Palm Beach Community College - Galleon Yearbook (Lake Worth, FL)

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In the summer of 1969, Dr. Howard Reynolds moved to Florida from Kentucky to accept a teaching position at JC. In April of the following year, he was named athletic director, following the resignation of interim director Charles Sutherland. When Reynolds took over, the financial status of the athletic program was shaky. We already had commitments made when I came to there wasn ' t much I could do about that, he said. But Reynolds did take measures to improve the financial situation of his program for the future. He told the Board of Trustees that he needed more money, but that he couldn ' t justify it until he got his department organized. We curtailed some of the road trips, which are very expensive, he ex- plained. The basketball team had gone to three or four tournaments before Christmas. These cost a lot of money. Reynolds also changed the supplements the coaching staff was receiving. Most of the money seemed to be going for coaching supplements, Reynolds recalled. Our coaches were far and away the highest paid around. Something like 40% of the athletic funds were going to them. The basketball coach, Jim Tanner at that time was receiving $1980 a season for his coaching duties. The baseball coach, Mel Edgerton was getting $1720. Golf coach Ray Dougherty, was getting $1564, and tennis coach Harris McGirt received $1460. Reynolds worked out a plan that would continue to give Edgerton, Dougherty, and McGirt that amount. The stipulation was however, that if and when they left, their successors would receive $1000 for baseball, and $500 for golf and tennis. All three are still at their coaching positions. When Tanner resigned, it was agreed that his successor would receive no pay, but would be given release time (a lighter class load at no re- duction in pay). When the Board saw that the effort was being made to shape up they gave Reynolds an additional $23,810, bringing the total to about $54,000 per season. With this new money Reynolds was able to begin an expanded recruit- ing program. Among the new playert he was able to find for the cage team was Morris Tampa. He was the player who turned things around for us, Reynolds said, Morris graduated from high school in 1966. He was a draftsnrian for Pratt-Whitney here locally, and was playing on their team in an indust- rial league. He saw that we were building a winning program, and decid- ed to come here. But with Tanner ' s resignation, they were still in search of a new coach. Reynolds discovered that Bob Wright had moved to South Florida. He had known Wright as a rival coach in Kentucky and was aware that Wright had never had a losing season as a head coach. He was the outstanding high school coach in Kentucky, he said. Bob ' s team was the state champion in 1961 and runner-up in ' 62. He also coached four years at Moore State University and in his final season, missed going to the IMCAA tournament when he lost in a playoff game. Wright did not spoil his winning record when he took over the largely unsuccessful Pacer team. In his first year, he guided them to a 15-10 mark, the first winning season in their history. Currently, Wright and his charges have compiled a 13-4 record and are in a hotly contested battle for the conference championship. I just hope we can keep going the way we ' ve been drawls Wright, with a soft Kentucky accent, if we can continue our winning ways, we ' ll be okay. By Doug Sidewand Sports Editor BEACHCOMBER

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BALL DR. REYNOLDS When the Pacers began play in 1965, there were no Morris Tampas, no large crowds and not many wins. There wasn ' t even a gymnasium to play in. The original coach of the team, Jim Tanner, now a JC physical education instructor, laughingly says those are days you try to forget. For the first two seasons, we didn ' t have any money for scholar- ships, he said. We took guys who were playing on the intramural teams, and put them on our team. Coach McGirt (Harris McGirt, now JC tennis coach) was worth a million dollars to me then. I had no assistants, and he acted in that capacity for me. He helped me scout other teams, came out to practices, and helped drive to the games. We had to go by car in those days, you know. During the first season of play, the team used John I. Leonard High ' s facilities ' until the PBJC gym was ready. We didn ' t win many games that first season, Tanner said, reminisc- ing. We beat a few industrial teams like Pratt-Whitney and RCA, but officially we went 1-15. Tanner said the only player of any note during the first season that he could remember was a guard named Manny Corrino. He really was a good player, the former coach recalled. Manny came from Forest Hill and probably could have played at several different colleges. During their third year, the Pacers continued their upward climb, com- piling 8-12 season record. For the first year the team was given money for scholarships. The amount came to $1,500. The 1971-72 cage team received close to $9,650. During the ' 68- ' 69 campaign, the team again won eight games, but lost 14. But, Tanner said, after several years I finally thought we had the makings of a good team. Apparently they did, for the next season they achieved a .500 record for the first time in JC history, finishing with a 13-13 record. After that .500 season they slipped back to a 9-13 record. It was in the middle of that ' 70- ' 71 year that Tanner handed in his re- signation to Athletic Director Howard Reynolds, effective at the close of the season. I finally started feeling the pressure, he said. I was hollering more and more at my players and my family. Does Tanner miss coaching? Yes, you always miss something like that. I don ' t miss the day to day grind of practice and scouting other teams and players, but you do miss the excitement of a game calling. I ' d been coaching for 20 years and I was tired. Coaching is a young man ' s game, he said. Tanner says he still follows the Pacers closely. I even try to make all their road games whenever I can.

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J - -s - Pacer Scoring Totals FG FT TP P.P.G. MORRIS TAMPA 197 102 496 22.5 KEITH HIGHSMITH 143 54 340 15.4 DONNIE MILLER 118 36 272 11.8 JOHN VAN AUKER 100 47 247 10.7 GREG MEAD 101 23 225 9.7 DON RIVERS 33 11 77 6.4 STEVE RAPER 9 7 25 1.9 ED DEVEAUX 8 4 21 2.3 CHUCK FAULCONER 2 5 9 4.5 TOM PAYNE 1 2 .5 SCORES MARYMOUNT COLLEGE BREVARD INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT BREVARD INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT BISCAYNE FROSH BROWARD NORTH U. OF FLORIDA FROSH EDISON JUNIOR COLLEGE BISCAYNE FROSH BREVARD ALBANY BUSINESS COLLEGE WESLEY indian river community college miami-dade north broward central edison community college broward central miami-dade south broward north miami-6ade north miami-dade south daytona beach com. col. daytona beach com. col. PBJC OPP 124 45 91 115 87 109 82 64 81 75 90 83 77 86 103 58 85 77 99 98 75 64 71 69 74 63 76 70 108 86 78 66 87 100 82 73 69 76 63 78 67 58 77 72