MGCCC recognizes Athletic Hall of Fame inductees

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College recognized the 2009 Athletic Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor inductees and the Spirit of Gulf Coast Award recipients at a reception held in their honor on September 24 at the Perkinston Campus. (from left to right, back row) George Beemon; Marvin Lewis, brother of honoree Fred Lewis; Billy Salter, Donald Massengale Jr.; Stephanie Gruich; Dr. Willis H. Lott, MGCCC president (from left to right, seated) Lynn Rexinger, daughter of honoree Albert “Rex” Rexinger; Beverly Coleman; and Elaine Brockmeyer

2009 Spirit of Gulf Coast recipients (left to right) Barry Harper and Dub Herring

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College recognized the 2009 Athletic Hall of Fame and Hall of Honor inductees and the Spirit of Gulf Coast Award recipients at a reception held in their honor on September 24 at the Perkinston Campus. The program highlighted the athletic achievements of Athletic Hall of Fame honorees Earl George Beemon II, Beverly Jean Coleman, Stephanie Lee (Seymour) Gruich, Fredrick DeShun Lewis, Billy Dave Salter, Donald Massengale Jr. and the late Albert Isaac “Rex” Rexinger. Also recognized for their support and dedication of Gulf Coast athletics were Hall of Honor inductee Audrey Elaine (Alexander) Brockmeyer and Spirit of Gulf Coast Award recipients Barry Harper and Dub Herring.

Earl George Beemon II

Athletic Hall of Fame
Men’s Tennis
Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Perkinston Campus
September 1965 - May 25, 1967

George Beemon was already a solid tennis player when he came to Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College in 1965. “I started playing tennis when I was seven years old,” Beemon says. “I learned how to play in the Gulfport Recreation Department’s program. They had individual parks, and once a week a tennis instructor would come by and teach us the game.”

But with the direction of tennis coach Sue Ross, his game really took shape once he got to Perk. Beemon, a Gulfport native, played men’s tennis at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (Perkinston Campus) for both the 1965-66 and 1966-67 seasons. “My roommate was the No. 1 player, and I was No. 2,” Beemon says. “We finished 1-2 in the state that year.”

Ross took Beemon and another player to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Tennis Tournament held at Central Florida Junior College in Ocala, Florida, where they placed eighth in the nation. As a member of the 1966-67 team, Beemon won the state junior college singles championship and was undefeated in singles play. He says although his time on the court was special, it was the time off the court at Perk that he remembers most.

“Even if you threw out the tennis, those were the best two years of my life,” he says. “Just from the people I met and the people I still know. It’s incredible to see what the people I knew back then have accomplished in their lives.” Beemon continued his successful tennis career after leaving Gulf Coast. He’s won numerous state and regional championships as a tennis player and coach. He says despite some aches and pains that come with age, he still enjoys playing….and reminiscing about his days at Perk.

“I wasn’t an introvert when I got to Perk,” Beemon adds, “but I developed as a person while I was there. Being there helped me grow and gain a lot of confidence. I was a pre-engineering major, so we had a lot of math to study and learn. I had so many instructors who were willing to go the extra mile to help me anytime I needed it.” Like the time Beemon needed help with calculus. “My instructor was L.D. ‘Buster’ Stringfellow (presently a member of the college’s Board of Trustees). At that time, he lived in one of the dorms. I was struggling with calculus, and I went over and knocked on his door at 10:30 at night. He came to the door in his pajamas, and we sat at his kitchen table, and he helped me with calculus. I’m pretty sure you can’t do that any place else.”

Beemon is currently a member of the Mississippi Tennis Association, Jackson County Community Tennis Association, Mississippi Tennis Foundation, and United States Tennis Association. He retired from the Travelers Insurance Company and now works part time at The Peoples Bank of Biloxi.

Beverly Jean Coleman

Athletic Hall of Fame
Women’s Basketball
Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Perkinston Campus
September 1978 - May 11, 1980

Believe it or not, Beverly Coleman didn’t come to Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College in 1978 to play basketball. Before coming to Perk, the Gulfport native was a standout point guard for three state championship teams under head coach Van Chancellor at Harrison Central High School. However, playing basketball wasn’t on her agenda. “I had a lot of scholarship offers coming out of high school,” Coleman says. “But all of my friends were at Perk, so I decided to go there. Plus, my mom didn’t want me too far away from home. I went there just to go to school.”

That is until Gulf Coast women’s head coach Sue Ross and assistant coach Doris “Blackie” Smith learned that Coleman was enrolled at the college. “I was in the recreation gym one day playing basketball,” she says. “The coaches invited me to see the team. They offered me a full ride, and I took it.” Coleman played basketball in the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons. She averaged 20 points per game during her time with the Lady Bulldogs and won nearly all of the team awards. She also represented the college at the annual MACJC All-Star Game, in which she earned several honors.

After graduating from MGCJC, she played for the University of South Alabama in Mobile. After college, Coleman went overseas with her family and played professional basketball in Germany, Spain, Greece, and Turkey until 1990. “Being in Europe gave me a great chance to play,” she says. “I grew up a little bit at Perk, and that helped me in Europe. I played there, got to travel, and I enjoyed it.”

Currently she’s the girl’s head basketball, soccer, and volleyball coach at Mobile’s Vigor High School. In her first season at Vigor, her team went 24-3 before going to the Alabama 5A State Tournament. In the next two seasons, her teams won back-to-back 5A state titles. Quite a record for someone who wasn’t interested in playing basketball when she came to Perk nearly 31 years ago. “At that time I remember thinking, ‘No, I don’t want to play,’ but the coaches kept asking me,” Coleman says. “Obviously, I’m glad I went to Perk because I don’t think I would have been successful going to a bigger school right off the bat. I had my friends around me, and the teachers there were outstanding and always willing to work with you. It was more like home to me. I enjoyed playing under Coach Ross and Coach Smith. We were like a close family. ”

Stephanie Lee (Seymour) Gruich

Athletic Hall of Fame
Softball
Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Perkinston Campus
January 1985 - May 1986
Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Jackson County Campus • September - December 1986

Stephanie Lee (Seymour) Gruich of Ocean Springs had an exceptional softball career. After college, she played for Women’s ASA Open Class until she was 30 years old. During that period, she played for teams in Michigan, Florida, and Tennessee, and her teams won seven national championships and were five-time championship runner-ups. She was named All-American five times and won a Silver Medal at the Olympic Festival in 1990.

Her passion for the game started when she was nine years old. Coached by her father and her high school coach, Jack Hughes, her love for softball continued to grow. After high school, she signed with Delta State University, but wanted to be closer to home, so she found her niche at Perk. She played softball at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (Perkinston Campus) for the 1985 and 1986 seasons under Coach Doris Smith.

“Right after high school, going to Perk was what I needed,” she says. “Coach Smith and my team were like family to me, and the close-knit atmosphere there allowed me to grow as a person and a player. That same family feeling helped me academically as well and helped me prepare for returning to the university later.” The 1985 Lady Bulldog softball team posted an overall record of 25-8 and an enviable conference record of 15-1. For her performance on the field, Gruich was selected both for All-State and All-Region 23 honors. In 1986 the Lady Bulldogs recorded the best performance of an MGCJC team in the history of the institution to that time. In a five-game state tournament shoot-out in Elvis Presley Park in Tupelo, Gruich was mentioned in dispatches for scoring in the first three games and then for her key role in defense in the last two. Officials presented the Lady Bulldogs with the state trophy on Friday night, April 25, 1986. At the National Junior College Athletic Association Women’s Softball Tournament at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, May 2-3, 1986, the Lady Bulldogs captured fifth place. Gruich, as a leading tournament hitter (7 for 12), was named to the All-Tournament team, and once again as the year before, she was named All-State and All Region 23.

Gruich, who is currently a principal at St. Martin Middle School, is married to Dr. James Gruich. They have three daughters - Katelyn, eleven; Shelby, nine; and Sidney, six.

Fredrick DeShun Lewis

Athletic Hall of Fame
Baseball
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Perkinston Campus
September 1999 - May 9, 2001

Scan through the sports section of any newspaper in the United States, and you’ll probably find the Major League Baseball (MLB) box scores… and when you get to the San Francisco Giants information, you’ll see the name “FLewis” in the lineup. That’s Fred Lewis, Giants outfielder and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College alumnus. Lewis, a Wiggins native, is the son of recent Gulf Coast retiree Vivian Lewis.

Lewis played baseball and football at Gulf Coast (Perkinston Campus), during the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 seasons. As a baseball player, he made the All-State and All-Region teams. He attended Southern University in Baton Rouge before going to the Minor Leagues. In the Minors, he played with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, Hagerstown Suns, and the Norwich Navigators. Since becoming a pro, Lewis gets a head start on the season by working out with the Gulf Coast baseball team before leaving for spring training. “They help me, and I help them,” he says. “I love to practice with the guys. It helps me get my blood flowing. I really believe this cool weather gets me in shape.”

Lewis earned the trip to the Majors by playing in 120 games with the Fresno (California) Grizzlies, the Giants AAA affiliate, as an outfielder. In 439 at bats, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Lewis batted .276 with 12 homeruns and 56 RBIs. As the 2006 season ended in Fresno, he was packing his bags to go home, when destiny paid him a visit. “I expected to be going home. They asked me, ‘Why are you packing to go home? You’re going to the big leagues.’ It was like a dream come true.” So Lewis went to Chicago to join the Giants as they took on the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Lewis split the 2007 season between the Minors and San Francisco. On May 13 of that year, Lewis hit for cycle (when a player records a single, double, triple, and homerun all in the same ball game) in just his third MLB game of that season at Colorado. That 5-for-6 performance with three runs scored and four RBIs made, Lewis just the fourth player in MLB history (since 1900) to hit his first big-league homerun as part of cycle. On June 1, 2007, he hit his first MLB grand slam against the Philadelphia Phillies, and on July 4, he hit another grand slam against the Cincinnati Reds, becoming the first player in Giants history to hit two grand slams in his rookie season.

Lewis is currently with the Giants as the team attempts to qualify for the 2009 MLB playoffs. In his nearly four seasons with San Francisco, Lewis has a career batting average of .282. On June 20, he broke out of a 2-for-26 slump with a two-run homer against Texas, which tied the game and helped the Giants eventually win 6-4. “I always had people telling me that it’s just a mind thing ... to get back to being the hitter you were in the beginning,” Lewis said after that contest. “I’ve been working hard behind the scenes.”

Donald Massengale Jr.

Athletic Hall of Fame
Football
Perkinston Junior College September 1, 1953 - January 1955
Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Jackson County Campus, Spring 1973 - Spring 1974

Don Massengale Jr. believes the toughest two years of his life occurred while he was at Perkinston Junior College playing football from 1953-1955 under Coach Harold “War Daddy” White. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life,” says the Pascagoula native. “Playing for Harold White was much tougher than going through Officer Candidate School. You didn’t have a tough time with other things in life thanks to that experience.

If you went through his program, you could handle anything.” Massengale was on the 1953 team that earned a 7-3-1 record, including a 6-6 tie against Co-Lin at the Laurel Lions Bowl. “Earlier that season, we beat Co-Lin 14-0, so the team wasn’t that excited about playing them again in Laurel,” he says. “But Coach White wanted us to go to the bowl game, and we did. The field was muddy, and I remember warming up in ankle-deep mud. It rained the entire game, and we managed a 6-6 tie.”

The following season, Massengale switched from playing fullback to center after a conversation with Coach White. “I gained about 25 pounds before the 1954 season. Coach White told me he always wanted a big center who could move, and I told him, ‘Good luck with that, Coach.’ He then informed me that I was going to be his center, and I played every minute of every game in the ’54 season.”

After college, Massengale began working at Ingalls Shipbuilding (now Northrop Grumman Ship Systems). He retired in 1994 as director of Industrial Relations Services. He joined the Mississippi National Guard in 1953 and rose to the rank of major before retiring in 1974. He is an active member of the Bulldog Club and has served as a member of the college’s Board of Trustees since 1989. He served the board as president in 2000 and 2001. He currently serves as president of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College Trustees.

“I was the first president of the college’s Jackson County Campus Alumni Association in 1965,” Massengale says. “I’ve always enjoyed going to ball games and being involved with the college. I feel if you’re going to be involved, you ought to go all the way with it. I try to do everything I can to help the college.” Massengale adds that he sees his induction into the Athletic Hall of Fame as an award that should be shared with many others who’ve participated in athletics over the years at Gulf Coast.

“I want to accept this honor on behalf of everybody who has ever stepped on a court, a course, or a field for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. There are a lot of other people who practiced a lot but didn’t play any, or practiced a lot but played a little. I think regardless of how much you played or how much you achieved, just representing the college is a huge accomplishment. I played with several guys who went through the same punishment I did but never played in games. They’re the ones for whom I accept this honor.”

Albert Isaac “Rex” Rexinger

Athletic Hall of Fame
Football (student and coach) • Harrison-Stone-Jackson Junior College
Student – September 1926 - May 29, 1929
Coach and history teacher – August 1, 1937 - May 13, 1942

When Rex Rexinger passed away, his daughter Lynn says she told a newspaper reporter, “My dad was like the International House of Pancakes…he was there for me and everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” The Eudora, Arkansas, native (October 5, 1907-May 30, 1990) was also a mainstay for his teammates when he played football, and for his students when he coached. Rexinger played football for Harrison-Stone-Jackson Junior College for two seasons -- 1926 and 1927. During that time, he was an All-State halfback and on the 1927 Mississippi State Football Championship team, which was the first state football championship win for the college.

Several passages from the book “Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College: A History 1911-2000” by Gulf Coast archivist and Professor Emeritus Charles L. Sullivan describe that championship season: “The biggest sports story of fall 1927 was the state championship won by the Bulldog footballers. On November 12, the Bulldogs engaged in a brutal 6-6 conference standoff with Clarke Junior College of Newton. One week later the Bulldogs clinched the 1927 Mississippi State Football Championship in a 25-0 victory over Raymond.”

After his playing days, Rexinger served as head football coach and history teacher at the college from 1937-1942. “Those days at Perk were the fondest memories for my parents,” Lynn says. “They spent the early part of their marriage there, and my brother was born there. They always talked about Perk.”

Rexinger also coached football at Seminary, Purvis, and Biloxi high schools, and after serving as coach at Perkinston Junior College for five years, was a coach for 10 years at Natchez High School in football and basketball. His Natchez basketball teams won four Big Eight Conference basketball championships in a five-year period. He was inducted into the Mississippi Coaches Hall of Fame in 1976.

Rexinger retired from coaching in 1953 and opened Rex’s Sporting Goods store in Natchez that same year. “He loved working at the store and selling sporting goods to schools,” Lynn says. “He could keep up with what was going on and keep in touch with all the coaches. We always went to ball games, and anytime we went on a trip, it usually revolved around some type of sporting event.”

And as Lynn said, Rex Rexinger was always there for his family, students, and his players. “He was always a well-respected member of whatever community he lived in and always active in those towns,” she says. “He was somewhat of a father figure for many of his players, and he was very strict with them. But he also took care of them and helped many of them receive college scholarships. When those former players see me now, they tell me how much they loved my father, and that if it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t be where they are today.”

Billy Dave Salter

Athletic Hall of Fame
Men’s Basketball
Perkinston Junior College
September 7, 1954 - May 23, 1956

Billy Dave Salter said the 1950s were the best time to grow up. For him, most of that growing up happened at Perkinston Junior College. “Perk was the greatest place to be during that time,” he says. “We were like a family. I think it was partially a product of the times and partially the place. The faculty was living on campus with us, and they cared for us both as students and as family. Dr. (J.J.) Hayden, the president of the college, knew me by name. It was an incredible feeling being there.”

Salter, a D’Iberville/Woolmarket native, played basketball in both the 1954-55 and 1955-56 seasons. He made the junior college All-State basketball team and the All-State Tournament team his sophomore year. His career scoring average was 20 points per game, with 47 points against Pearl River, which is still a school record. He also played baseball while at Perk. After graduating from junior college, he attended McNeese State University and William Carey College, receiving basketball scholarships to both schools. “The foundation that I received in junior college prepared me well for what I faced in the rest of my college career – both on and off the basketball court.”

Salter’s dad was the principal at “Little Perk,” where Salter attended sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. “I loved having a father who worked there. It allowed me unique access. Since I had a job delivering ‘Grit’ newspapers, I was able to deliver papers to the girls’ dorm outside visiting hours. I was the only male allowed in the dorm during any time other than visiting hours. Of course, I was 11 years old at the time!”

Not ready to leave basketball behind, Salter coached basketball for 10 years after college at D’Iberville High School and at K.J. Clark Middle School and Vigor High School, both in Mobile. Later, he became a school principal at Vigor, and then deputy superintendent, and eventually superintendent of the Mobile County Public School System. He retired in 1992. “I look back now, and those times at Perk were definitely the best,” he says. “I made great friends while there and learned invaluable lessons.”

Salter now lives in Satsuma, Alabama, with his wife, Elaine, whom he met at William Carey. They have two sons, Troy and David (married to Donna), and three granddaughters, Nicole (married to Ryan White), Natalie and Hilary.

Audrey Elaine (Alexander) Brockmeyer

Hall of Honor
Cheerleading
Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College, Perkinston Campus
September 1965 - May 1966

Audrey Elaine Brockmeyer of Wiggins was a cheerleader at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (Perkinston Campus) for the 1965-66 season, and was on the first squad to receive scholarships to attend. She graduated from the Perkinston Campus on May 8, 1990. However, her love for Gulf Coast began before her college days. “My brother played football at Perk in 1960,” Brockmeyer says. “So I got into following the team because my mom and dad and I went to every game he played. I always knew I would go to Perk and live in Harrison Hall. As for the scholarship I received, I think tuition back then was something like $30. Growing up in Wiggins, we always came to Perk to go swimming and to go to cheerleading camp.”

After Perk she attended Mississippi State University as a business education major. After that, she worked at Central Office from 1970-74, until the birth of her second child. She rejoined the Gulf Coast family in 1978 as secretary in Maintenance/Central Receiving at the Perkinston Campus. Since 1992, Brockmeyer has been the secretary for the vice president’s office. She has 36 years of service to the college and has supported many athletic events. She’s been on trips as short as the 30-mile trip to Poplarville, when the Bulldogs take on archrival Pearl River, and as long as 1,082 miles to Bel Air, Maryland, for the 1984 East Bowl, when Gulf Coast won the 1984 NJCAA National Football Championship. “There aren’t too many games I’ve missed,” she says. “I guess it just gets in your blood. I like all sports, and I try to go to as many things as I can, but there’s always something about football. I think it excites everybody at the beginning of the school year. Football will always be my No. 1 choice in sports.”

Brockmeyer is a member of the Bulldog Club and has been a member of the Alumni Association for almost 40 years, serving the association as the Perkinston Campus representative since 2001. Her late husband, former NFL player Dave Brockmeyer, served as a volunteer coach with the Bulldog football team from 1995 until his death in 1999. Throughout those times, good and bad, she says she’s seen it all. Or at least she thought she had until the football field at A.L. May Memorial Stadium was converted to synthetic turf.

“I’ve worked in several different offices at the Perkinston Campus, including maintenance. Our staff members were involved in the maintenance of the field when it was a live-grass playing surface,” she says. “I also worked part time in the Athletics Department, so I know first-hand how often the field was used. Many different teams use it, including the Bulldog team as well as the teams from Stone County Schools. I never dreamed we would have synthetic turf. It’s unbelievable.”

Dub Herring and Barry Harper

Spirit of Gulf Coast Award

Dub Herring and Barry Harper, south Mississippi automobile/RV dealers, have been named recipients of the 2009 Spirit of Gulf Coast Award. Herring and Harper were cotitle sponsors for the first-ever Mississippi Bowl in 2008, and are sponsors for the 2009 bowl game. “It is a great honor to be recognized by such a great institution as Gulf Coast, which took the bold step of creating the now historic Mississippi Bowl. I am proud to be a part of that history,” says Herring, owner of Dub Herring Ford-Lincoln-Mercury, Dub Herring Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, and Paw Paw’s Camper City in Picayune, and former football player for Holmes Community College in Goodman.

Harper, a Grenada native and Herring’s son-in-law, played football at Delta State University from 1977-81 and owns Barry Harper Dodge and Harpertowne RVs in Poplarville. He also serves on the Pearl River Community College Board of Trustees. “I am completely humbled by this honor,” Harper says. “I’m glad that I am able to help on this project, especially for an institution like Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.”

Harper and Herring participated in the coin toss at the 2008 event, which drew an estimated crowd of 5,000. An even larger crowd is expected for this year’s event on December 6, 2009. The purpose of the Mississippi Bowl is to host the state championship team from Mississippi and the highest nationally ranked available team from across the nation. Organizers hope the Mississippi Bowl will give the state community and junior college teams the proper reward for an outstanding season.

“We’re both huge football fans,” Harper says. “We’d been talking about getting involved in something like the Mississippi Bowl for a long time. We think it’s a great opportunity not only for the Gulf Coast, but also for all of Mississippi to be showcased.” Herring agrees. “We knew the Coast was the place to do this, which was proven last year. We’re glad to see this idea be a success and become an annual event that is something special.”