The Greenwood Commonwealth from Greenwood, Mississippi • 11

Commonwealth, Greenwood, Thursday, July 28, 1977 Page 1 Hankins wants better Leflore golf course -nil i Yt SI By DUDLEY MARBLE Sports Editor WHEN LEFLORE COUNTY Country Club golf professional Ronny Hankins succeeded Johnny Andrews seven months ago, his primary goal was to make the LCCC course a better layout. And it has been a common sight around the 6,150 yard course located six miles from Greenwood to see Hankins working on the greens. Here is a young, 22-year-old golf pro who doesn't mind hard work if it improves his country club golf course. Hankins has roped off every green 30 feet from the fringe so LCCC members can 't pull their golf carts so close to the green. ri Dudley Marble SV.

Francis ('enter summer boys baseball leant I tie tff we" i I i and Kevin Matthews. The back row from left are Coach Bowers McDowell, Curtis Flowers, Darryl Jordan, Gerald Glass, Henry Jose Lavelle, Curtis Young, and Ray Gertrude. The St. Francis Center is located at 708 Avenue I in Greenwood. The St.

Francis Center baseball team of Greenwood has 13 boys this summer and they're coached by Bowers McDowell. The boys, aged 9-13, have four games left this season. The front row from left are Tony Glover, Keith Holmes, Carlton Harris, Keith Dixon, Alexander Brown, "We were losing so much grass right Dwight Fisher Day planned in Jackson Friday, Saturday "WOULD YOU BELIEVE that we have a nine-hole course and 70 golf carts owned by members? "Usually, you see that large number of carts over an 18-hole course," Hankins marveled. Hankins planted 70 trees around the course last February. A majority were cypress but some others included maple and red bud.

Only 10 trees out of those 70 have been lost. "We scattered the trees. A lot of them are on No. 4 and some line No. 3.

Losing only 10 wasn't bad at all," Hankins pointed out. "My immediate goal is to keep the course watered if we don't get enough rain. It takes a lot of work to get the course in better shape," Hankins said. Hankins attended a PGA Business Schol in St. Louis last February to learn more about running a country club course.

"SUBJECTS SUCH AS teaching golf, golf shop merchandise and management, rules, plus turf grass were discussed," Hankins added. "The ground shifts and moves since the course used to be farm land. Then when it rains, the cracks shrink," Hankins mentioned. But Hankins did admit that the greens are in better shape now than when he took over in February. "I've watered the greens two hours every morning when it's cloudy and two hours in the morning and three hours in late afternoon if it's sunny," Hankins noted.

The greens at the LCCC course are tif dwarf bermuda. "They're a fine shade of bermuda which can be cut much closer than other greens," Hankins reported. "We cut the greens four times a week," Hankins said. He added that the Board of Directors still plans to add nine more holes sometime in the future, but no date for construction has been set. AS FOR NOW, Hankins would prefer some rain and more green grass on the fairways for his immediate pleasure.

But so far, the weatherman hasn't turned out to, be a golfer since the LCCC fairways have been a problem this summer. Hankins is determined to improve the course and he's halfway there with an improved area 30 feet around the green. Dudley Marble RONNY HANKINS LCCC members increase 115 games and tied 6. Fisher was named coach of the year several times by his peers. He was also honored by the Dallas Morning News and the NAIA Texas Division as coach of the year.

next to the green that members didn't have any grass to work with on their chip shots," Hankins explained. "Actually, I roped off the greens to make the course better looking," he said. ANOTHER NEW HANKINS rule as LCCC golf pro is no golf carts are allowed to ride on the fairways now. "Our fairways are made of gumbo. If we go without rain, they'll crack.

"If the fairways aren't subjected to so many golf carts, then the course will be in better shape," Hankins reasoned. Hankins first roped off the greens in the middle of June and club members didn't like the change since it meant extra long walks from around the green to the next tee. But the Leflore County Country Club Board of Directors is firmly behind Hankins and his motives. In fact, club membership has risen from 235 to 275 since Hankins took over in January. "THE EDGE OF THE GREENS looks so much better since we have kept the golf carts off.

We watered and some ggrassis coming back," Hankins reported. "Gumbo needs a good bit of rain. You've got to remember that this course used to be a cotton patch or soybeans when it was cleared in 1968," Hankins recalled. JACKSON Fomrer athletes, coaches, fans, and friends of Dwight "Red" Fisher will gather at Jackson's Holiday Inn Medical Center July 29-30 to pay tribute to one of the nation's top basketball and football coaches in America, Dwight Fisher. A hospitality room will open at 9 Friday night for all early comers to see and talk with Fisher and his family.

Fisher coached for over 30 years in Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas. When he retired in 1973, Fisher was ranked among the top ten winning coaches in small colleges. Fisher began his college coaching career in 1943 at Alabama College with stops at Alcorn College and Bishop College. During his basketball coaching career, he won 319 games, losing only 154 games. At one time he won 26 consecutive conference games.

Fisher had only one losing season as a basketball coach. FOOTBALL WAS Fisher's real love and his teams won 159 games, losing "Without rain, the fairways start to crack. We've had about four inches since June 1. "That's why our first Leflore County Country Club Invitational July 23-24 had to be cancelled. We just didn't have enough rain," Hankins explained.

That first LCCC Invitational would have drawn a field of 96 if it had come off. "We have planned to have it next July. The course will be in better shape then," Hankins said. "I believe that keeping the golf carts off the fairways will help in the long range," Hankins said as he started a tractor on the third green. Norris promoted at Valley to player personnel head Landers, Ricks teams beat champ LANDERS AND Ricks Dixie Majors baseball teams beat St.

Francis of Assisi in St. Louis over the weekend 6-4. St. Francis was the South County Catholic Youth Council champion of St. Louis with a 9-1 record.

Steve Hayes was the winning pitcher for the Landers-Ricks combination team going the full eight innings. A ninth inning wasn't played because of darkness. Hayes was 3-for-4 at the plate with two singles and a double. Steve Alderman was 3-for-3 with two doubles and a single. Jimmy Home and Kenn Flemmons managed the teams in St.

Louis. The boys saw the Cardinals beat Houston and Cincinnati and were recognized on the Cardinal scoreboard. Rebs sign fireballing Hurler Tex. He has a masters degree from Tennessee State University. Coach Norris came to Mississippi Valley State University last year and took a weak secondary and turned it around.

He produced a top pass interception champion and an Ail-American in Derrick Battle last season. Weathersby has set Aug. 11 for all Delta Devil footballers to report to the university. was made by Rebel head baseball coach Jake Gibbs. DAVIS WEATHERSBY, head football coach and athletic director at Mississippi Valley State University, has announced the promotion of Clifton A.

Norris to director of player personnel for the Delta Devils. Norris is a native of Birmingham. Norris played his prep football at George W. Carver High School in Birmingham. Norris went on to play college football at Bishop College in Dallas, OXFORD-Pitcher Albert Ward, considered one of the most outstanding baseball prospects in northwest Florida, has signed a baseball scholarship with Ole Miss.

The announcement of the signing of Ward, a righthanded 5-11, 180-pounder, Both White Sox and Cubs fans can buy "No. 1" pennants at Commiskey, Wrigley mm, -STOCK UP fcd Ttioss One Day Only! FRIDAY, JULY 20lli 1 1 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Pete Sim'sViilagc Standard Station A I Ky. 82-43 Bypass (by tlalouf's Delicatessen)? Rankin County noble Cub supporter as having said.

"What the heck, how many times can you get mugged?" DESPITE THE dedication of such fans, the Cubs have been slipping of late, a condition not helped by a doubleheader defeat Sunday by the less-than-dreaded Houston Astros. Cub fans have long had reason to wonder at their eternal optimism, but nothing comes closer to shaking their faith than memories of 1969 a season that seems indelibly inscribed on their very souls. That was the year the Cubs held a five-game lead on Sept. 2 only to lose eight straight and to be defeated by eight games by the Amazing Mets. Every day it seems, those memories become more vivid.

Monday was no exception. With a 7-to-0 lead going into the eighth inning, even the most nervous Cub fan was remarkably tranquil. A handful of White Sox fans, sporting the black and white caps of the South Side rivals, failed to disturb the disposition of the Cubs' happily cheering supporters. "We're No. they yelled with growing confidence.

"AFTER TODAY'S game you'll be No. 2 and you'll probably be No. 4 after Cincinnati kicks the hell out of you," a White Sox rooter, who said he was at Wrigley Field only because his team was still out of town, called out. The Cubs fans paid scaant attention. Then, it happened.

The Astros scored seven runs in the eighth, culminated by a two-out, two-strike steal of home. The Cubs rooters sat in shock, but not totally in disbelief. It had happened before. But the Cubs came back with a homer with a man on base in their half of the eighth, giving them a two-run lead they protected to win the game. Then the chanting began again.

"We're No. 1," they cried, but they seemed more surprised than ecstatic. Processing Company 1959. The talk was there, spurred on by the last of the really old and fierce cross town rivalries, since the Giants and Dodgers left New York, the Braves departed Boston and the A's fled Philadelphia. Perhaps to spur on the hated North Siders to just such a match-up, Mayor Bilandic ventured from his South Side haunts to Wrigley Field, eating a hot dog at Ray's Bleachers, a noisy fan hangout outside the park, and even putting on a Cubs cap for photographers.

That was about the time the Cubs had an eight-and-a-half-game lead, and Herman Franks, the manager, made some jovial remarks about running for mayor. Bilandic apparently has not been back since, nor has Franks been saying much lately about a political career. THAT MAY HAVE been just as well on both counts. Cub fans are notoriously superstitious, according to Tim Weigel, a Chicago Daily News columnist who has kept account of such things, and that was about the time their favorites started encountering some major difficulties. Cub fans, Weigel has written, do not necessarily accept losses as mere coincidence.

He said one wrote him that he had made love to his wife one night in April, just before the Cubs took a 21-to-3 drubbing from the St. Louis Cardinals, and had immediately taken a vow of celibacy for the rest of the season. "I don't know if what my wife and I did had anything to do with the Cubs losing or not, but I can't take any chances," the fan explained. "I'd rather get divorced than blow a shot at a pennant." Another, he insists, called him from New York City to say he had been there on a visit when the Cubs got hot and that he was not coming home until the season was over. "If staying in New York helps the Cubs win, I'll do it," he quoted the By DOUGLAS E.

KNEELAND N.Y. Times CHICAGO For the first time in a long while, Chicago's victory-starved baseball fans, who are as numerous as they are long-suffering, can buy outside the White Sox's Comiskey Park or the Cubs' Wrigley Field bona fide souvenir pennants that declare, however ephemerally, "We're No. 1." Of such things are sweet dreams made in a sporting town like Chicago, sweet dreams to blot out the nightmares of too many unforgotten seasons. Pennant fever, an infectious but infrequently occurring madness in these parts, has swept Chicago, its ravaging effects doubled by having two teams leading their divisions. Both of them had been widely predicted by the experts to be destined for the lower reaches.

With yearning in their hearts and a rising fear gnawing at their stomachs, Cub fans, though sensitive (some would say neurotic) souls with the unfailing optimism of Charlie Brown himself, are drawn irresistibly each summer to the North Side's Wrigley Field by chanting hopefully, almost hysterically, these days for the Little Blue Machine. ON THE North Side, the temperature on the fever charts fluctuates widely from day to day as the Cubs teeter on the brink of losing the hold they have had for weeks on first place in the National League East. But on the South Side, home of Mayor Michael A. Bilandic and his late predecessor, Richard J. Daley, the charts keep going straight up.

The fans at old Comiskey Park, a hardier, more raucous, working-class breed, have totally embraced their South Side Hit Men, an unlikely array of slugging retreads and youngsters, led by a real Polish home run hitter, Richie Zisk. These swaggering White Sox have been brutalizing the American League in recent weeks with their long-ball 10 Lb. box Pork Ribs $12.0 box 30-3 13 oi. Grilled eef Patty M.9S box 14-6 oz. Rib Eye Steaks $12.95 box 12-8 oz.

Rib Eye Steaks $12-'S box 12-10 oz. Rib Eye Steaks $14.95 box 5 lb. box Beef Round Steaks Si.95 box 20-4 oz. Hamburger Steaks S4.95 box 20-8 oz. Hamburger Steaks 8.95 box 10 lb.

box center cut Pork Chops per box) 10 lb. box end cut Pork Chops $10.95 (30-40 per box) 5 lb. box Southern Belle Sausage Patties $5.95 10 lb. box Hickory smoked country link sausage $10.95 5 lb. box sliced breakfast or sandwich Ham $9.95 6 lb.

box thick sliced bacon $7.95 50-3 oz. breaded, pre-cooked Chicken Fried Steaks $1 1.90 140-breaded, pre-cooked Finger Steaks $11.90 Boneless Sirloin Tip Beef Roast (3 to 8 lb. avg.) $1.19 lb. 12-8 oz. Kansas City Sirloin Strips $12.95 34 Pronto Pups (corn dogs) $5.95 UPI JORGEORTASLIDS He's helped '77 White Sox lead hitting as they have lengthened their lead in the Western Division.

And the change from the light-hitting defensive teams that have peopled Comiskey Park in much of the past has been almost more than the euphoric South Siders could stand. "I've never seen anything like it," Mary Frances Veeck, wife of the White Sox owner, Bill Veeck, said recently. "They cheer for anything from a home run to a routine play. It's wonderful." THE CUBS ARE North and the Sox are South and seldom the twain have met, especially in a World Series. But when both teams emerged from the All-Star break the mythical mark that baseball experts generally believe separates the also-rans from real contenders leading their divisions, the most impossible dreamers began getting visions of an all-Chicago final, the most recent of which was in 1906.

Never mind that the last time the Cubs won a pennant was in 1945. Or that the White Sox last tasted glory in Sold in above quantities only Add 5 per cent sales tax to listed prices GUARANTEED OR MONEY scented.