When the Houston High School Indians football team took the state title in 1969, there was no parade, no city recognition, no rings.
There was a trophy, but it was tossed in the trash when Houston merged with the all-white Perry High School. One of Houston’s players had to retrieve it.
The first state championship for the city of Perry was just a footnote in the local paper, Channel 2 Action News reported in July 2020.
That was the month the all-Black team finally received rings commemorating their state championship. They paid $300 each for their rings, which were presented in a special ceremony held by the city of Perry.
“I’ve been crying all morning,” Lawrence Clarington, who was an eighth-grader on the team, told the news station. “I thought this day would never come.”
That wasn’t the last honor for the team, though.
The surviving members of the team gathered again in Perry, on a Saturday in December, to finally receive their trophies.
“It’s a glorious day in Perry, Georgia,” Clarington said, according to HHJonline. “We were blessed back in July with our ring ceremony. God allowed our ceremony to go viral across America, and it caught the eye of a young lady who had never seen us before and didn’t know nothing about us. But she felt convicted that, ‘I’ve got to do something for those men down in Perry, Georgia.’ The Holy Spirit dwelled in her heart.”
That woman was philanthropist Marilyn Kent Wheeler Velde of Louisville, Kentucky.
“I couldn’t believe it at first when she said, ‘I want to reimburse you all for all the rings you bought,’” Clarington reportedly told the crowd. “Why would somebody who’d never met me and never met my teammates want to reach out and give back to us? She said, ‘Not only do I want to reimburse you on your rings, I want to buy each and every one of you a trophy.’ Ain’t God good?”
So now the state champs have not only a ring but also a trophy to mark their accomplishment.
“It’s such an honor for me to be here in front of all of you all. To be standing on this grass that you all planted and took care of all the time you were playing football.” Velde remarked on that Saturday.
“I had wonderful parents: Evangeline and Kent Wheeler,” she continued. “They were both born in the country and came from very large families. My mother was one of 16, and my father was one of eight. I’m the youngest of four. Our parents taught us to be respectful to everyone. You don’t see color and be nice to everybody. Don’t think of yourself, but think of others. And whatever you can do for somebody else, just do it. They said it all the time as we were growing up. To be here today with you all, as a team — there’s nothing like it in the world.”
After each player received his own championship trophy, the team presented Verde with an award, HHJonline reported, and named her an honorary Houston High Indian.
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