David A. Farrell At-Large

PICAYUNE, Miss., March 10, 2010 — You must realize that when we follow Nat Lovell’s reminiscenses that we are looking back on the misty corridors of memory and that Lovell could have some things in error. That’s not to take anything away from his efforts, and just think if he had not put these things down on paper, how unfortunate we would be and how short on facts, or on any insight,  we would be. No matter how dim, these tales that he put down, gives us the best glympse we have of how football began in Picayune in the early 1920s.

Here’s the schedule and scores he gives for the 1923 season. He gives the dates of the games for 1923:

• Sept. 21 Picayune 19 Perkinston 6
• Sept. 29 Picayune 0 Laurel 26
• Oct. 5 Picayune 0 Pascagoula 12
• Oct. 13 Picayune 19 Jones Co. AHS 2
• Oct. 19 Picayune 31 Leake Co. AHS 0
• Oct. 26 Picayune 38 Verrina High 0
• Nov. 2 Picayune 26 Gulfport 0
• Nov. 10 Picayune 13 Hattiesburg 12
• Nov. 30 Picayune 0 Pike Co. AHS 12

So, in 1923, Picayune’s second year they won six games, and lost three, playing nine games that second year. In the team’s first year, 1922, they played eight games, won six and lost two. Not bad for the first two years.

In 1923, only in their second year, Picayune played for the South State championship against Pike Co. AHS at Summit. I believe that school is now known as Southwest Jr. College. It was like Pearl River College and many other junior colleges, who began as an agricultural high school and then morphed into a junior college as Mississippi began setting up a junior college system in the early part of the 20th Century. The south state was played on a neutral field at Columbia, and the winner would go against the north state champions. Picayune lost that game 12-0.

Here is the first-team line-up in the Picayune-Summit contest: RE Bill Dyle, LE Nat Lovell, RG Carl Megehee, LG Bill Anderson, RT Mitch Salloum, LT Jim Megehee, C “Nub” Anderson, QB Alton Johnston, RH Jack Read, LH Billy Stevens and FB Dobie Holden. The south state contest was played on Nov. 30. There were two subs on the sidelines that game, says Lovell: Louis Megehee, who would begin a sterling kicking career in 1925, and along with Holden be named to the first-team all-state team, and Albert Casanova. Lovell says that LG Bill “Wash”  Anderson played so hard that at the end of the game he had to be bodily carried off the field. Summit outweighed Picayune 20 lbs. per man on average. Lovell says the heavier Pike Co. Aggies “just wore us down” as the game progressed.

Although Picayune had a six-three won-loss record, they made it into the south state contest. One wonders what happened to Laurel, who trounced Picayune 26-0 the same year.

Lovell tells an interesting story about the 1923 Picayune-Hattiesburg clash, a game they played and won 13-12, right before they played Pike Co. and lost 12-0 for the south state championship. Lovell says Hattiesburg which in 1923 had a big, strong team came to Picayune “loaded for bear.” The game was played on Nov. 10. Lovell says Hattiesburg had five players who later started for Miss. State, Ole Miss and Tulane: Hubby and Gerald Walker, brothers, later played at State, Hardy who went to Tulane and a fullback Batton later played halfback at Ole Miss. Batton, proving how good he was, ran back the opening kickoff 90 yards for a TD. However, Hattiesburg could not generate an offense because of the tough Picayune defense. Hattiesburg generated only one first down during the first half. In the third quarter Hattiesburg scored again, but on both TDs missed the extra point, giving them a score of 12. Picayune QB Ap Johnson and RH Jack Read scored Picayune’s two touchdowns and RE Bill Dyle made one of the extra points for Picayune to squeak out a 13-12 win over Hattiesburg. Here is the starting line-ups for both Picayune and Hattiesburg for that 1923 contest, complements of Lovell’s sister, Lettie, who clipped the story at the time from the “Picayune Item.”  The “Item” volumns only go back to 1925. A fire destroyed the earlier volumns.

• POS  PICAYUNE               HATTIESBURG
• LE     Nat Lovell                 Hardy
• LT    Jim Megehee           Dunnigan
• LG    Carl Megehee           Hanna
• C        “Nub” Anderson     Gordon
• RT     Mitch Salloum        Conn
• RE     Bill Dyle                        King
• QB     Ap Johnson                Hubby Walker
• LH     Bill Stevens                 Gerald Walker
• RH     Jack Read                      Bethea
• FB      Dobie Holden             Batton
• RG     Bill Anderson             Davis

You will notice that from the 1922 team line-up for Picayune Holden had been moved to fullback, Read had earned a spot as the right halfback, and Center “Nub” Anderson makes his appearance at center. (I have to put in a personal note here. My dad, Robert L. Farrell, played on the 1925 state championship team. I can verify this by newspaper accounts. He was small but very quick. He played second string center right behind “Nub.” He seldom got to play because “Nub” was so good and consistent at center. That’s what my father told me years ago. He died in 1992.)  Also Bill Dyle took Holden’s place at end.  Also on the 1923 team halfbacks Ovied Davis and Bock Baham are not mentioned. Read and Billy Stevens have taken over the halfback positions. Lovell does not say what happened, whether they graduated or got rolled. Also Mitch Salloum has joined the team at right tackle. Louis D. Megehee, whose uncle is RG Carl Megehee and cousin LT Jim Megehee is waiting in the shadows and will burst upon the scene with a spectacular year in 1925.

Lovell reproduces an “Item” story concerning the football banquet given the 1923 team by the Junior Class of the Home Science Dept., supervised by a Miss Ritch. This story is very interesting and of historical importance because it tells the seniors that the 1923 team lost, and names a few other Boosters of what were then called the Cubs. It was given on a Saturday, Dec. 8, 1923. Twenty players were present, so we see that there are a number of second string players whom we don’t know the names of. Besides Denson, the “Item” also names a Blackwell as being present, who was probably an assistant to Coach Denson. Also present were Supt. S.L. Stringer, an attorney named Tyler and Paul Rowland. A several course meal was served the attendees and between courses toasts and speeches were made. The toastmaster Mr. Tyler gave a speech comparing the game of football to the game of life. Next the captain of the team for the next year, 1924, was selected from Holden, Lovell and Read. Read was elected and replaced the 1923 captain RE Bill Dyle. The team voted Read the 1924 captain. Denson gave a review of the 1923 season. [It would be great to have a copy of that speech.]  The newspaper reported that the 1923 team would loose two guards, LG Bill “Wash” Anderson and RG Carl “Fatty” Megehee, QB Ap Johnson, HB Billy Stevens and RE Bill Dyle. “It will be a hard matter to replace these varsity men, but somehow we expect to have a strong team next year (1924).” reported the “Item.” Unfortunately, Lovell did not have any info on the 1924 team in his book. He moved to Hattiesburg sometime in 1924 (although he says in one note 1925), and so we must look elsewhere for information on that 1924 team. (Maybe you have some information on it. If you do place a comment at bottom.)

Lovell has another interesting story about a game between Hattiesburg and Picayune, although he does not clarify exactly what year this happened in. It couldn’t have happened in 1922 since Hattiesburg did not play Picayune then according to Lovell’s 1922 schedule, and it did not happen in 1923 because Lovell says Picayune traveled to Hattiesburg to play this game while he says specifically that Hattiesburg traveled to Picayune for the the 1923 clash and Picayune beat Hattiesburg 13 to 12. In this game described below Hattiesburg beat Picayune 6 to 0. So, he must be talking about the 1924 season, and we will not know until we can research the 1924 season from some source as yet not found or known.

Here’s how it went: He put the story under a heading entitled “The Big Red Indian and Old Railroad Man.” Lovell says that both Picayune and Hattiesburg in the early 1920s were both “big railroad towns” and that during football season the rail workers carried roomers back and forth between the two cities. The rumor had been carried to Hattiesburg before the big game that Picayune had a “Big Red Indian” and a grown, fully-bearded “railroad man” working at the railroad who also played for the Cubs. The “Big Red Indian” was Bill Dyle and the “railroad man” was Nat Lovell himself because Nat worked for the railroad at the same time he attended school and played football. The Hattiesburg players named Dyle the “Big Red Indian” because of his dark complexion and called Lovell “the old railroad man.” Lovell said they were right about him because he was 22 years old. Lovell says the team went to Hattiesburg for the game on a special train and Hattiesburg officials placed them in the local YMCA until gametime. They arrived in Hattiesburg about noon. While the Picayune Cubs were getting dressed to go over to the stadium, four members of the Hattiesburg team bravely walked into the Cubs dressing room, said Lovell. They wanted to see “the big Red Indian” and the old “railroad man,” and insisted that those two could not play. They evidently were contesting Lovell age, but why they challenged Dyle, Lovell did not say, although it might have been because they considered him to be an Indian. Who knows? Lovell says the Hattiesburg players called Dyle and him “ringers.” The Hattiesburg players making the charge were Batton, the big fullback, Bethea, Dunnigan and Gerald Walker. When they asked to see the “ringers” Dyle spoke up and said, “I am the “Big Red Indian” and there sits the ‘old railroad man’,” pointing to Lovell. “We call him the Long Ranger,” added Dyle. Wrote Lovell, “I was in my shorts and they saw my skinny legs and the whole 120 lbs. of me. One of their players said, ‘Let’s go boys. I wish they were all like him’ (pointing to me)!” Hattiesburg beat Picayune 6-0. A Hattiesburg player named Ray Finch upset Picayune’s whole strategy, said Lovell, by consistently putting pressure on the Picayune QB, causing Picayune to have to adjust on offense, which they were used to doing. Finch would literally leap over the center and nab Picayune’s QB. Picayune changed to the shotgun offence. Lovell said the next time he saw Finch was at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933, and Lovell added that when he moved to Hattiesburg in 1924-25 he became good friends with a lot of Hattiesburg players who played in that game, like B.C. McWhorter. “I played basketball and baseball with them on the Hattiesburg teams up there,” said Lovell. “They all became close friends.”

This is the corner of Main Street and West Canal. The building you are looking at houses today Galiano's. It was originally constructed in 1907 and once housed Stovall's Drug Store and Ben Griffin's Rexall, complete with an authentic old-time soda fountain. Today the building is owned by David Hemeter. The upstairs is a penthouse. Right is the offices of the Picayune Item now offices for lawyers. The Item was house there for decades under the ownership of Jess Furr, Chance Cole and then beginning in 1962, Charlie Nutter. Nutter in 1968 moved it to North Curran where it remained until recently, relocating to 17 Richardson-Ozona Road. I was managing editor of the Item when it went daily in 1978. James Boone of Tuscaloosa, Ala., owned it then. Since then it has changed hands twice to big chain ownership. Before these buildings were here, the corner was just a waterhole and tie-up for horses of people who come to town from the country to do business here. There was a free-flowing artesian well on the site. Labron Megehee owned the first brick store building across the street where Stonewall's Barbecue place is now. It was a general merchandise store and post office, said Lovell. Right here and where Harrison Fiancial is now located, are ground zero for Picayune history.

This corner at East Canal and Harvey Avenue (U.S. Hwy 11) along with the Galiano's corner is the most historice sites in Picayune, probably outside of the Hermitage where Eliza Jane Pointevant Nicholson was reared. This is where Picayune actually began, historically ground zero. I am not sure about this but before the current building was there, A.P. "Bud" Megehee and his brother Labron Megehee owned a general merchandise store here. Later they moved over to the corner of Main Street and West Canal and built the first brick building in Picayune, a gerneral merchandise store where Stonewall's Barbecue is now located. It was also the post office. Then at the this spot, E.F. Tate founded the Bank of Picayune and constructed the building here, which, of course, has been remodeled. Bank of Picayune merged with Hancock Bank in the late 1970s after it failed. Right behind Harrison Financial today is the headquarters of First National Bank, founded in 1947 by S.G. Thigpen, Sr., and his business associates. Right where the First National is now located was the home of Mrs. Ann Megehee, who grazed her cows in her backyard right before and after Picayune was founded in 1904. Notice she was also a Megehee. Of course the property became so valuable that the family later sold it after she died. Her front yard was always full of colorful flowerbeds, old-timers recalled. Historical rumors are that S.G. and his friends started First National because they felt the officers of Bank of Picayune were too tight with their money and turned down a lot of loans they should have made. When my father, Robert Louis Farrell, returned to Picayune after the war, Bank of Picayune would not loan him any money to build his home at 202 Farrell Street, even though he had impeccable credit. He then went to "Grandpa" Thigpen and told him of his perdicament, and "Grandpa" told him, "Bob, you go out to the lumber yard and get whatever you need, and just pay what you can, but pay me a little something every month." Dad, did, and finished the house. I am sure this happened a lot, and by 1947 "Grandpa" and his business associates had opened First National.

This possibly the most historic block in Picayune, from the corner of Curran Avenue and East Canal, looking west. First National Bank, with a beaufiful French Quarter style facade, is right. Behind that facade are original storefronts of the old buildings that were there. It used to the site of the home of Mrs. Ann Megehee, who grazed her cows in her backyard, now First National's parking lot. Between First National and former Bank of Picayune for decades was the law offices of Stewart & Burks.

(More to come)

PICAYUNE, Miss., March 6, 2010  — Nat Lovell wrote and published a small, 120-page booklet in April 1984, entitled “The Way It Was, Memories of Picayune.” There is probably a copy of it at the local library. I actually purchased a copy of it when he published it. I loaned it to a friend in Poplarville and recently, almost 20 years later, the friend’s son returned it to me, saying he had gone through his dad’s stuff and found it with a note attached to it, saying, “Return this to David A. Farrell.”

Lovell writes that he came to Picayune in 1907 at the age of five with his mother. So he was born in 1902, probably at Millard.  He never names his mother or dad during the book, which is understandable. He admits at the front of his book that he is not a trained historian and would probably leave a lot out.

His dad was working at Millard in 1907 for the Batson Lumber Co., and what he termed a “gale,” what we call today a hurricane, blew through in September (September gales, they were called) and his dad was somehow killed in the hurricane. He does not say how his father died. Lovell was to remain in Picayune until 1924 when he took a job with the railroad in Hattiesburg.

He says that his family lived close to the Batson mill at Millard in the winter, and during the Spring and Summer, moved out to a farm three miles west of Millard. I guess they moved out to the farm at that time of year to raise a garden and farm. Writing in 1984, he said the farm was still called “The Old Lovell Place.” He said he had seven sisters, and one, when they moved to Picayune,  had just married what he called “a railroad man.” He does not name his sisters.

When they came to Picayune, they moved into an old house at the corner of East Second Street and North Curran Avenue. His mother turned it into a boarding house, serving three meals a day for regular boarders. His mother rented the house. He does not say who owned it.  The house is still there. It is raised way off the ground and is located right next to what used to be the “Picayune Item,” before the “Item” moved to its new address at 17 Richardson-Ozona Road. S.G. Thigpen, Sr., when he came to Picayune later lived in the house, and S.G. Thigpen, Jr., told me onetime that he had been born in the house. It is one of the most historic old homes in Picayune. It currently is used as a doctor’s office.

In addition to feeding her own boarders, Nat’s mother also fed businessmen and railroad men meals, operating sort of like a restaurant during the day. Lovell said his mother was a good cook and had a lot of customers who ate at her home. Lovell finally mentions a name. He said that his oldest sister also lived at the house, with her husband, Henry Moon. Moon worked for the railroad, riding a train that went to Hattiesburg each day and returned to Picayune the next. He doesn’t say whether it was a passenger or freight train. He called it a “local.”

He said that one of his sisters was the first telephone operator in Picayune and that later two more of his sisters went to work for the telephone company. I read somewhere that the first telephone exchange was located on the second floor of the old Bank of Picayune at the corner of East Canal and Harvey Avenue. The bank was founded in 1904 and probably the building was constructed around that time, so Lovell’s memory is probably correct on this one.

Lovell says that during the 17 years he was here he and his mother moved about 10 times. Each time she was able to rent a bigger home so she could increase the number of boarders in order to also increase her income. He says that finally they bought in 1920 a home on Second Street, located between Gray and Steel streets, from S.G. “Grandpa” Thigpen, Sr. It was the first they occupied to have indoor plumbing, and Lovell said he was overjoyed that he did not have to make the trip to an outhouse on cold nights. His mother later sold the home to a Mr. Knight, who came to Picayune to work for the Pearl River Valley Railroad, a short line owned by the Crosbys.

The Formation of Picayune’s First Football Team

It was 1921. Remember the name Vernon Jordan. History takes some funny twists and turns, and it was Jordan who sparked an idea in an educator’s head that eventually led to a football team in Picayune. There were about 600 students grades 1 through 12 attending the Picayune school system, which consisted of a block building where the old Bertie Rouse school is now located at the corner of 5th Street and North Haugh Avenue. “Prof.” S.L. Stringer, the superintendent,  was wracking his brain, wondering how he could attract back to school all the teen-aged boys who quit school to go to work. If a teen-aged boy could land a job back then, he much preferred to work and make some money rather than go to school, and, of course, his parents encouraged him to generate some income. Dobie Holden told me one time that the reason he returned to school in 1922 was to play foothall. He had quit school and was working in his father, Gideon Holden’s, meat market.

Lovell says he thinks the idea of a football team struck Stringer when a guy named Vernon Jordan, a ninth grader, told Stringer that he was leaving the Picayune system to go to Poplarville to enroll at the Agricultural High School, later Pearl River Jr. College, so he could play football. Pearl River, or at that time Poplarville High, had had a team for a number of years and was well into the sport. Basketball was the only sport that Picayune participated in at the time, says Lovell, and that conversation with Jordan set Stringer’s wheels to rolling. Lovell says Stringer told the boys old enough to play the sport that in 1922 he was going to hire a coach and organize a football team and set up a schedule.

However, everyone was so eager that a group formed and began practice on their own in the Spring and Summer of 1922 on a big green spot where the Chamber of Commerce building is now located across from the then Tate Hotel at the corner of Second and Harvey. Norman Stevens, whose family had moved to Picayune several years earlier and whose dad worked for Crosby at the mill, helped teach the greenhorns the game. Stevens was attending a private school and was home for the summer and he had actively participated in the sport at the private school he was attending. Stevens would later become a star athlete at LSU, lettering in baseball, track, football and basketball while playing for the Tigers. Stevens would also be instrumental in guiding Thomas Dobie Holden and Louis D. Megehee, two 1925 all-state first team members, to LSU. Lovell comments on two things: how round the ball was, more like a basketball than the later pointed version, and that a forward pass was called “chunking” the ball. Knute Rockne of Notre Dame had just recently invented the forward pass when he couldn’t move the ball on the ground against an opponent;  he decided to “chunk” the ball to a receiver. Football was just catching on nationally at this time, and had caught everyone’s imagination, including the teen-aged boys roaming Picayune. Stevens would kick the ball to the prospective players, and they would run the ball back to Stevens. “We really had no idea what we were doing,” said Lovell. “But it was fun, expended a lot of our pent up energy, and gave us something to do.”

Stringer Hires the First Coach,  Bill Denson, and Eyes the First Game, Gulfport

Lovell says that Stringer hired in 1922  the first coach, Bill Denson, and Denson arrived four weeks before the team’s first game ever against Gulfport. He tells nothing about where Denson came from or how he got the job. Nothing else is known about Denson. However, Lovell says that Denson never played the game and had never coached before he came to Picayune. He shows up at Picayune, coaches the Picayune Cubs, as they were called, for the 1922, 1923 and 1924 seasons and then disappears into the mysts of history. However, he evidently did a good job of laying a great foundation because the next year, 1925, under new head coach Augustus (Gus) Jackson, Picayune won the state championship and fielded what was later to be called one of the greatest teams ever to win a state championship. But that was three years away, and as life would have it, Lovell would not play on that 1925 state championship team. In 1924 he went to Hattiesburg to fill a job on the railroad. He would not return to Picayune until 1968 when he retired and moved back here from Chicago. I interviewed Lovell in 1968 after he returned to Picayune, he said, “I just never got Picayune out of my blood. The best years of my life were spent here, and I just always considered this, and called Picayune, home.” After returning here in 1968, he settled in, married Edna Russ, widow of Denny Russ, and spent the rest of his retirement happily in Picayune, writing two books before he died, I believe in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I met and talked to Lovell many times. He was outgoing, talkative, and never met a stranger. He had a good disposition, was always joking and probing you with questions and telling you old-time stories. His story of how he wound up in Chicago is a classic, and we will tell it later on in this story.

When Denson arrived, the team members began practice in their street clothes because the uniforms and shoes had not yet arrived. They had just recently been ordered after enough funds were donated by Picayune businesses. “The first thing he taught us was how to fall on a loose ball. To show you how dumb I was I wondered why he called it a loose ball when if he just aired it up, it would be a tight ball,” wrote Lovell. The new football “suits,” as Lovell called them, did not come in until one week before the Gulfport clash and there was only twelve suits, enough to dress out the first team 11 members and one left over for a second team man.

For practice, the team “dressed out” in a room at the school, the old Bertie Rouse school on North Haugh, and walked over to the field, which was actually located where Highland Community Hospital is now located on Goodyear Boulevard across from the school. There were no stands at the field, either, and when Picayune played its first home game, the fans just lined up along the sidelines and walked up and down the field, following the action. There were no showers or any type of facilities either, writes Lovell.  “After practice we just wore our “togs” home, showered at home and washed out our suits and hung them up to dry for the next evening’s practice,” he wrote. Practice began everyday at 3 p.m.

For 1922, the first team ever fielded by Picayune, here is the line-up and their weights, the first string, that started the first game with Gulfport, which was played in Picayune: QB Alton Johnson 135, RHB Ovied Davis 130, LHB Bock Baham 130, FB Johnnie D’Antoni 170, C  Bill Dyle 165, RG Donnie Mitchell 185, LG Frank White 150, RT Charlie D’Antoni 170, LT Jim Megehee 165, RE Dobie Holden and LE Nat Lovell. Substitutes were Guard Bill Anderson 175; Halfback Jack Read 130; and Guard Carl Megehee 170. Special substitute was Bruce “Blister” Breland. Lovell says Breland was used only for kick-0ffs. In addition, in a picture Lovell identifies Albert Cassanova, Ernest Blackwell and Ap Johnson as being on the team. Ap Johnson and Alton Johnson might be the same guy. (If you have more information on this please place a comment at the end of the story. Comments and input are welcome.)

Now there are several things that we must clarify here. Lovell gives no listing of the 1924 team. He only tells us, as best as we can determine, what the games and scores and lineups for the 1922 season and the 1923 season were. Why he leaves out the 1924 season is not clear. Of course, he left in 1924 to go to Hattiesburg for a railroad job, and he probably had to quit and leave before the season began. He said he took all of his information from newspaper clippings saved by his sister, so he might not have had any clippings for the 1924 season.

Also, notice that Holden was on the first team, playing right end, but by 1925 on the state championship team he had been moved to fullback by Jackson. There he performed flawlessly. Also, another player, Louis D. Megehee, who is not on the first team, by 1925 was playing end and was punting the ball, averaging almost 50 yards a punt. Exactly when Megehee joined the team is not clear. Lovell lists Louis as a sub on the 1923 team. His counsin was LT Jim Megehee and brother sub Carl Megehee on the 1922 team. Also, not on this first team was “Nub” Anderson, who evidently joined the team later, and was a stalwart at center by the time the 1925 state championship series of games rolled around. Holden and Louis D. Megehee also in 1925 were named to the state’s No. 1 offensive team because of their important play during that remarkable season. Both also, probably at the insistence of Norman Stevens, went on full scholarships to LSU after graduating from Picayune. Dobie remained there for four years and coached the Freshman LSU football team after graduating, and Megehee left LSU after his sophomore year and enrolled at Southern in Hattiesburg, known then as the State Teacher’s College (STC). Megehee just last year was voted into the USM Sports Hall of Fame. One time on Sept. 29, 1929, he punted the ball 85-yards against Mississippi College of Clinton, a fete reported by the Clarion-Ledger sportswriter Purser Hewitt in a dispatch right after the game. Megehee was called the kicker with an “educated toe” and was tall, lanky and strong just like all the Megehee boys of A.P. Megehee. In addition, notice that Jack Read is listed as a sub on this first team. He would later become the QB of the 1925 state champions and would be credited along with Holden and Megehee as probably the main reason Picayune fielded such a smart and powerful team in 1925. Sportswriters wrote that Holden had one of the best football minds in the game that year. And he proved that was so by his legendary record as a coach after his playing career was over.

Here is the results of the first season in 1922:

Picayune 21 Gulfport 7  Home; Picayune 6 Bogalusa 0 There; Picayune 0 Purvis 18 Home; Picayune 19 Columbia 6 Home; Picayune 0 Gulfport 37 There; Picayune 3 Rugby of New Orleans 0 Home; Picayune 20 SS Campground 0 There; and Picayune 58 Sumrall 0 Home. I believe, although I am not sure that SS Campground was St. Stanislaus.

Lovell points out that before the first game with Gulfport, Denson realized that most of his team had never even seen a football game much less played in one. And they had only had about four weeks of organized practice before having to meet Gulfport at Picayune before hometown fans. It could wind up being very embarrassing, I am sure Denton thought. In contrast Gulfport had had a football program going for years. So Denson decided to take the team up to Poplarville to see an actual game, Lovell writes. Poplarville for a number of years had been playing the game. He doesn’t say what game they saw but Lovell writes the sight of the game, the sheer violence of this early brand of football, put the newly aspiring Picayune players into shock. They had no idea that the game was that violent. Although fearful, says Lovell, nobody quit or “backed out.” It was like the World War II bomber pilots: when briefed that only about half would come back from a mission and told that if anyone wanted to back out it was okay, one pilot said, “We were just too damned ashamed and had so much pride that we would rather face death than have our fellow pilots think we were chicken.” It was sort of like that for Picayune’s first players.

He says that in the particular game they saw Poplarville play, that a guy named Roscoe Lumpkin on Poplarville’s team got real mad and began “tearing up the line.” I don’t know what Lovell meant, other than that Lumpkin just became real violent and began, as Lovell writes, “just slinging people around.” He said Jim Megehee later did that on Picayune’s team.

Lovell writes that Denson was concerned about Gulfport’s big and rough team, so he got a guy named Bruce “Blister” Breland to come practice with the team, because Breland had played earlier at Poplarville and knew a lot about the game. He did that so Breland could, sort of, talk to the players and keep them calm. Picayune won its first game against Gulfport 21-7. Lovell does not tell about any of the game’s action.

However, he does tell a funny and interesting story about when Picayune met Gulfport again for their second confrontation of that first 1922 season. This time Gulfport beat Picayune in Gulfport 37-0, and Lovell maintains that it was because someone from Gulfport played a trick on them, and supplied them with a huge bunch of bananas on which the team gorged itself before the game began. Also, the field had deep ruts in it because of a circus that had played on the field the day before the game, and Picayune’s runners were always stumbling and failing into the ruts. Combined, the ruts and the bananas, took their toll.

Lovell gives no dates for the games or at what time they were played or on what day of the week. Most I think were played on Saturdays and had to be played during the daytime, because remember, this is the early 1920s and there is no outdoor lighting at this time.

In Picayune’s first game against Gulfport, Picayune won the toin toss and chose to receive the ball. Denson put Breland in on the kickoff reception team, but after the first play took him out, and never played him again, Lovell writes. Why he did not let Breland play, Lovell does not say. But he said Breland continued to encourage and talk to the team, which helped, Lovell writes.

Lovell describes events surrounding the second game with Gulfport this way: The team traveled in cars from Picayune to Gulfport. You have to believe this was really rough because all roads back then would have been dirt. Lovell says they had a couple of flat tires, and that one car blew a tire, ran off the road and flattened a fence while going through Pass Christian. With the mishaps they did not get to Gulfport until about 11 a.m. This is probably on a Saturday. Gulfport officials put them in a comfortable place to rest and relax before the pre-game meal. However, “some guy” with a basketfull of bananas comes by and everyone eats a bait of bananas. “Nub” Anderson ate six. After they ate the bananas, Gulfport officials come by and took them for their pre-game meal. Results: they were definitely bloated. Then there were the ruts. “That’s my excuse for getting beat by Gulfport in that second game: Too much to eat and too many ruts!” said Lovell. (Go to Part III)

PICAYUNE, Miss., March 5, 2010 — I have been wondering what to do with this blog since I have gone to work for the “Picayune Item.” I originally began it, I think, in April 2009, wrote mostly about politics for about four months, covering the Picayune City Council mostly, and then put it in abeyance when I went to work as a reporter at the “Item”  in August 2009.

However, I think I will crank it back up, mostly as a blog on local history. I can roam At-Large in Pearl River Co., Picayune, Poplarville and Mississippi history, which I love anyway. I have always been interested in local history and can become mesmerized by a good history book, especially on local history. I have always sometimes just stared at places, wondering what was there before, and how certain spots must have looked 100 years ago.

I just recently did a story for the “Item” on Picayune Main Street’s history committee preparing to put historical plaques on businesses in the downtown historical district, and I went around town taking pictures of the businesses in the downtown district that will probably be recognized first. There is some interesting history there.

I was mesmerized while at the corner of Curran and East Canal, looking west at First National Bank and Harrison Financial. That section to me is ground zero for history of Picayune. It all began right there in 1904, and even across the tracks at West Canal and North Main, too, because right where Stonewall’s Barbecue is now was located Laban Megehee’s Mercantile Store, what according to Lovell, they used to call the brick store. It was probably the first brick building ever constructed in Picayune.

Also where the First National Bank is now located in around 1900 was Anne Megehee’s home, with flower beds in her front yard and a large field in the back of her house where her cows grazed, in what is now First National’s parking lot. Don’t you wish you had a time machine to go back and view it?

Laben Megehee had a brother named A.P. Megehee. He had a son named Louis D. Megehee, a great football player on the 1925 Picayune state champion football team. I am doing a story on that and Megehee, which will run next week in the “Item.”  The old A.P. Megehee place was located out on old Hwy. 43 near where it intersects with Inside Road. I have been told that A.P. also owned a store right where the old Bank of Picayune was constructed, now Harrison Financial. I have not verified this. Louis D. Megehee went to LSU two years — 1926 and 1927 — with Dobie Holden. Both played on the 1925 state championship team, where named to the All-State No. 1 team, and won scholarships to LSU.

Coach Holden remained at LSU even after he graduated and coached the LSU Freshman team. He then was named head coach at Picayune and build a dynasty here in the 1930s. He then went to Pascagoula in 1945, 46 and 47, where he won a Big Eight Conference championship. He also coached Coach Frank “Twig” Branch at Pascagoula, and “Twig” followed Holden to Pearl River Junior College and played for Holden. After that “Twig” went to Mississippi State for two years, coached at Bogalusa, La., for a season and then was head coach at Picayune from 1956 to 1963. I played for “Twig” in 1963. Coach Branch left coaching after the 1963 season and became a businessman. He now lives in Picayune retired, at age 72. His son is a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy.

Megehee left LSU after two years and went to play at USM in Hattiesburg for two years, 1928 and 1929. When he played for USM, it was know as the State Teacher’s College, STC. They played in Kamper Field. Megehee was noted as the football player with an “educated toe.” He was tall, lanky and strong like all the Megehees. He once punted the ball 85 yards, a fete verified by Clarion-Ledger old-time sports writer Purser Hewitt who covereed the game on Sept. 29, 1929, against Mississippi College at Kamper Field in Hattiesburg in which the punt was made.

Picayune on Dec. 11, 1925, beat Leland high school, the north division champions, in a state championship game played before 3,000 fans also at Kamper Field in Hattiesburg, a neutral spot. The game, according to a press dispatch run in the “Hattiesburg American” after the game, said that the game was filmed. Man! Could you imagine what finding and watching that film would be like. I wonder if it still exists and where? Maybe someone out there might know, or have some ideas on how to find that film. Anyway, Picayune beat Leland 18-0, and the nail was put in Leland’s coffin when Megehee blocked a field goal attempt by Leland, scooped the ball up and ran 85 yards for the final TD. It was all over. Picayune ended the year 1925 with an 8-0 record, and had scored 317 points to the opponents 19, a record in the South. The previous record was 250 points. {You can read an additional story below in another blog I did on Coach Holden. Just click on “History” category and scroll down.}

Anyway, I want to reproduce some facts out of Lovell’s book here about early Picayune. Lovell played on the 1922, 1923 and 1924 football teams, and in his books he recalls those years. He played left end. He tells that he left Picayune in 1924, and just missed being on the 1925 team. He worked for the railroad, even while attending school, and moved on up the railroad line working for the railroad. He, after the Great Depression hit, moved on up to Chicago where his sister lived, hunting for a job. There he remained until 1968 when he retired and moved back to Picayune. He later married Edna Russ, former wife of Denny Russ, and lived his last days here a happy man.

As I said, I interviewed him in 1968 when he returned to Picayune, and I asked him why he came back after living so many years up North. “Well,” he said, “the years I spent in Picayune where the happiest of my life. Although I left and worked all my life away from Picayune, it was always home to me because I loved it so much.” Lovell died a number of years ago, I think in the late 1980s. Maybe some of you know, so write a comment at the end of the this story.

Also I want to encourage people to comment on these stories. There is no limit to your comments either. So sound off. If you see an error let me know. The more information I get on Picayune, Poplarville and Pearl River Co., the better. That is really all I am interesting in is generating information on the history of this place I call home.

Next time we will explore Lovell’s remembrances of the first football teams in Picayune and how it all got started. Picayune has always had a fine football tradition. (Go to Part II)