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Allegany County Maryland--History

Bobby Powell, Gerald Davis, James Page and Derik Stephens

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Little League baseball players

left top - Robert "Bobby" Powell in an early 1960s photograph of the Cumberland Rotary Hot Stove League Baseball Team. He was in the Allegany High School class of 1966.

right top - This is a late 1950s or early 1960s depiction of Gerald "Goo" Davis as a member of the Dapper Dan Little League Baseball All-Star Team.

Cumberland Cubs

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The tall man in the middle of the back row of this August 1921 team photo of the Cumberland Cubs is Clarence Smith. One of Cumberland's outstanding baseball pitchers of a half-century ago, he was better known as, "Cannonball" or "Bullet-Ball" due to his reputation as a fast-ball hurler. He was the strike-out king and mound ace for John Brown's "Cumberland Cubs". John Brown's Cubs played the best black teams of the early 1920's, including the Homestead Grays, Baltimore Black Sox, Harrisburg Giants, and Pittsburgh Orioles.

Clarence Smith

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Clarence M. Smith, 1895 - 1969

Clarence Smith was one of Cumberland's outstanding baseball pitchers of a half-century ago. Better known as, "Cannonball" or "Bullet-Ball" due to his blazing fast balls, he was the strike-out king and ace pitcher for John Brown's "Cumberland Cubs." From 1923 to 1925 Smith pitched for the Fairmont, West Virginia Giants and in one game struck out 20 players, only to lose the game by one run to the Harrisburg Giants by a score of 5 to 4.

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.