
In 1989 we finished (40-14), won the South Division for the fourth year in a row, won the State championship for the second time in three years, won the Region 23 championship for the first time in school history, won the Eastern District tournament and advanced to the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado, both firsts for Mississippi.
The 1989 team is still the only Mississippi team to win division, state, regional, and district championships, and play in the JUCO World Series in the same season.
In our first 6 seasons at Hinds, we won 4 south division championships, had 4 state tournament appearances and won 2 championships, made 2 Region 23 appearances with 1 championship and 1 runner-up, and played in 2 Eastern District tournaments with 1 championship, and made 1 World Series appearance, the first ever for a Mississippi Community/Junior College.
My dad reminded me over and over, as he did at Magnolia, “there is only one first.”
That’s a pretty good run and that was just the ’80s. Not a bad start.
Mississippi teams that have to been to the World Series in Grand Junction, Millington, or Enid 24 times since we first did it in 1989 (24 total WS appearances). Zero before. 24 after.
Jones (2016) and Pearl River (2022) are the only Mississippi teams to win a baseball national championship; D2 – Enid, Oklahoma.
Meridian, Northwest, Jones, and Hinds have each finished 2nd. Hinds and Co-Lin also finished 4th.
Hinds has been to the World Series 6 times and is the only team to play in Grand Junction, Millington, and Enid.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 