(#176) Magnolia Heights won the MAIS 5A State Championship in baseball and finished the season 40-3. It was their 5th straight state championship, 13th overall and Coach Chris McMinn's 11th state championship. The 40 wins tied the association’s record set 42 years ago by the Magnolia Academy Raiders (40-5) in 1981. Read story about the … Continue reading Magnolia Academy Raiders’ 42 Year Win Record Tied →

(#138) WHEREAS, RICHARD A. CLARKE was employed as the Coach of the Magnolia Academy Baseball Team in 1977; and WHEREAS, the baseball team was in a fledgling state; and WHEREAS, RICHARD A. CLARKE, through his dedication to a standard of excellence and ability, instilled in the baseball players the skills of playing baseball and good … Continue reading Commendation (1979) →

(#129) It might not look like it, (it was 43 years or so ago), but some of these guys played on Magnolia Academy teams that won 168 games in 6 seasons, won 26 championships, including three consecutive state championships and probably should have been four (1978), won 31 games in 1979 and became the first … Continue reading Magnolia Academy Reunion – 2022 →

(#94) The 2022 baseball season has begun. Forty-five years ago in 1977, I began my coaching career as a 22 year old gunslinger at Magnolia Academy located in West Jackson. The 30 man roster included six seniors: Richard Kelly, Barry Jones, Billy Williams, Al Puckett, Mark Brown, and Randy Williams. 6 juniors: Robby Stevens, Phil … Continue reading My First Magnolia Academy Team – 1977 →

(#83) "Magnolia Academy Baseball - Striving for Baseball Excellence." These words, which appear in Magnolia's game program, are the best way to describe the efforts of Coach Rick Clarke's Raiders, who captured their third straight Academy State AA baseball championship. Last week Magnolia brought the year to a climax by blasting Kirk Academy of Grenada … Continue reading Smooth, Flap, Mac, Kid, and Jaybird →

(#74) Excerpts from Daily News Sports Writer, Clay Harden, 1978. "We will take all the breaks we can get to beat Brandon." So said Jackson Magnolia Academy baseball coach Rick Clarke after his Raiders had bumped South Central Class AA defending champion and arch-rival Brandon Academy, 5-3 in the Brandon Invitational round robin baseball tournament. … Continue reading Hudson’s Homer Saves Magnolia →

(#68) During my first season at Magnolia Academy in 1977, I put on a suicide squeeze play. Everybody used to do it a lot back in those days. Not so much now. Especially the suicide squeeze. Too much pressure. 😁 Richard Kelly was the bunter and Ricky Chisolm was the baserunner at third. Chisolm broke … Continue reading The Tale of Two Home Runs →

(#54) Ricky Chisolm was the poster boy for the mentally tough competitor of the olden days. Of all the great pitchers I've ever coached through 30 plus years, including three former big leaguers and many other great hurlers and competitors, if I had only one game to play and had to name a starter, it … Continue reading Chisolm and Dickey →

(#49) "Echols called Clarke 'a real baseball man' and credited him with building the confidence in his team."(Clay Harden, Jackson Daily News, March, 1977). That's a nice compliment from a great coach who a few weeks later threatened to whip my &!@ in front of my own dugout on my own home field, because one … Continue reading Lamont →