Bonham -- Beginning in 1992, the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame has been honoring the outstanding athletes, coaches and teams of Fannin County. The Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame is now home to more than 100 individual members and six teams.
Two new members and one new team joined this elite group of athletes Saturday night at the Sports Hall of Fame Annual Banquet.
Royce Smithey, president of the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors welcomed the crowd to Bailey Inglish Auditorium and called what football fans know as an audible. It seems that some family members of one of the 2011 inductees, Howard "Polly" Zell McLarry, received word of the ceremony at the last minute and didn't have a chance to attend the banquet. Smithey and the board of directors huddled and decided to wait until 2012 to indict McLarry in order to allow family members to participate in the induction ceremony.
With that decision made, the official 2011 Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame inductees were Bobby Tarver, Johnny Dickerson and the 1989 Class A State Champion Fannindel Falcon basketball team.
Jerry Harris introduced Tarver.
"Bobby loved sports and he loved competition," said Harris.
"This is a great honor," Tarver told the audience.
Tarver recalled how the 1958 Bonham Warrior football team advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Terrell, the eventual state champions. The Warriors also won district in basketball and baseball.
"Sports made a big impact in my life," remarked Tarver. "You achieve things you have set goals for, and goals are important in life."
Tarver received an athletic scholarship to play baseball and football at Baylor University. After playing one year at Baylor, Tarver transferred to Paris Junior College where, just as at Baylor, the versatile athlete played shortstop for the baseball team and split end for the football team. During the 1959-60 season, Tarver also played defensive back and punted for the PJC Dragons. Tarver told the crowd Saturday night that Bonham coach Leonard Gerner had taught him how to punt. Tarver's baseball skills caught the eye of University of Alabama coaches and the Bonham grad spent two years playing shortstop for the Crimson Tide before graduating in 1962.
Dr. Patrick O'Malley took the podium to introduce his former basketball coach and the second 2011 inductee, John W. "Johnny" Dickerson. Forty years after playing for Coach Dickerson, O'Malley could still remember countless events and phrases from his days with Dickerson, a sure testimony to the lasting impression this colorful coach made on O'Malley and hundreds of other young athletes.
Johnny Dickerson was an outstanding basketball player at Bonham High School and he received an athletic scholarship to TCU where me made the starting five as a sophomore. While at TCU, Dickerson married the love of his life, Patsy.
In 1958, Dickerson graduated from TCU and began what would turn out to be a long and rewarding coaching career at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth. He also coached at Fort Worth's Nolan Catholic High School, Haltom High School and Lighthouse Christian High School.
In 17 years of coaching, Dickerson's teams won 384 games and never suffered through a losing season. He coached three All-American High School players and sent 39 players on to the next level to play college basketball.
In 1976, Fort Worth Mayor Clif Overcash proclaimed March 12 as John W. Dickerson Day and in 1980 Tarrant County Judge Mike Moncrief honored Dickerson as an Honorary Commissioner of Tarrant County.
"He loved deeply and passionately," O'Malley said of his former coach.
The team inducted into the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame this year had already written their name in the history books by winning the Class A state title in basketball in 1989. Perhaps even more important, this group of highly disciplined, well-mannered young men served as outstanding ambassadors for Fannindel High School and brought distinction to their community by also bringing home the State Sportsmanship Award.
"These young men were a reflection of their coach," said Steve Guffey who was a first-year assistant coach for head coach Glen Fields that year at Fannindel. "They were probably the best team in Class A that I ever saw play or ever will see play."
Fannindel head coach Glen Fields guided the Falcons to a 25-2 season that culminated with a trip to the state tournament which produced victories over Clyde Eula and Moulton.
"It was an honor to work with this group," remarked Coach Fields.
Fields was inducted into the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the 1989 Falcon team included his son, Jason. Coach Fields' grandfather, Charlie Fields, played football at TCU 1908-1911 and was the first member of this gifted family to earn a berth in the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame. No other family has managed to place three generations in the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame.
