When I was a young underclassman at Monett High School in the late '60s, I had a science and computer science teacher by the name of Bill Jones.
To have a computer science class at all in the 1960s was a cutting edge, new fangled thing that very few schools across the country had gotten into. I enjoyed the class, and I also enjoyed the time I spent with who we called Coach Jones as he was a three-sport coach for the Cubs in addition to his teaching duties.
Fast forward a bunch of years, and I found myself coming to Pea Ridge in 1998 to teach elementary art in the old elementary art building, where the pre-kindergarten kids are now. In the hallway, there is a plaque dedicating the building, with the name Bill Jones on it. It reminded me of my time with another man named Bill Jones, but I dismissed the coincidence due to a strong possibility that Bill Jones was likely a common name.
When the 50th anniversary of Pea Ridge football came around a few years ago, I read about the founding coach (Bill Jones) of the program and saw his picture. It was then I realized that it was same person that I had known earlier in my life. I learned then that Jones had left the Blackhawks back in that day to go work for the Cubs program.
I didn't know why he pulled up and left Arkansas to go up north, I didn't suppose that it mattered, but at least I didn't know until this past weekend.
This past weekend was the 47th anniversary of the Monett Senior Class of 1971 of which I was a member. Seventy former classmates of mine, as well as 10 former teachers, showed up for the festivities.
I have to admit, I was surprised that their were 10 of them still alive after all these years. Also surprising was that three of them were my old coaches from my junior and senior high days.
Though two of them were nearly 80, I was really really surprised to learn that these two particular men (Chuck Ramsey and Benny Lawson) retired just a couple of years ago, putting well over 50 years into their coaching careers.
It was from these two men that I learned the background story of Coach Jones and the whereas and wherefores. I knew that my old coaches were originally coaches from Seneca, Mo., who came together with another coach to revive the Cubs program which had really fallen into a deep hole. Coach Jones had been at Seneca earlier but had left the Indians to come to the Ridge. When his former fellow coaches asked him to move to Monett to help them rebuild a new school, he took them up on the challenge.
Those men did rebuild Monett. From 0-10 in 1967, to a undefeated state championship in 1971, Monett was a powerhouse for a time. However, the head coach (Burl Fowler) died of cancer in 1974, and after the remnants of the staff put together another state title team in 1977, those coaches departed for better jobs in the Springfield school system. Coach Jones was a big part of the years that saw Monett rise to prominence.
Also at the celebration was my old English teacher, Leonard Bauer. Mr Bauer was the one who recruited me out of an English II class to write sports for the Grizzly Gazette student newspaper. That led to my later being associated with the Harding Bison student newspaper at Harding University where I became the sports editor. That led to my being hired (for pay!) by the Harding University Sports Information Department to be a writer and photographer which later led to my being hired as a stringer for the old Arkansas Gazette.
I eventually wrote sports for several weeklies and biweeklies after that until I one day ended up writing sports for the Pea Ridge TIMES. All through these years, I have been a teacher who managed to work a bit on the journalistic profession though a lot of time, not for pay or salary.
Anyway, I learned this weekend that the world is a small place.
I also learned that though I am older that most teachers at 65, and that lots of folks leave the teaching profession for retirement long before 65, there are others who go well beyond 60 and even 70 in their educational careers.
Even more amazing was the fact that all the teachers that I (and we) had all those years ago, they all knew who we were. They regaled us with some pretty good stories, some of which I was sure were actually factual.
It gave some of my class members the opportunity to some things off their chest. They got the chance to confess things that they got away with back in the 1960s and '70s. Since nobody was being nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court, nobody got detention, kicked out or calls to their parents. It was great.
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Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 09/26/2018