Littleton’s sweet shot carried him around the world


By TOMMY PRIDDY, P-I Sports Editor


Nets sizzled at the Henry County High School gymnasium whenever Edward Juan Littleton shot the basketball for the Patriots from 1976-78.

The high-scoring guard carried his unique ability to score, pass and defend first to the University of Tennessee at Martin and then a transfer to Knoxville before playing professionally in Japan. That journey has earned Littleton a place in the Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame.

Littleton will be enshrined in a 6:30 p.m. July 21 banquet at the Paris Convention Center. He is one of five new members being inducted into the local Hall of Fame that night. The other inductees are the late Ras Bilbrey, Patricia Owens Dyer, George Atkins and Roger “Beeter” VanDyke.

Retired Paris businessman Jack Hays will be presented the Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Award at the banquet. Murray State University football head Chris Hatcher is slated to be the guest speaker.

Tickets for the event are $25. The tickets are available at the law office of William T. Looney, 127 N. Poplar St.; Paris Insurance Agency, 203 W. Wood St.; and from any Hall of Fame director.

Littleton earned All-State and McDonald’s All-America among his many honors as a senior at HCHS in 1978. An All-District 10-AAA performer, he set the HCHS single-game scoring record of 46 points against Lexington that season at HCHS. The late Fred J. Gamlin was Littleton’s coach at HCHS and the school’s gym was later named for Gamlin.

Littleton averaged a school record 25.1 points a game in the 1977-78 season while scoring 679 points that season, another school record. He finished his career as the school’s all-time leading scorer with a three-year mark of 1,373 points with those points coming on everything from layups to dunks to long-range bombs from just inside center court.

Marcus Etheridge (2006-10) posted a career total of 1,723 points to bump Littleton to No. 2 on the Patriots all-time scoring list but needed four years to do it. Freshman were not allowed to play varsity basketball at HCHS when Littleton was in high school.

Littleton signed with the University of Tennessee at Martin out of high school and was named the then nicknamed Pacers’ Freshman of the Year. He decided to transfer to the University of Tennesse campus at Knoxville to play in the Southeastern Conference. He had to sit out a year to abide by NCAA rules but became a starter in the 1979-80 season at point guard for coach Don DeVoe’s Volunteers.

He started 27 of 29 games that season averaging 3.1 points a game. He scored 89 points, had 48 assists, 50 rebounds and 15 steals. He would see action in parts of two other seasons for the Vols.

Littleton finished his UT career playing in 46 games with 31 starts. He averaged 3.3 points per game for the Vols. He shot 47 percent from the field in his career in which he scored had 78 assists with 44 rebounds and 31 steals.

After college, Littleton played professionally in Japan from 1986-90. He played on teams sponsored by the Toshiba Corporation.

Published: Friday, July 1, 2011

 

Former Grove star carried basketball talents to AAU fame

By TOMMY PRIDDY, P-I Sports Editor

 

Before women’s athletic scholarships were awarded, Amateur Athletic Union basketball offered the opportunity for women to continue to their playing careers.

Only a few select players were called to play AAU basketball but the then Patricia (Pat) Owens was able to graduate Grove High School and attend the Nashville Business College while playing for that school’s AAU team. Her AAU coach was John Head. The competition at the AAU level was considered the best women’s basketball in the country at that  time.                                                                                                                                    
With an award-winning high school career at Grove that ended in 1951 added to her resume, Patricia Owens Dyer has been selected to the Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame.
                                                                                                                                                                 

                 Class  of  1950

She will be inducted at a 6:30 p.m July 21 banquet at the Paris Convention Center on East Wood Street. Also being inducted are George Atkins, Edward Littleton, Roger (Beeter) VanDyke and the late Ras Bilbrey. Jack Hays will receive the Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Award that night. The guest speaker is Murray State University football head coach Chris Hatcher.

Tickets for the event cost $25. The tickets are available at the law office of William T. Looney, 127 N. Polar St.; Paris Insurance Agency, 203 W. Wood St.; and from any Hall of Fame director.

The Nashville Business College team won the AAU national tournament in 1950 with Owens joining the squad in 1951. She helped the team return to the national tournament and advance to the quarterfinals before being eliminated.

At Grove, Owens played forward was described as fast and shifty with the ability to shoot accurately from anywhere on the court. She was one of Grove’s leading scorers as both a junior and senior. She earned All-District and All-District tournament honors as a senior. This was during the time when girls’ basketball still played in the six-on-six format with only the forwards allowed to score.

She was also a strong student at Grove earning honors such as Most Representative, Best Personality and Most Athletic. She was selected for Who’s Who and the National Honor Society.

Dyer makes her home in Great Falls, Mont.

Published: Tuesday, July 5, 2011

 

 

 

 

VanDyke was three-sport star at Grove


By TOMMY PRIDDY, P-I Sports Editor

Grove High School produced more than its share of stellar athletes before its closure in 1969 and the name of Roger Raymond “Beeter” VanDyke sits with some of the greatest.

VanDyke played baseball, basketball and football at Grove with enough flare that he has been elected to the 2011 class of inductees to the Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame. Also being inducted at the 6:30 p.m. July 21 Hall of Fame banquet at the Paris Convention Center will be the late Ras Bilbrey, Patricia Owens Dyer, George Atkins and Edward Littleton.

Retired road builder Jack Hays will be presented the Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Award at the banquet. The guest speaker will be Chris Hatcher, Murray State University football head coach.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the law office of William T. Looney located at 127 N. Poplar St. and at Paris Insurance Agency at 203 W. Wood St., both in Paris.

VanDyke grew up in the Clifty community. He was active in Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion baseball during the 1950s. He graduated from Grove in 1959.

While at Grove, VanDyke played baseball, basketball and football. He was an All-Region selection in basketball in 1958 while playing for a Grove team coached by P-HC Hall of Famer Homer Spain.

VanDyke went on to letter in baseball at the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1960.

After college, he continued to play sandlot baseball, softball and basketball. He also picked up golf and tennis. His tennis prowess grew to the heights that he twice was crowned the Paris City Singles Champion in 1983 and 1986.

An avid sports fan, VanDyke remains active in golf and tennis.

Professionally, VanDyke began teaching in college at the University of Tennessee at Martin from 1966-69 before moving on to Florida State University from 1969-72. He worked at the University of Maryland from 1972-77 and returned to FSU from 1977-81. From 1981-86, VanDyke taught at the University of South Carolina-Sumter and returned to Maryland from 1986-1993. He filled in at Murray State University from 1995-97.

Published: Friday, July 8, 201

 

By TOMMY PRIDDY, P-I Sports Editor

 12:28 PM CDT
Fans of the 1940s Grove High School football teams will testify that the late Ras Bennett Bilbrey Jr. was possibly one of the best running backs ever to come from that school but more than that he may have been one of the best students and citizens of the area.

Those high attributes have led to Bilbrey being included in the 2011 class of inductees for the Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame. Bilbrey along with George Atkins, Patricia Owens Dyer, Edward Littleton and Roger “Beeter” VanDyke will be inducted during a 6:30 p.m. July 21 banquet at the Paris Convention Center.

Retired Paris road builder Jack Hays will be presented the Hall of Fame’s Distinguished Service Award at the banquet. Murray State University head coach Chris Hatcher will be the guest speaker.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the law office of William T. Looney located at 127 N. Poplar St in Paris.

Described as a “scatback” because of his smallish size, Bilbrey was a fast, elusive runner with nifty moves. He played baseball, basketball, ran track as well as playing football at Grove.

His football career was derailed by a knee injury in 1947 that he never quite recovered from. Despite the injury, he was offered a football scholarship by Kentucky but declined because of the injury. After a stint in the Navy, Bilbrey accepted a scholarship at Murray State University to play football but the knee would keep him on the sideline.

While at Grove, he was elected the class president in 1948 and 1949. He was chosen as a football captain in 1949 and elected the Most Popular and Most Athletic by his classmates that year.

Bilbrey was in the Hi-Y and G- and T&I clubs at Grove. He was chosen for Who’s Who in 1949 and was a class cheerleader from 1947-49. He served as basketball manager in 1948.

His friends recall Bilbrey as a giving sort who would share his food especially the last part of an RC Cola with peanuts.

Bilbrey continued to be active in sports in the Navy and throughout his life. He passed away in 2002 but his memorial stone at Maplewood Cemetery is inscribed; “A Great Athlete.”
 

Published: Monday, July 11, 2011