Class of 2011
Bruce Bolick
Carl Bruce Bolick, tailback and MVP for the storied 1963 Mount Holly High School 2A State Championship football team, is a Mount Holly native who grew up in Duke Power’s Riverbend Village. The community was very sports-oriented and Bruce thrived in the opportunities the situation offered youth athletes.
“Duke Power provided a lot of facilities for the community - scout house, ball fields,” says Bruce. “I played a lot of baseball, basketball, and stickball.”
Riverbend’s semi-pro baseball team provided the community with the opportunity to have social gatherings on a regular basis. “Don Killian played there, Bobby John Rhyne, Ted Abernathy (who later played for the Washington Senators) and other former professional players,” says Bruce. “Every July 4, Buck Station in Salisbury would play Riverbend and it was the game of the year.”
While Bruce is best known in Mount Holly for his skills on the football field, his true passion in life was baseball, which was strongly influenced by his father Carl and his brothers. “I learned a lot through emulation, watching the Riverbend teams, and especially watching my brothers’ teams.”
Bruce started playing little league himself when he was nine years old, as a shortstop. He played Youth League Teams at Riverbend, Mount Holly, Cramerton, and Oakdale. He played in the “tweener” league in Smyre where he was part of the team that won the 1961 National Championship under the guidance of Coach Russ Bergman. He played American Legion Ball for Paw Creek and Belmont from ages 16 through 18. “Dad would always find a place for all of us to play,” says Bruce.
There was no youth football when Bruce was growing up, but Mount Holly’s grand football tradition caught his attention. Bruce started playing football in the ninth grade for Mount Holly High School coached by Coach Wiles. He was the starting tailback from 1961-1963. One of his most cherished memories was when the Mount Holly Hawks won the 2A State Championship in 1963.
After graduation, Bruce attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and played baseball for Coach Walter Rabb. He was a member of the 1966 UNC College World Series Team. In the spring of 1970, Bruce served as Assistant JV Baseball Coach for UNC.
He graduated from UNC and played minor league baseball for two years for the Washington Senators. He began his high school coaching career in 1979 serving as head baseball coach and assistant football coach for East Lincoln High School.
His years as a coach included 13 years in football - where, as head football coach, he led the 1979 team to the school’s first state football playoff game. He coached baseball for 33 years and took the team to the state semi-finals twice. He also served 25 years as the athletic director for East Lincoln. “I really enjoyed coaching - but it does consume you,” says Bruce.
In the mid-1980s, Bruce began to do some scouting for Jim Grudiz of the New Yankees. He spent three years with the Yankees as an associate baseball scout and five years with the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2000 to 2005. He was the assistant coach for the UNC Charlotte Baseball team and currently works for the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau.
Bruce credits his coaches for his athletic success. “In both baseball and football I have been very fortunate with the coaches I had,” says Bruce. “Dad gave me a pure love of the game, Coach Wiles - discipline, hard work and total effort, Coach Russ - enthusiasm, and Coach Rabb - calmness and steadiness in the game.”
Bruce is a member of the Lincoln County Sports Hall of Fame and was among the first inductees to the North Carolina Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
He currently resides with his wife, Karen, and son, John David, in Denver, North Carolina.
Wayne Bolick
Paul Wayne Bolick grew up in the Riverbend Village at the Riverbend Steam Plant alongside older brother Ken and younger brother Bruce in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The siblings had the good fortune to be a part of the Riverbend’s tradition of athleticism, a tradition that has produced some of the greatest athletes in Mount Holly’s history.
“We played ball all the time depending on what was in season - baseball, basketball, football, stickball, says Wayne. I remember going to watch the mill teams - that was our entertainment, we would watch the game, picnic and square dance afterward.”
Wayne was coached in little league by his father, Carl, who he says was one of his main inspirations. He says his father instilled a confidence in his sons as baseball players: they expected to win and had an intense desire to win.
“He let us choose a position, learn how to concentrate and mold our own determination to achieve at the highest level without pressure from himself. And of course, he made sure we had a team to play for.”
As a catcher, Wayne gave the pitcher his signals and learned early on to read the hitter, gauging their strengths and weaknesses. He got to experience his first championship during these years as a member of the 1955 Mount Holly Little League Championship team.
At Mount Holly High School, Wayne was a standout on the baseball team as the catcher and as a tailback for Coach Wiles. He also played basketball for a short time but juggling three sports and high school was a bit too much, so he stayed with baseball and football throughout his high school years, dropping basketball.
Wayne’s freshman year, he was the starting catcher for Mount Holly High School. That year he caught pitcher Larry Jenkins’ no-hitter against Dallas High School and the team made it to the state playoffs, losing to Myers Park.
During his high school years, he also played baseball in the summer for the American Legion teams. In 1959, he played for the Pawcreek/Mount Holly American Legion Team, one of his greatest memories.
“In 1959 we won the area championship,” says Wayne. “I remember we were playing Burke (in a seven-game series) and we lost the game on a pitch I called. I could not sleep that night at all. The next night we played them again and I caught and called a no-hitter, which made me feel better. After that we played Kannapolis and lost in seven games - it was the only time I cried after a loss.”
After high school, Wayne attended Wilmington Junior College from 1961-1962, where he played baseball for the school. He then attended Charlotte College from 1962-63 and Appalachian State Teacher’s College from 1963-66, where he participated in spring and fall practice football with the school’s football team, graduating with a business degree in 1966.
He was drafted in 1967 into the U.S. Army and served in Germany for about two years.
“When I got released I wanted to go into business, but ended up coaching Mount Holly Middle School football and baseball,” he says. “I had learned to scout players from Coach Wiles, he had me scout for the JV team my senior year. I loved coaching - it was like playing, the emotional highs and lows - I would not trade that experience for anything.”
As a coach, Wayne made practice a competition, believing that he had to coach to his own personality.
“You might take things from different people who coached you and influenced you, but you need to learn to develop your own style,” says Wayne. “I knew that their success on the field would translate into success in life as adults so it was important to instill that confidence in them.”
One of the coaches Wayne looked up to and used as inspiration was Don Killian. “I looked up to him as both a coach and an athlete,” says Wayne. “He was someone I really admired.”
Bolick coached the MHHS JV football team from 1970-1973. He then became head coach of the MHMS and Mount Holly Junior High School teams from 1974-1998. Not one to be idle in the summers, he also worked for about 20 years at the American Legion Denver Post 455 baseball programs as an assistant coach.
His teams racked up multiple championships under his guidance including (baseball) three Division I Championships and three County Championships. In football, his teams achieved three Division I Championships and two County Championships. There were two divisions at that time, and they would play each other for the county championship.
“The molding of an athlete begins early,” says Wayne. “When they give a great effort for success and achieve their goals, this effort continues in later years, in sports and in life.”
Wayne Bolick is now retired and resides in East Lincoln area with his wife, Nora.
Frank Love
For Frank Love, his passions in life fit him to a “T” - tennis and the trumpet.
Frank’s love of music and all sports dates back to the earliest days of his childhood. He was born in 1921 in Lincolnton, North Carolina and soon the Great Depression forced his family to relocate several times in order for his father, Frank Love Sr., to find work. Frank Jr. took his love of athletics along and expanded on his repertoire with each move. One of his inspirations was his father.
“My father was a great athlete, excelling in football and baseball. In later life, he took up tennis for exercise,” says Frank.
Growing up in Lincolnton, Shelby, and Saxapahaw, he excelled in multiple sports, including football, baseball, and basketball. It was during this time that Frank was introduced to his other great passion in life - the trumpet.
“My mom tried to teach me to play the piano - it didn’t take,” says Frank. “I visited with the band director in Lincolnton - I wanted to play the clarinet. I think the band director needed trumpet players because he recommended the trumpet for me.”
When his family relocated back to Shelby, North Carolina, Frank was in the eleventh grade. “Shelby was known as a tennis town, and I gave up baseball to play tennis on the Shelby High School team,” says Frank. “I went to college at the Citadel and lettered for four years in tennis.”
After graduating from the Citadel in 1942, Frank was commissioned as an officer in the United States Air Force and served his country four years during World War II. He married Georgia Mack (Mackie) Keeter in 1943 and left the Air Force in 1946 as a major. While making their home in Shelby they had two children, James (Jim) and Margaret (Mimi).
In 1948, Frank began working for the Dover Mill. He played the trumpet to make extra money. He had to give up tennis in 1950 when he developed bursitis in his right shoulder.
“My wife always said she had two rivals in life - my tennis racket and my trumpet,” Franks says.
Textiles, Inc., in Gastonia, offered him a job as assistant superintendent of one of their mills in 1953 - then fate stepped in:
“I stopped to see a friend at American and Efird (it was American Yarn and Processing Co. then) and they offered me a similar job at their Adrian Plant,” says Frank. “For some reason, I preferred them, moved to Mount Holly, and worked my way over the years up to president.”
In the 1960s, Frank then an executive for A and E, had taught his children Jim and Mimi to play tennis. Unfortunately, there was no tennis team at Mount Holly High School. So Frank talked to Laxton Hamrick (superintendent of schools) after starting a tennis team for boys and girls. Mr. Hamrick approved the idea and said that Joe Spears, the assistant football coach, and girls’ basketball coach, would lead the effort with Frank’s coaching help.
“That was how I met Joe Spears - he and I had some epic battles - in ping pong,” he says with a laugh.
Since the high school did not have tennis courts, the teams used the tennis courts at the Mount Holly Swimming Club.
Under the guidance of coaches Spears and Love, the Mount Holly High school men’s team was undefeated in 1966, except for a loss to the “tennis town” team from Shelby High School. Players from both the girls’ and boys’ team, from that year, went on to play tennis at the college level. Two of Frank’s protege’s became country club tennis procs for several years and another opened a tennis club.
“We started a Mount Holly tennis team in the Western Carolina Tennis League and won the regional championship three times,” says Frank proudly. The League included towns such as Asheville, Hickory, Shelby, Statesville, Morgantown, and North Wilkesboro.
When Frank discovered that his shoulder problems had healed he resumed playing - giving up the trumpet as his main leisurely pursuit. He quickly racked up an amazing list of national rankings as a player in his own right. He was ranked nationally 11 times, 25 times int he Southern Division (11 states) and many times in North Carolina.
With many tournament wins in regional and national competition he was especially dominant in the North Carolina Senior 55 Doubles Championship - winning in 1976 with Curt Walden, in 1977 with Buck Archer and in 1978 with Don Anderson. In 1976 he also won the North Carolina Senior 55 Singles Championship as well as a Southern Tennis Association 55 Singles championship.
“I played double tennis with Don Anderson for 30 years,” says Frank. “We won hundreds of tournaments over those years. We achieved a top ranking in the Southern Section. Frank and Don were ranked number one in the Southern Section Men’s Doubles in 1974 and 1975, and Frank was ranked eleventh in singles in the same division. I also won many matches with Buck Archer, one of my childhood friends.”
The United States Tennis Association ranked Frank eleven times nationally. In the southern division, he was ranked 25 times, and in North Carolina over 40 times.
Frank played mixed doubles in a tournament only once, this tournament having special meaning because his daughter Mimi Love Guin was his partner. The father-daughter pair won the Gaston County Mixed Doubles in 1975. Another very special meaning was being ranked number five in the North Carolina Father-Son Doubles Division with son Jim Love in 1969.
In 1982, Frank lost his wife Mackie. He retired from American and Efird in 1984.
Frank played on the National “Osuna Cup” team nine years (United States vs. Mexico in alternating countries). He also played on the National “Gordon Cup” team three years (United States vs. Canada with a similar format.
He has some information for today’s up and coming tennis players. “Winning tennis is primarily about conditioning along with timing and anticipation,” says Frank. “Speed is also helpful.”
After retirement, Frank resumed playing the trumpet. He married Virginia, his high school sweetheart in 1987 and gained his “bonus” children (as he likes to say). Virginia passed away in 2008.
Frank now makes his home in Shelby. Frank continues to play the trumpet with his orchestra at the spry age of 90, playing in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia.
Perry Toomey
Meet Perry Toomey
The indomitable Perry Toomey has been both a participant and a supporter of the Mount Holly athletic community for more than 50 years. This Mount Holly motive was and still is held in the highest regard by teammates on the 1956 Mount Holly High School Championship Football Team, of which he was co-captain, along with Tommy Wilson.
Nicknamed “Cannonball” due to his habit of running over and through defensive linemen linke, well, a cannonball, Perry was a fullback and linebacker for Mount Holly High School from 1953 through 1957, missing only one defensive play his entire senior year.
In addition to playing football, Perry played baseball from 1954 through 1956 as a shortstop and pitcher, and took a small part in the Golden Gloves boxing competitions of the era - though he says he boxed mainly to stay in shape for football. And he has been a competitor on the local golf scene for more than 50 years, starting out as a caddy at the American and Efird course.
“Every Tuesday was ‘caddy day’ and the caddies would get to play a round,” he says on his beginnings in the sport.
Growing up in Mount Holly had a profound effect on Perry as a youngster and the rich sporting tradition of his hometown influenced him.
“I grew up watching those athletes envelop and decided early in life to pursue sports,” says Perry. “My family lived within walking distance of the school - I practically lived on the school playgrounds while growing up. My brother Pat played football and was on the same teams I played on. We both dearly loved sports and experienced some good times and successes during our playing years.”
Athleticism was for Perry a family tradition. His uncle, Bob Crawford, played professional baseball in Cincinnati and his cousin, Jack Hinkle, played quarterback at Mount Holly and Stanley (under Dick Thompson) and later played at University of South Carolina.
Perry began playing football in the seventh grade and traveled with the high school team. When he got to high school, he was ready. He was a varsity starter his freshman year, playing guard, moving his junior and senior year to running back.
“I was fast as a kid, I ran everywhere,” says Perry. “I loved football - I was always competitive...even today.”
He was also tough. Bob Austell, today the Mayor of Cherryville, remembers playing against Toomey.
“We were seniors and I played tailback [for Cherryville High School] and I decided to hit Perry head on,” said Bob with a laugh. “I only did it once. He knocked me down and bodied my nose - it was like hitting a tree.”
After that, Bob said he tried to hit Perry at an angle, to little effect. At another point in the game, Bob said he ran through a hole and suddenly found himself hit by Perry and going to the sidelines. The force of the hit sent the two through the bottom of a wire fence.
Cherryville lost to Mount Holly, but Bob and Perry have remained lifelong friends.
His junior year, Perry and his friend Tommy Wilson (inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame in 2010) began to develop reputations as dominant players. They were both essential members of the 1956 Mount Holly High School Championship team. The team and its glory year in 1956 is one of Perry’s greatest memories.
“Playing with such a great team, the 1956 Hawks won their conference without being scored on,” says Perry. “During the ninth game in Clover, SC, they scored a touchdown on us but we won. We lost to Granite Falls 13-6 in the state western conference game.”
Perry says that pass interceptions by Granite Falls allowed them to beat Mount Holly and advance to the state championship game.
Perry received the A.U. Stroupe Most Outstanding Player award in 1956, recognizing his accomplishments on the football field. But he is quick to credit his teammates and his coaches for his success, stating that he cannot identify any one individual as his best friend from the era, because all of his teammates were the greatest of friends. He does note that his coach V.M. Morrison was “the hardest individual on two feet I ever knew,” and that Charles Miller, a dedicated friend of the Hawk’s football program still remembered today, was an enthusiastic supporter of the team, attending all of the games Perry’s senior year.
After graduation, Perry accepted a scholarship to Appalachian State along with Tommy Wilson.
“I was inspired by Tommy’s dedication and intellect,” says Perry. “He would study and go to bed early...too early in my opinion, and leave me studying late into the night.”
While practicing during his freshman year at Appalachian State, Perry fell ill with heat exhaustion. He lost 14 pounds in four hours, and was taken by Coach Robert Broome to the campus hospital, where he stayed for more than a week. “I could see the practice field from my hospital room and I was very discouraged.”
Perry went home after being released from the hospital to recuperate and give himself time to gain his playing strength back. He returned to school at the request of the coaching staff but did not play his freshman year. He would return to the school the next year as a red-shirt freshman.
During the summer months Perry was employed by Duke Power Company. He always knew he wanted to work for Duke after his school years, so he decided to not return to Appalachian and went to work at Duke Power full-time.
“To this day I still think of not returning to school to play the game I loved and receiving a degree, but I have no regrets,” says Perry. “I had a satisfying career.”
Retiring after 40 years at Duke Power as the Manager of the Power Delivery Construction Department, Perry is still a part of the Mount Holly sports landscape. He is a founding member of the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame, helped coach Pop Warner Football and although he stopped playing golf in high school, he resumed the game once he began working at Duke and is an avid player to this day.
“I have been playing for 56 years - it is a great substitute when you have to give up contact sports. It feeds my competitive spirit and conditioning, but it is also great for your thought process, a great way to take your mind off of things, he says.
Scott Stewart
One of the greatest influences in Scott Stewart’s life was a man at a yard sale.
“I was five or six years old, and we were at this yard sale and the man was selling a left-handed glove,” said Scott. “I was butting my dad to get it for me and he kept saying ‘no, you have a glove at home.’ The guy just looked at me and my dad and handed it to him, saying, “Let him have it.’”
That was how Scott Stewart became a left-handed pitcher.
“Everything else I do with my right hand, but from that day I pitched with my left,” he said.
Born in Brockton, Massachusetts to Bob and Terry Stewart, and raised in Stanley, NC, Scott was always tossing a ball around with his father. Later, he, like so many others his age, entered Little League. In 1989, The Dixie Boys All-Star Team became North Carolina State Champions and headed off to the Little League World Series. They won the first game of the World Series in 13 innings before losing the next two.
From 1992-1994, Scott pitched for East Gaston High School. He was a two-time all conference player, pitching 173 innings with a 1.53 ERA, 17 wins, and 9 losses in 32 games, and set a school record of 265 strikeouts. He could also hit, batting an average .327 over 73 games with 42 runs scored and 9 home runs.
“I was never the best player on any team,” Scott says. “There were better players, I just worked really hard. I knew I wanted to be a pitcher - always.”
Scott’s hard work and determination paid off when he was drafted in 1994 in the 20th round by the Texas Rangers. Scott was at the beach celebrating graduation with friends, when his father, Bob, who worked for Arnold Bakery, sent a truck to pick him up.
“I had to help make deliveries, found out I was drafted, and then headed back to the beach,” he said.
From there Stewart headed to the Minor League, starting with the Gulf Coast Rangers before moving to the Charleston Riverdogs and the St. Paul Saints in 1996. Then he was picked up by the New York Mets and played through their farm system, starting with the St. Lucie Mets (A) in 1997, then the Binghamton Mets (AA) and the Norfolk tides (AAA) from 1998-2000.
In 2001, Scot Stewart made it to the Major League with the Montreal Expos.
“I remember I called my dad and I told him I had good news and bad news,” he says. “He asked for the bad news first and I said, “It’s going to be cold in Chicago.”
He laughs, recalling his father began to five him the “you did your best” talk, and Scott said he kept repeating “It’s going to be cold in Chicago.” Finally, he explained to his dad, “Look at the schedule.”
Montreal was opening the season against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
“I walked out onto that field and I was okay, I knew this was where I wanted to be,” says Scott. “Then the game started and I was scared to death. Once I threw the first pitch I was okay.”
Scott played for the Expos for three years and then was traded to the Cleveland Indians for one year. The first thing I said to my wife wsa “I get to pitch at Fenway.”
A native of Massachusetts and life-long Red Sox fan, it was the first time he had been back to the park since the days his grandfather would take him to games at Fenway.
“We got there and I headed for the stands, where I would sit with my grandfather,” he said.
A year later, he was pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers and was part of their postseason run.
“That was intense, every game leading up to the playoffs was so huge,” he says.
The following year, 2006, he retired from baseball.
“I wanted to be with my family,” he says. At that point he and his wife Melanie had three children and Scott was often gone for weeks at a time. “I hated to be away from my kinds, and sometimes I’d only see them once a month.”
Today, Scott lives with his wife Melanie and their three children, Chase, Rylie, and Addison, in Mount Holly, where he can often be found having a game of catch with his son.
Jim, Samuel (Dink), and T.L. McManus
During the illustrious era of Golden Gloves Boxing in Mount Holly, the 1940s through the 1960s, the name synonymous with the sport in both the city and the state was McManus. The McManus brothers were a fundamental part of the boxing scene for literally decades, becoming heroes and inspirations for generations of Mount Holly athletics.
“Mount Holly was one of the most notorious fighting teams in the south,” says Jim McManus. “It seems unusual for Mount Holly to be the bully boys of boxing.”
The McManus clan was made up of Thomas Lee (T.L. senior), his wife Ruth, five boys, and two girls - Blair, T.L. (Thomas Lee), Samuel (Dink), Jim, Jerry, Louise, and Ruby. T.L. Senior began honing the boys’ boxing skills at a young age.
“Dad promoted some professional boxing,” says Jim. “By the time we were old enough he started teaching us - I was 5 years of age wearing boxing gloves.”
T.L. Sr boxed in his youth and worked in the textile mills - Barkdale and then the Woodlawn Mill - but promoted boxing to make extra money in his spare time. And he instilled his love of the sport in all five of his sons.
The two oldest brothers, Blair and TL., started competitive boxing first, fighting in AAU clubs and team matches. Mount Holly High School had a boxing team as well in the early 1940s, coached by MHSHOF member Dick Thompson.
“I was on the junior varsity football team and he saw me on the field and came up to me and asked if I was a McManus,” says Jim. “He wanted to see me at boxing practice - I was in the seventh grade. I did not go - he then asked me again to come.”
At that, Jim went to the practice.
The five brothers went on to box in Golden Gloves, in team matches in Charlotte and throughout the state.
“Back then it was a sport to win - I guess just coming up this was part of the family and it becomes a part of your life, says Jim. “I enjoyed the training - I coached a team for a year. I loved the competitiveness of it.”
Jim boxed professionally for two years but he says he and his brothers’ love was for amateur fighting. Jim won multiple titles in Golden Gloves and AAU boxing, as well as special awards including Most Athletic, Best Boxer, Most KOs, Sportsmanship Award, and he coached boxing in Mooresville, North Carolina, taking his team to a boxing league championship.
“The desire to be in good condition and be a winner - but to be a person who can compete, be physically and mentally strong - it was a great teaching thing for me in life,” says Jim, who pursued a career as a pastor after leaving the sport.
Jim’s brother T. L., who passed away in 1997, was as driven as Jim.
“His teams had to win - his fighters never lost unless they got knocked out,” says Jim. “He was a fierce competitive spirit - he was coach of the year several years in the south.”
T.L. boxed as an amateur for five or six years but his true calling was as a coach. His brother was renowned up and down the east coast, says Jim. Fighters came from all over to be trained by T.L. His day job was with the Southern Dye Corporation, now Clariant, but T.L. coached every minute he could.
“T.L. was determined to build fighters and win,” says Jim. “He was good - he was a rough talking man, a real character and he had a following Of all the coaches, none compared to him. He was clear-minded - he pushed - but he loved his fighters like they were his family.”
“T.L. trained a lot of outstanding boxes,” says Perry Toomey. “His boxers went on to win prestigious championships - he was an accomplished coach.”
T.L. and Jim would discuss the long-term effects of boxing and the importance of getting boxers to pursue other interests outside boxing.
“He impressed on all of us to have a good, healthy life that goes beyond boxing - some of the great learning experiences were losing,” says Jim. “What do I do to get better - you have to learn to lose and stand up - we go through challenges and I had to come back and be a winner.”
“He coached a lot of guys who won in the Carolinas Tournament who went on to New York to compete in the Eastern U.S. Championships, adds Ray Campbell. “T.L. spent a lot of time getting off work so he could get his team to competitions during boxing season.”
Oner trip to Charleston, South Carolina, davis recalls, turned into an odyssey and a tribute to the dedication fo both the coach and his team.
“There were nine or ten of us in the car and it broke down. We spent the night in a local jail just for a place to sleep,” he says with a laugh.
Samuel “Dink” McManus, T.L. and Jim’s younger brother, also pursued titles in the boxing ring.
“I’m not sure where the nickname “Dink” came from,” says Jim. “Dad gave it to him when we were young - he went through all of the weight divisions, fought in them over the years and he won every division he competed in.”
“Dink”, who passed away in 2006, worked as a barber in downtown Mount Holly. He racked up multiple Golden Gloves and AAU titles during his career and was one of the most-feared boxers to come out of the Southeast. He was also known for his sense of fun.
“Dink also played football for Mount Holly High School,” says Toomey. “I remember he had an old Model A and we would stuff it with football players after the game - it would be full to the brink - and we would go running around town.”
Jim was involved for 20 years in boxing - “Dink” fought a few more years and also left the sport. T.L. coached in Mount Holly for more than 25 years before he left the sport.
Jim left the sport mainly due to concern over injuries.
“I had a doctor in Mount Holly I went to see and he said ‘you have been in the ring a lot and everything that happens your brain is being damaged and cannot be repaired.’ I got to a point where I felt like a punch drunk, I felt like I could not learn,” he says.
Huring people started to bother Jim as well and he came to the decision that at 27, he needed tod os omething else with his life. That calling was the church where Jim spent 40 years as a pastor.
Boxing has, however, given him a strong foundation to build upon.
‘We all go through moments that are hard. Boxing and the things it taught me made me a better and stronger person,” says Jim. “When you lose that is one step along the way to the next victory. Go back to the basics, and train harder.”
Jim McManus will be 81 on his next birthday. He lives in Myrtle Beach with his wife Jeanette, where he walks and exercises every day.
2011 Community Spirit Award John W. Lewis
The 2011 Community Spirit Award recipient, John William Lewis, played a significant role in shaping the character of hundreds of Mount Holly children. For 42 years, John devoted himself to coaching Mount Holly Little League baseball, often serving as a coach to multiple generations of some local families. Fiercely dedicated to the children in his care, John produced outstanding players, coached championship and all-star teams and provided a solid foundation for many of Mount Holly’s future top athletes and citizens to build upon in the playing field and in life.
Growing up in Mount Holly in the 1940s and 50s, he played baseball through his freshman year at Mount Holly High School. John, whose father John Sr., passed away when he was 12, began his coaching career at age 14, as a coach for the summer recreation league in Mount Holly.
“Even at 14 I liked coaching, says John. “I liked the fellowship and teaching them to play. I never had a problem with respect from the kids. I was a disciplinarian, but I also gave those kids a lot of love.”
John began to coach Little League when he was 18 years old, not much older than the kids he coached, whose ages ranged from 8-12. His first year coaching his team won only three games.
John’s reason for taking on this role was both simple and profound. “I knew what it was to lose your father, to not have that figure in your life, and I wanted to give that father figure to the kids who did not have that. I knew many of the kids were from broken homes, or their dad just was not around.”
And he was willing to take on more than just coaching duties for his players, often buying shoes and gloves for kids who otherwise would not have been able to afford to play. John picked kids up and brought them home from practice and worked endlessly to get sponsors. What he could not get sponsors to cover - he took out of his own pocket.
“It is just what you did,” he says.
John credits Mr. J.C. Whitt and Melvin Tucker as his first instructors in the art of coaching and at 23 he began to develop his own coaching style. “They took me under their wings, and I learned a lot from the,” he says. “The one thing I learned what that if you did not have the attention and respect of the children you could not coach them - and I never had a bad kid.”
Some of the players that stand out in his memory include Mark Fletcher, who went on to coach a team to the state championship.
Eric Micklelson was another player John remembers fondly.
“He wanted to play and was not very good. He worked so hard and when he was 12, 3 ½ years into Little League, he got his first hit - I gave him the game ball. It was his heart and desire to be out there that I admired.”
And there was John’s standout girl player. “Mary Miller - she played for me one season., the best girl I ever had played for me, she could outrun any boy - she was an outstanding athlete.”
There were a lot of outstanding players, John says, some who went on to play Major League Baseball, but he really remembers the kids who had heart more than ability.
Over the years, John’s teams achieved a 70 percent winning percentage and won close to 600 games. John says he stopped keeping track after they reached 400 wins. He coached the all-star team several times, his team made the districts five times, the regionals four times, and was state runner-up twice.
“My 1977 team was undefeated and 1983 major and minor teams were a combined 33-0,” he says proudly.
He also got to coach his son - Jackson - who was a catcher for his father’s team for 4 years.
In 1988, John stopped coaching the younger children due to an open-heart surgery he underwent that year. He finally retired from coaching in 2005 due to a bad rotator cuff and the urge to relax in the stands.
“I wanted to see my grandchildren play,” he says with a laugh.
One of the accomplishments that always brought John the most pride is the kids who began to play on his team at 8 who stayed through age 12.
“I enjoyed being with the kids more than the victories - the kids were what put joy in my life,” says John. “One of the things I love is that I coached kids and then coached their kids, I was honored that they wanted me to coach their children.”
