Sports

Sports. Baseball and Football, also, People. As baseball developed into "America's pastime"," Greenville residents participated in numerous short-lived small Texas league teams. From 1923-1926, Greenville fielded a segregated team in the East Texas baseball league known as the “Greenville Staplers" (1923), which changed their name to the "Greenville Hunters" (1924-1926). Greenville would finish in second place in 1923 with a record of 70 wins and 48 loses. The team was popular enough to have its own brass band that traveled to Sulphur Springs for the 1924 East Texas League opening day game between the Hunters and the Saints., While early baseball clubs did not initially practice segregation, by the 1880s racial segregation became the rule in baseball. Greenville was the home of at least two African American teams. In 1888, the Texas Colored Baseball League was founded, and by 1896 Greenville had its own team, the name of which is unknown. Another African American baseball team was the Greenville Rockets. In 1947, Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers and reintegrated Major League Baseball, although leagues remained segregated in the South. In 1953, the North Texas Negro Baseball League was established, featuring the Greenville Buckaroos, playing until 1963., The Thursday and Friday night lights of Texas high school football eventually overtook baseball's popularity. Henry Frnka and Dennis Vinzant both coached the Greenville High School Lions football team on a run from 1931 to 1935 winning the 1933 Texas Interscholastic Football Championship by beating the Dallas Tech Wolves 21-0 at Fair Park Stadium. The University Interscholastic League (UIL) and Dave Campbell's Texas Football listed the 1933 Greenville Lions Football team as one of the Top 100 teams to celebrate 100 years of the UIL. East Texas State University won their first NAIA National Championship in 1972, and their second as Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions in the 2017 NCAA Division II National Championship., Captions , (Photo #1) These Boys Put Hunt County on Grid Map in Big Way , (Photo #2) Johnnie Christopher Sikes, member on 1933 championship team, Reverse Side , Burt Hooton , Burt Hooton was born in Greenville Feb. 7, 1950. He was a starting pitcher and coach in Major League Baseball. As a pitcher, he won 151 games over a 15 year career, mostly with the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers and a final year with the Texas Rangers. Hooton had a no-hitter in his 4th major league game for the Cubs and had an all-star game appearance in 1981. That same year he was also named the NLCS Most Valuable Player while helping the Dodgers to a World Series championship with four postseason wins in five appearances. After his pitching days were over, he returned to baseball as both a collegiate and MLB pitching coach., Tara Davis-Woodhall , Tara Davis-Woodhall was born in Dallas on May 20, 1999. She is the youngest daughter of Ty and Rayshon Davis and granddaughter of Roselyn Lane and Reecy Davis, Jr. She attended the University of Georgia, where she broke Klaudia Siciarz's world record in the 60 m. hurdles with a time of 7.98 seconds during the 2018 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. After a season at Georgia, Davis-Woodhall transferred to the University of Texas. She is the American junior record holder in the indoor long jump. She broke the record Feb. 11, 2017, at the Dumanis Sports Group Prep Classic in Frisco, TX, jumping 6.67 meters. In 2021, Davis jumped 7.14 meters at the Texas Relays in Austin to set the collegiate record. The jump placed her in the top 30 of all time. She placed 6th in the women's long jump final at the 2021 Summer Olympics. In 2023 at the World Athletics Championship, she won the silver medal in the women's long jump. In 2024 she won first place at the U.S. Track and Field indoor championships with the second longest indoor jump in U.S. women's history. She graduated from the University of Texas in 2021. On October 16, 2022, Tara married Paralympian Hunter Woodhall, and is now a pro athlete in track and field., Henry Frnka , Henry Frnka was born in San Antonio, Texas. As the Greenville High School head football coach from 1931-1935, the GHS team reached the state championship playoffs for five straight years. In 1933, the team claimed the only state championship GHS has ever known. Following the 1935 season, Frnka served as assistant coach at two universities until 1941 when he took the head coaching job at Tulsa University in Oklahoma (1941-1945). As Tulsa's most prolific coach, he compiled a 40-9-1 record. From 1946-1951 Frnka coached at Tulane University in New Orleans, compiling a 31-23-4 record. In a 1949 issue, SPORT magazine declared that Tulane was the best team in the country. Frnka retired from coaching in 1951. Frnka is credited with the first documented use of the fumblerooski at Greenville High School during the 1933 Texas High School Championship game.