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Sports: Football and Basketball

Goss Construction Company basketball team

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Goss Construction Company basketball team

In 1965 the Goss Construction Company basketball team won the American Division title in the Men's Rec Basketball League. Depicted in this Cumberland Evening Times photo from March 4, 1965 are, from left to right, Danny Keyes, Reginald Johnson, Jim Arrowood, James Washington, Walter Younger, and Charles Denmark, manager. Missing when the photograph was taken are Mervin Pope, Junie Perry, Jim Wright and Gary Frisby.

Bedford Road Basketball team

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This photograph, from about 1963 or 1964, depicts the Bedford Road Optimists Basketball team.
Kneeling in the front row, left to right are: Alvin Harris, Brooke Davis, Robert Lewis, Billy Powell, and Leon "Buddy" Brashears.
Standing in the back row, left to right are: Gary "Bud" Stephens, Lawrence Lewis, Rodney Keys, Tom McMahon, Rick Cage, and Buddy Franciosi.

Piedmont Junior High - basketball

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In the 1970s, members of the Piedmont Junior High School Basketball team included

front row, left to right, Coach Gary Evans, Peter Smith, Donald Twyman, George Jessie, Rick Niland, and Benny Twyman.

In the second row, left to right, are Kippy Price, Shawn Price, John Crawford, Gary Ray, Derick Walker, James Garland, Rick Niland, and William Price, Manager.

Frederick Street School Basketball Team

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The year 1918 brought the opening of Cumberland High School, a black high school located on Frederick Street. In keeping with the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, the new school for black students was, in theory, to be, "separate but equal." B.H. Smith was the principal and it was initially established as a two-year institution.

In 1919 E.A. Gibson became principal, the school implemented a four-year curriculum, and in 1922 the name was changed to Frederick Street School, and in 1941, to Carver High School.

John Wesley Wormack, Jr., 1939-2022

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Depicted at the very top of this circa 1956 Fort Hill High School basketball team photograph is John Wesley Wormack. As a Junior, John was the only black on the varsity Fort Hill High School football team. This was out of 35 players, plus coaches and managers. As seen here he is the only black depicted on the varsity basketball team as well. This would make him one of the first, if not the first black to play these two varsity sports at Fort Hill. The 1956 Sabre did not depict any blacks on the varsity baseball or track teams.

Walter Crawford II

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Walter Clementine Crawford II, 1914 - 1968

In the 1940s the Wilson Hardware Company of Cumberland, a local supplier and outfitter of sports equipment for local school teams, held a display show for 27 area coaches. Carver High School coach Walter C. Crawford II, depicted in the center, attended the exhibition.