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Gulf South Conference Champion Track Team of 1976 Honored at Mississippi College


1976 Choctaw Track team

Future U.S. Olympic star Larry Myricks remains among the standouts on Mississippi College’s 1976 track team.

A superb long jumper who won the bronze medal at the 1988 U.S. Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Myricks is considered to be the greatest athlete in MC track history. The Jackson native reigned as NCAA long jump champion decades ago. The MC graduate’s duels with U.S. track sensation Carl Lewis were legendary.

But there were other MC Choctaws excelling on the squad coached by Joe Walker, Jr. They were good enough to win the Gulf South Conference championship the same year the USA celebrated its Bicentennial.

Mississippi College track team members of ‘76 return to the Clinton campus for a reunion Saturday. They will be honored at half-time ceremonies of the Choctaws football game with Texas College. Kickoff at Robinson-Hale Stadium is set for 7 p.m. to open the 2015 season.

Athletic Director Mike Jones is delighted to toss out the welcome mat on the Clinton campus.

“I was in school with all of these great athletes, and it was great to watch them compete at such a high level,” Jones said.

“Our great history in the Gulf South Conference started with their championship in 1976,” Jones added. “We are proud and excited to be able to recognize these outstanding Choctaws.”

Mississippi College teams are in their second season transitioning to NCAA Division II competition and returning to the Birmingham-based GSC.

MC head track and cross country coach Butch Ard will join fans on hand for Saturday’s festivities.

“They were tremendous,” Ard said. “Those guys laid the foundation for a great tradition in track and field at Mississippi College. I’m glad we were able to get the team back and recognize them for their awesome accomplishments.”

Coach Walker turned the MC team into a track powerhouse. Soon after he arrived in 1972, MC continued to use the track at Forest Hill High in Jackson as its home turf. He helped push for the addition of a new MC track about 1973. Just three years later, the Choctaws captured the Gulf South Conference title.

“Coach Walker was the catalyst for success,” recalls former MC track star Bobby Waterbury, who tossed the discus and shot put.

A longtime Clinton resident and CEO of Waterbury’s Fastpitch, he rates Walker as one of the best track coaches in the nation. Walker later served as track coach at Ole Miss.

“He built and recruited and motivated and trained,” Waterbury said. “He led the way.”

Whether they played football, basketball, baseball or other sports, MC students rallied around the track team’s success nearly four decades ago. “Athletes of all sports admired our wins and record of accomplishment,” says Waterbury, a member of the MC Sports Hall of Fame.

The Gulf South Conference track team triumph that year was especially sweet. MC’s squad won the title on the home field of rival Delta State in Cleveland.

Other stellar members of the 1976 team include: James Trimble, an All-American in the 110 yard high hurdles, Robert Stewart, a top ten team scorer all four years, and MC Track Club President Steve Campbell. Woody Barnett, who served four years as team manager and track assistant, is expected to attend Saturday’s reunion. Barnett later become Pearl High’s longtime track and cross country coach and athletic director.

Names like Ricky McPhail, Lawrence Funches, and Jerry Williams, were also on the long list of top-notch athletes on MC’s 1976 track team.