The Story of Jackson’s GRA-Y Football and How Boys Became Men
By Joe Maxwell
Click here to blog your own GRA-Y youth football memories. We want to hear from you. Who knows, you may hook up again with a long-lost nose guard from that evil team you loved to face.
Jackson’s first-ever college football game was October 27, 1894, between a newly formed Ole Miss team and the University of Alabama. “It will be a battle royal,” a local paper predicted on the eve of the contest at the Fairgrounds.
Alabama’s players averaged 155 pounds; Ole Miss’s 160 pounds. The teams battled to a half-time tie; then Ole Miss scored in the second half to win 6-0.
“The game was witnessed by eight hundred or a thousand people,” reported The Clarion-Ledger, adding, “though few of them were up to the science of the work on the gridiron, they understood when Mississippi was victorious … and were unstinted in their cheerings.”
For a city with decades of Christian roots, Jackson now had a “second religion”—football.
Today, Jackson is filled with “Dandy Dozens” and high-school rivalries, and—as The Sporting Spirit has recently learned—even trash-talk about the good-old days of youth football.
Perhaps no time in a boy’s life is the game played for purer reasons than in the elementary years, with its rampant chinstrap rash and first glimpses of stars.
In Mississippi, football would never have ascended to its high place without the YMCA’s GRA-Y program.
Here is Jackson’s story of youth football, the YMCA, and boys becoming men.
“We had all these plays designed to get the ball to Cosmo Lloyd, but I would just take the ball on the run almost every time, ramming it down the field.”
William D. Mounger, 6th Grade--1938 Power Elementary School Hornets
Mounger and his Hornets defeated arch-rival, Davis 20-0 in 1938. It was these Jackson youths only organized 6th grade game. Most games then were pick-up in the Belhaven College bowl.
“All the boys from all age groups would gather out there at the bowl each Saturday and play football all day long,” recalls Jeff Fatherree, 73, a former Hornet himself.
“There wasn’t anything for little people who grew up during those days,” recalls Mounger. “We didn’t have any darn football shoes or pad. You wore whatever you had. We had no equipment.”
Organized youth football was in its infancy, but already was fomenting neighborhood pride as Davis rooted for Jerry Tiblier, an eventual All-American at Army, and Power pulled for Mounger, who also attended West Point to play football.
Adults then, as now, watched and boasted in their “boys”—an ancient ritual.
The Metro-YMCA soon kicked youth football fervor into a high gear around Jackson.
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“The formative and plastic years of youth are our unique opportunity. The training of youth in ‘spirit, mind and body’ is the business of the YMCA.”
A 1949 Jackson YMCA brochure
The Jackson YMCA was founded at a First Baptist Church meeting in 1907, just nine years after Jackson’s first football game occurred. Football and the “Y” grew in tandem for a century. To become a good man, the Jackson Y believed, a boy should be nourished intellectually, spiritually, and physically. “At the very foundation of our hopes stand our youth,” the Jackson Y leaders posited, “who must carry more and more responsibilities. They must be youth of sound character.”
In the 1940s, the YMCA’s white youth formed their football teams via the Y’s downtown site; the city’s black youth organized via the Y’s Farish Street location. Equipment was virtually non-existent at both locations.
“I don’t know it we had helmets or not,” recalls Fatherree. “Come to think of it, I’m not sure we had shoulder pads.” The Y teams played on vacant grass lots just north of the current state capitol and north of the current Baptist Hospital. The YMCA’s status grew among parents and schools.
With Jackson’s population of boys swelling, funds were raised and a new downtown YMCA built under the leadership of city fathers including W. M. Mounger W.A. Yerger, W.C. Wells, and C.R. Underwood. The building was at North President and High streets, where The Clarion-Ledger now sits.
A more expansive program began called the GRA-Y, a name originating from the “GRA” in “grammar” and “Y” in YMCA. “Our philosophy was to complement the schools with a little athletic program because they didn’t have them at the time,” recalls long-time YMCA administrator, Lee Door, who now runs the Fitness Depot in Ridgeland.
A college-aged coach was paired with “ten to thirty” boys from one elementary school to oversee a year of football, basketball and baseball—plus weekly devotional meetings. In 1955, 270 boys participated.
GRA-Y programs spread to McWillie, Boyd, Watkins, Duling, Power, and the Mississippi School for the Deaf on the city’s Northside; Galloway, Davis, Barr, Poindexter, and Whitfield in the Central region; French, Bradley, and Lake to the West; Lester and Key to the southwest. (With time, others were added including Spann, Casey, VanWinkle, Woodville Heights, Wilkins, Oak Forest, Baker, Sykes, and Marshall.)
“As members of GRA-Y,” one Y flyer insisted, “it is our purpose to be strong in body, mind, and spirit, and to live in a Christian way in our homes, schools, churches, and neighborhoods.”
The YMCA and GRA-Y football was now ready to touch Jackson’s future and mold its leaders.
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The pads were heavy, and I was amazed how I could run at all. … We played the single wing offense (just like Tennessee!), and (running back) Andy Wells was fearless. He would run full steam into anybody, and that was usually a lot of bodies because blocking, as we now know it, was not exactly an art form for us wee folk.
Dr. Bill Wright--1961 6th Grade Power Hornet
Fighting Watkins beat the Mississippi School for the Deaf our 6th grade year. … I had the only touchdown of my entire football career!!!
Warren Halliday--1961 6th Grade Watkins Weasel
I was a Span Spider and played center for two games. I got beat up real bad in the first game and in the second game the guy opposite of me kept knocking me on my butt every time I delivered the ball to our quarterback. Later he took his helmet off and he had a full grown mustache.”
Mike Turbeville--1961 6th Grade Watkins Weasel
The Boyd Elementary School Beavers made a great run in 1955, putting the entire Meadowbrook neighborhood in a buzz. First came a 12-7 win over the Mississippi School for the Deaf Silents, even as the Duling Elementary School Bears slammed the Watkins Lions, 30-0. Boyd also bested everyone. A city championship battle loomed against cross-town Forrest Hill Rebels at Jackson’s Hardy Stadium. It was part of the Y’s football jamboree in which all 22 teams played. Adults paid 50 cents to watch; students paid 25 cents.
The Beaver’s “failed to beat the Rebels scorewise,” wrote the Northside Reporter, losing 7-6. “They made a good showing in game play and many times during the match seemed the better team.”
The Reporter took comfort in the fact that all the other Northside GRA-Y teams won or tied their Jamboree games against cross-town foes. Citywide, neighborhood youth football rivalries quickly took root in the 1950s and ‘60s amid rumors of those mysterious, monster boys living 20 blocks away. It was a milieu ripe for making memories.
Steve Amman’s 1958 Boyd Beavers are etched in his mind. “Watkins … had a big guy faster than anybody we had. … who would run for the sidelines, then turn up field and run for a touchdown. Nobody could catch him, and they beat us 14-0 (although it seemed a lot worse than that.)”
Losing hurt, but for Henry Tucker, one of Amman’s teammates, something else stands out more. “My dad bought me a new helmet when I was in the 6th grade. … I remember my dad being at the games. And that made me feel good, especially when we lost.”
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My sixth grade year, I didn’t get to play all the time. It was not because of my ability, it was because of my weight. They had a weight limit—and I was right on the borderline.
Skipper Jernigan--1961 6th Grade Spann Spider
“Skipper Jernigan” became a household name among Mississippians in the early 1970s as one of 12 Murrah High School football players from the 1966, 1967 and 1968 classes to play football for Ole Miss. All but one grew up in GRA-Y football.
“At Spann we were red,” recalls Jernigan. “I think Watkins was some ungodly maroon color. I’ve always been an old lineman, you know—leading with my chin. I’ve been accused of playing too without a helmet too. We had those single bars, then I think we finally graduated to double bars. But I don’t think everybody had a face mask yet."
It was Jackson GRA-Y’s golden years. GRA-Y boys knew they eventually would play together at Bailey or Chastain junior highs. “It was very, very competitive,” recalls Jernigan. And, in some cases, GRA-Yers played their secondary school ball at local Catholic schools.
“GRA-Y was a good starting place for me,” recalls Johnny Maloney, whose Holy Family Catholic grammar school in the late 1960s had no football team; so Maloney rode his bike to practice with Green Elementary School’s team. “I went from playing in the 5th quarter at GRA-Y games to playing in the Capital Bowl for St. Joseph High School beating Murrah to playing in the Mississippi All-Star Football game in 1974.”
Meanwhile, some African-Americans enjoyed a GRA-Y experience, but some lacked access due to geography or the small fee required. “I never played organized ball in elementary school,” recalls Vernon Perry, 54, who went on to star for Jackson State and the Houston Oilers and in the Canadian Football League. “I learned my ball in my grandmomma’s back yard.”
As with every social structure, integration in the early 1970s affected Jackson’s GRA-Y program. For a time, private schools including Jackson Prep, Jackson Academy, Manhattan and McClure played along with the public schools.
At First Presbyterian Day School alone, one legendary coach, Billy Joseph, impacted a host of now-forty-something men. Joseph now serves on the pastoral staff of Jackson’s First Presbyterian Day School.
Those touched by Joseph include: Keith and Kevin Morgan, John and Jim Lewis, Mark Henry, Martin McGee, John Marchetti, Claude McRoberts, Ward Toler, Lee Owen, Chris Parker, Joe Maxwell, Joseph & Donald Pettit, John England, Mackey White, Craig Dale, Jim Hodges, Jeff Draughn, Bobby Nix, Bill Simmons, Ed Williford, Will Young, Todd Fulcher, Brent Habig, and Neal Clement—and more.
New rivalries sprung up. Brian Farr, 42, was a JA GRA-Yer. “I played tight end and wore Alan Page-style forearm pads. … Coach called a tight end reverse. I took it to the house and noticed my (much) older brothers cheering on the sidelines. I spontaneously did my Billy White Shoes Johnson imitation. It wasn't pretty and I still catch grief from my brothers.”
Jeff Draughn, now 46, played for First Presbyterian: “I remember having to tell our … coach that a lead blocker probably was a good idea on a sweep. I recall the taste and smell of that just-boiled mouthpiece and Hutch helmets that left a dent on your forehead … and every other play being a cross-buck left or right.”
Dudley Wooley, Keith Ball, and Bill Moore, all 42, played in the fifth grade for a First Presbyterian team invited to Jackson’s Knights of Columbus Bowl. Recalls Wooley: “Little did we know that we would be playing in temps in the 30s against what turned out to be a seventh grade, all-star team of kids from the parochial schools around Jackson. They annihilated us!”
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So what happened to the GRA-Y football? It served an amazing purpose, but times, people and places change. The YMCA today has adjusted to new circumstances, continuing to develop youth in mind, body, and spirit via a variety of sports and other offerings. Meanwhile, a host of youth football programs exist.
The private Mississippi Youth Athletic Association largely serves the Metro’s public school youth; there is also the Mississippi Youth Sports Association, the Northwest Rankin Athletic Association, Jackson Academy’s internal youth football league, and a league including First Presbyterian, St. Richards, St. Andrews, and Madison Ridgeland Academy.
At least four factors caused the YMCA to phase out of football. First, integration in the early 1970s broke up neighborhood schools—both black and white—and thus fractured the support of local adult networks.
Second, civil rights legislation in 1960s and ‘70s inhibited GRA-Y programs from bringing its Christian element into public schools.
Third, competitive juices may have sometimes overflowed, says former Northside YMCA director, Barbara Mitchell. “Certain schools … got overly competitive. … And the Y was adamant about ‘every child plays’.” At some point, the Y began using fathers to coach teams versus hired college students. “We’d find coaches that might coach the same team for several years and just build a dynasty.”
Fourth, soccer quickly hit the scene in the 1980s. It was cheaper to outfit a child for the sport, recalls Mitchell, and soon more Y children played it than football. Plus, she adds, “I think a lot of people didn’t want their children in the danger that football represented.”
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Football still is teaching Jackson youth good values. “We insist that everyone plays on our teams,” says Gloria Jones, volunteer director of the Mississippi Youth Sports Association, which places 3,000 youth on 52 Metro-area teams. GRA-Y in Jackson’s African-American community eventually was taken over by CM&I College, and then became MYSA.
Each MYSA team has a pro-football name; a host of local men coach each team, maintaining strong team loyalties through the years. Professional players including the Washington Redskins’ Fred Smoot and Atlanta Falcon’s Jerious Norwood sponsor entire “units,” composed of three teams for ages 6-8, 9-10, and 11-12.
The MYSA teams started practicing in July. “Son, you’ve got to square your feet and fire off!” one Steeler coach bellows, as their unit practices on Chastain’s fields. “You can’t quit here and you can’t quit in life,” he adds.
The bottom line: Jacksonians know football turns boys to men.
Jeff Fatherree’s 1945 Y football team produced a Duke University professor, lobbyists, bank executives, manufacturing barons, and more.
“It taught us about organization and camaraderie and sportsmanship,” recalls Fatherree, a retired mechanical engineer still living in Jackson. “GRA-Y football taught me that with persistence and effort, you can achieve your goals,” says Stephen Farr, who played his GRA-Y ball in the early 1970s at Jackson Academy.
Dudley Wooley: “I can still hear my coach yelling, “Touch the treeeees boooys!” when practice wasn’t going well. … What he really was saying was, “You’ve got to focus more, try harder and put forth a better effort.” I can’t tell you how many times in my life since those days I’ve had to demand those same things from myself.”
One-hundred-and-fourteen years ago, football came to Jackson. And with the exception of war and hunting experience, men probably hold fewer memories more closely. Mississippi boys this very afternoon are becoming men at their football practice—and loving it.
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joe@thesportingspirit.com
* MYSA photo by Tim Ward; all other photos courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History