EMCC’S Johnson joins MCJC Sports Hall of Fame
PEARL – Former East Mississippi Community College basketball standout Max Johnson was one of 15 individuals inducted into the Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame during last week's 16th annual induction banquet held at the Clyde Muse Center on Hinds Community College's Rankin Campus.
A graduate of Cumberland High School, Johnson arrived on the Scooba campus in 1951 and became a valuable member of one of East Mississippi's most successful men's basketball teams as a college freshman. The 1951-52 Lions ahead that will be the most challenging of all.
“We've played pretty solid baseball all year long,” Tillman said of his first Choctaw County team. “For us, the offense has been what's carried us the whole way. Things get tougher here and Pine Grove is a really good ball club. Whoever plays cleaner has a posted a 26-6 record in finishing as conference runners-up. Eight players from that team, coached by W.F. Childres and Clayton Blount, are members of EMCC'S Sports Hall of Fame after moving on to play basketball at the senior college level, including Johnson's good friends and fellow Mississippi Community and Junior College Sports Hall of Fame honorees Tom Scarborough and Mack Robinson.
The next season as the Lions' only returning letterman, Johnson stepped up to become the team captain of first-year head coach Keyes T. Currie's 1952-53 squad. Johnson owns the honor of being Currie's first all-state chance to move on to the next round.”
The Chargers have certainly been swinging a big stick one through nine in the order. Trace Beard has especially been hot at the plate hitting three home runs in the two-game series against Belmont and helping his team to the win.
Alex Telano leads the team in batting at .441 this year with a team-high 26 hits as a junior and he also has 21 RBI. Beard is up to .397 with basketball selection during the Hall of Famer's storied career as basketball coach/ athletics director at East Mississippi.
Johnson was instrumental in the establishment of the Keyes T. Currie Memorial Division of East Mississippi Community College's Development Foundation in honor of his beloved junior college basketball coach.
Johnson transferred from the Scooba campus to Delta State University for the 195354 and 1954-55 academic years, where he continued his education on a basketball scholarship as a starting guard for the Statesmen.
Following his college days, Johnson joined the United States Army as a paratrooper six home runs and 31 RBI which lead the team. Seniors CJ Clark and Tyson Coleman have also been batting over .350 and junior Eli Dale provides some pop as well.
The pitching has been better of late as well. Clark Crowley has been the team's ace with a 3-1 record and 2.88 ERA and he'll pitch tonight, while Alex Telano's 2-0 mark and 4.10 ERA will follow in game two.
“We've got a bunch of really good pitchers,” Tillman and was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., before receiving a hardship discharge after two years (1955-56) to help take care of his parents and their family farm in Mantee. Johnson also spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserves.
Johnson worked 10 years (1958-67) for the federal government in the Department of Agriculture and Commerce and the Bureau of Public Roads. While continuing to farm and raise cattle following his government work, Johnson managed Nu-way Building Supply in Mantee before purchasing the business in 1984 and later opening a second location in Eupora. The successful businessman retired in 2013.
said. “I don't give them the credit they deserve. They throw strikes by and large and give our defense a chance to work. We have an inning or two where we struggle but we keep teams off the board and really dig in.”
Choctaw County comes into round three at 15-7 but have won 12 of the last 14 games since Class 2A, Region 2 play began back in March. The Chargers have been playing the best baseball down the stretch with series sweeps over North Side and Belmont, but face one of the toughest opponents this year today.
Pine Grove is 21-6 this season after sweeping two Region 2 opponents already in the playoffs in Calhoun City and Eupora.
Tillman said his team is in for a fight, but he believes that the Panthers are as well.
“From everything I can tell we're similar ball club,” Tillman said of Pine Grove.
“They're a competitive bunch that's won a lot of ball games this year. They've beaten some good teams and I fully expect them to come in ready to play. We're going to have to play our best to win.”
The series begins at Tom Glasgow Park in Ackerman tonight at 7 p.m. The two teams will meet again on Saturday at Pine Grove at 6 p.m. with an if necessary game three coming on Monday night at 7 p.m. in Ackerman.