Pre-1928

Sprinters were DuQuoin's First True Athletes

Taken from the 1927 Flashlight yearbook as contributed by Judson E. Harriss.

In reviewing the history of athletices in our DuQuoin High School, there are two outstanding names in the memory of every old timer. These two names are those of "Turk" Maclin and Ollie Davis. In the days of the Southern Illinois Athletic and Oratorical Association, the DuQuoin High School won first in athletics for ten successive years.

Will Maclin, known everywhere as Turk, began to shine as a track athlete about 1897 and continued to win many points until 1900. Turk was a wonderful sprinter and runner and always won first in the 50 yard, 100 yard and 220 yard dashes. In the 440 yard dash he was sometimes timed at 50 seconds, and in some special runs was credited with running it in a fraction less than 50 seconds. He also took points in the shot put.

In the late 1890's, the DuQuoin High School was put on the map athletically in the University of Illinois InterScholastic Meets, chiefly through the efforts of Turk Maclin. At one meet at Champaign he took first in every event in which he entered and came within one point of winning the State High School Championship for DuQuoin single-handidly. Many times after that year, The 'Daily Illini' referred to Maclin as "THE GREAT MACLIN."

Ollie Davis succeeded Will Maclin as our star track athlete and for four years made almost as brilliant a showing as Turk had done. In many of the Southern Illinois Athletic Meets, Ollie Davis won as many as five and six firsts and in the 50, 100 and 220 yard dashes he was invincible.

At one memorable contest in Mt. Vernon, Davis won first in six events, thus making 30 points and winning the meet for DuQuoin. At this meet, ten schools were competing with the principal contenders being DuQuoin, Cairo, Centralia, Mt. Vernon, Fairfield and McLeansboro. Ollie was a wonder in the running broad jump, and while in high school was jumping over 21 feet. Later, when a student at Northwestern University, he jumped about 23 feet.

In his high school days one of our track events was the running hop, step and jump and in this event, Ollie established a record exceeding 45 feet; with close competition he could have jumped even further. Many who saw his performance believed that with training he could have approached the world record in this event.

Davis also won many firsts in the hammer throw and the standing broad jump. Both Turk Maclin and Ollie Davis will always be remembered for their versatility and splendid accomplishments in high school athletics in which they made DuQuoin famous for many years.

Harry Blakeslee and Harvey Eddleman were stars in the bicycle races which were always track events in the late 1890's and up until 1908. Joe Bruckshaw was a star in the 440 yard race. Succeeding him about the years 1902-04, Robert Brown became a star in the bicycle races and always won first in his events. Charles Rogers, Jr. also did well in the races.

Val Parker and John Rodman, although small in stature as high school boys, made splendid marks in the running high jump and the hop,step and jump. Winnie Erwin, familiarly known as "Puss", won many races in the dashes. Back in the days when pole vaulters were considered good in making 9 feet, Karl Pope and Charles Weinberg were our best performers.

In the years 1903-05, Tom Kelley (Big Tom) was a star performer in the weight events. He always scored firsts in the Southern Illinois Meet in the shot put and hammer throw. With his size and speed he made a star fullback on our football teams in those years. In the Inter-Scholastic at Champaign in 1904 Tom Kelley established a record in the shot put which stood for several years among the high schools of this state.

Earle Harriss made a good showing at this time in the discus throw. Back in the days of Ollie Davis and Harry Blakeslee, Luther Dunn, known as "Skeeter", made a good showing in the hurdle races. In 1903-04 John Burnett, a colored boy who attended our high school, was a good performer in the shot put.

Louis Kelley, Henry Yehling and Archer Wheatley won points for DuQuoin in some of the dashes and runs. Dwight Marlow became a star dashman in the 100 and 220 yard dashes. At a triple meet in 1904 with Benton and Mt. Vernon DuQuoin's Dwight Marlow was leading the field in the 220 with Beverly Moore, now Dr. J. B. Moore of Benton, in second place-but about 5 yards from the finish line, one of our enthusiastic and excited high school boys grabbed Dwight on the track and threw a blanket around him. Before he could shake loose, he was beaten out of first place by Beverly Moore. In other meets, Dwight usually finished first in the two events named.

In these years we also had some excellent relay teams. The one in 1904 was composed of Dwight Marlow, Judson Harriss, Ottis Maclin and Grover Stockman. In those days we had no basketball teams, but every fall we had some stirring football games. The first high school team was organized in 1897 and was coached by Ed Miller who came to DuQuoin as a soldier from the 20th Kansas Infantry.

The lineup of this first team was about as follows: Turk Maclin-RH, Luther Dunn-LH, Everett Rodman-FB, Ollie King-QB, Harry Blakeslee-RE, Newt Shaw-RT, Fred Linzee-RG, Struck Wells-C, Ray Linzee-LG, Loren King-LT, Harvey Eddleman-LE.

Coe Melvin, Ezra Harriss and Larry Higgins also played with these early teams. In 1897-98 this team won most of its games. They played Cairo, Murphysboro, Nashville, Centralia and several other high schools of the area.

The football teams during the 1902-04 era on which Big Tom Kelley performed were made up of the following: Frank Wheatley-RH, Judson Harriss-LH, Tom Kelley-FB, Earle Harriss-QB, Billie Armstrong-C, Otto Wilderman-G, Leslie King-G, Ottis Maclin-T, Chester Paul-T, Willie Thompson-E, Val Parker-E.

Tom Braden was also a star fullback just before these teams. He played his last game about 1903. Tom Kelley went from our high school to the University of Chicago under Coach Alonzo Stagg. He played on the same team with the famous Walter Eckersall.

Football was not played at DuQuoin again until 1928.