MID-SOUTH MEMORIES
25 years ago — 1996
That first-place vote the University of Memphis has been receiving in the Associated Press college basketball poll comes from close to home – but not as close as you might think. Wally Hall, sports editor of the Arkansas Democrat-gazette in Little Rock, has voted the Tigers No. 1 each of the past two weeks. “There’s a reason behind it. I think they’re the best team in the country.” Hall, who frequently writes columns about the Arkansas Razorbacks, has seen No. 1 Massachusetts, No. 2 Kentucky and No. 5 Cincinnati play in person and watched the Tigers play Purdue on television. He admires the Tigers’ balance, athleticism and defensive intensity. “I don’t know if they have the depth to win it all,” Hall said. “I think right now, today, they’re the best team in the country. Staying there, we all know, is hard to do.” Ron Higgins of The Commercial Appeal, who votes in the poll, has Umass No. 1, Kentucky 2 and Memphis.
50 years ago — 1971
Roman Catholic priests are no more dissatisfied and frustrated with their work than persons of other professions, said John Cardinal Wright, highest-ranking American in the Vatican. “I imagine there are just as many dissatisfied priests as there are dissatisfied husbands,” Cardinal Wright said in an interview yesterday. “If a priest is dissatisfied and doesn’t use his full strength to correct the situation, he has made a mistake in becoming a priest. Husbands and wives are the same.” Cardinal Wright, who serves the prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Clergy in the Roman Curia, is in charge of the world’s 450,000 priests. 75 years ago — 1946
The housing shortage may be bad in Memphis, but there are plenty of houses vacant on Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas plantations for cotton pickers and day workers. “We could easily use 1,000 families, white and negro, on the basis of sharing or working by the day,” Mrs. Clara Kitts, director of the Farm Labor Division of the U.S. Employment Service, said yesterday. Good houses, free rent and upkeep and a visit to the plantation before deciding where they want to work is guaranteed the families by the Farm Labor Division.
100 years ago — 1921
UNIONTOWN, Pa. — Frank Pelone, a stable boss, today found a stick of dynamite and put it in his hip pocket. Later, while working in the stable he was kicked by a mule. The dynamite exploded, blowing Pelone to pieces and destroying the stable.