COLUMBUS — With the announcement of the inaugural class of the Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame featuring athletes and coaches with contributions dating back to the 1950s for area schools, recreational leagues and the YMCA, The Dispatch is publishing short biographies to help readers remember – or get to know – each of the 10 honorees.
The information included was largely researched and provided by former Dispatch sports editor and LCSHOF secretary and co-founder, Henry Matuszak, with additional research by Colin Damms.
Stanley Ross Black
Black ran track and played football, basketball and baseball at Lee High School and Heritage Academy. He was a wide receiver and defensive back at Mississippi State, where he was an All-American and All-SEC at safety in 1976 before playing in the National Football League for the San Francisco 49ers in 1977.
Homer Erwin “Billy” Brewer
Brewer played quarterback and coached football at Lee High School and Ole Miss and played in the NFL for Washington in 1960. Played in the 1955 Mississippi All-Star Game as a senior and earned All-SEC and College Football All-Star honors at Ole Miss. Head coach at Lee from 1961-69, including a perfect 9-0 season in 1969, before coaching at Heritage 1970-71. He then served as head coach at Southeastern Louisiana from 1974-79, Louisiana Tech from 1980-82 and Ole Miss from 1983-93.
Roosevelt Bridges
Bridges served as an athletics pioneer at former Motley High School, now West Lowndes, where he was the first coach for basketball, baseball and football. He later became principal in 1979. As basketball coach, Bridges led the Panthers to six sub-district championships and four appearances in the North State tournament. Later in his career, he would serve on the board of the MHSAA and Columbus-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation.
Carl Hawley Butler III
Butler served as head coach for the Columbus Swim Association and the Golden Triangle Swim League, coaching CSA to 15 consecutive state championships from 1965-79 and GTSL to six titles from 1980-85. Including his state championship with the Jackson Swim Association in 1960, Butler led 22 championship teams throughout his career.
Sam Fletcher
Born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Fletcher was raised in Columbus where he attended Lee High School and starred as a baseball player. He led the team with a .364 average as a junior and .391 as a senior, playing for three district championship teams. Before high school, Fletcher was a catcher on fellow inductee Frank Griffin’s Columbus All-Star team that won the 1963 state championship. After high school, Fletcher played at Mississippi State from 1966-69 where he earned All-SEC and All-SEC West honors, leading the Bulldogs in batting average and RBIs as a sophomore.
Leslie Frazier
Frazier starred as a defensive back, wide receiver and running back at Lee, lettering in basketball, baseball and football before attending Alcorn State, where he won a SWAC title in 1979. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears and played for six seasons, winning a Super Bowl in 1985 as part of the memorable defense. Frazier also helped invent the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Frazier would embark on a long coaching career in the NFL, including four seasons (2010-13) as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, and is currently assistant head coach for the Seattle Seahawks.
Frank Griffin
Griffin graduated in 1955 from Lee, where he played basketball, baseball, football and ran track. He was captain of the basketball and baseball teams as a senior.
After graduating from Mississippi State and serving in the U.S. Army, Griffin returned to Columbus and began a 50-year career in sports and recreation with the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority and Columbus YMCA. He helped introduce T-ball to Columbus, coached pee wee football and basketball, little league baseball and youth soccer, and served as an official for high school and junior college football and basketball for 30 years while also umpiring youth baseball in Columbus.
Griffin would also serve East Columbus on the City Council from 1969-74 and served as the director of Columbus Parks and Recreation from
Ronnie Richardson
Richardson starred as a baseball and football player at Lee, garnering state and national recognition as a pitcher. He was an important member of Lee’s 1986 and 1987 state championship-winning baseball teams and was named Mississippi High School Baseball Player of the Year in both seasons. His 60 wins and 732 strikeouts are the most by any player in state history, and currently ranks fourth and second, respectively, in the national high school record books.
He became the winningest pitcher in state history with a no-hitter against Amory on April 7, 1987, and later that year was drafted by the Boston Red Sox. He played six seasons in the organization at the A and AA levels. After playing, Richardson became a pitching coach and served at both Columbus High School and Noxubee County High School.
Cary Shepherd
Shepherd graduated from Lee and Mississippi University for Women before beginning a career as a coach and educator. She coached slow and fast-pitch softball at New Hope High School from 1982-2006, where she led the Trojans to 19 district titles, 13 North State championships, and nine state championships in slow pitch. From 2000-05 her slow pitch teams won six consecutive championships. In fast pitch, the Trojans won four district titles and one North State title.
She also coached an ASA national championship team in 1995 and won a National Coach of the Year award in 2003.
She is a member of the Mississippi Association of Coaches Hall of Fame.
Clarence Weatherspoon
Weatherspoon graduated from Motley High School in 1988, starring as a forward for the Panthers basketball team and earning a bid to play in the MAC All-Star game. He attended Southern Miss, earning three Metro Conference Player of the Year awards, averaging 18.2 points and 11.3 rebounds in four seasons with the Golden Eagles. He was drafted ninth overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1992, beginning a 13-year NBA career with stops at Golden State, Miami, Cleveland, New York and Houston. He averaged 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds over 915 games in the league.
He served as an assistant coach at Southern Miss from 2016-22 and is currently the head coach at Meridian Community College.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
