When Johnny Neil Smith saw Beulah Hubbard’s football field for the first time, he said, “All I could see was a desert and cow patties.” The new field was carved out of a red clay hill behind gym by a bulldozer and a giant earth moving machine, thanks to the county supervisor. Several feet of dirt were removed to get the hill leveled down. The deeper they dug, the harder and the redder the clay got. But he and the football team, or future team, plowed the red clay and planted grass. We didn’t need any fertilizer. There was plenty of natural cow manure to solve that problem. With all the cow manure, we had to get a tetanus shot before we could play on the field.
There was one small problem with the grass. The rain didn’t come that year and most of the grass soon died. The only thing between our heads and the ground when we were tackled was the helmet which was purchased from the lowest bidder. No sod nor topsoil to cushion the blow. The natural sharp rocks did a number on our elbows and knees too. But Johnny Neil Smith was determined to build Beulah Hubbard’s first football team with a bunch of hay hauling country boys who didn’t even know which end of the football to kick.
Johnny Neil tells it best in his own words.
“I finished my basic training with the Mississippi National Guard in late February of 1962, and presently was not looking for a job. One day Mr. Leo Salter (Principal at Beulah Hubbard) called me and came to talk to me. When he came, he told me if he didn’t create some new programs, that he felt BH would be consolidated into another school system in the county. The other school has both a football team and a band program. He then asked me if I would be interested in creating a football team. He then asked me what I could teach. I told him I had gone through college on a band scholarship and was instrumental major. He then asked me if I would be interested in creating a band program as well. Having only played high school, I asked why me. He said my aunt Fannie Jo Taylor was an outstanding basketball coach there and BH and her brother, my uncle, LC Wilson was also an outstanding coach. I might have it in my blood. I thought it was because on one else wanted the job and signed on.
“I began to round up boys to play and once practice started, I had only four weeks to pull this team together. One of the boys even put his jock strap on backwards. That year, several of the schools in Lauderdale County were also starting football programs. We played West Lauderdale, Clarkdale, and Southeast Lauderdale twice. In our first season we won one game against Union B team varsity and tied two. In 1965 we won, lost one and tied Neshoba Central and clinched the Cherokee Conference title. Later we learned that we had been invited to play in the post season Lion’s Bowl but was informed that the school was ready to start basketball season. With all the hard work the boys had done, they deserved that the opportunity. I was shocked and deeply disappointed with respect to all.
To me, the band program was the most challenging. I had to teach our students various instruments and how to march. This was a slow process but very rewarding. Our public-school teacher would direct the band on ball game nights. The fourth year of our program, I carried them to the band contest in Jackson. The performed well. We ended up having about thirty-eight in our band.
It was kind of funny. I would go to our conference meetings. I would hear some of the coaches laughing. Well, I heard the band director beat you in football last night.”
Without a doubt, Johnny Neil had his work cut out for him. Having no experience in coaching and his only football experience was playing high school football, he recruited a few of his old teammates and a former football coach to assist him in coordinating his offense and defense. By and large, he was on his own and never gave up on us. He used to get aggravated for the way some of us would try to tackle. We would jump on the runner’s back and try to ride them to the ground. Didn’t work too good as the runner would often carry us across the goal line on his back. “Hit’m low, hit’m low he would say with obvious frustration ai his voice. He used to joke that BH stood for the Beulah Hubbard Bear Huggers. Or maybe he wasn’t joking!
One of the hardest things he ever tried to get across to us was to fake which way we were going to turn. He used to say. “You don’t take a big wide turn. You are telling the opposition exactly which way you are going. You fake going one way and then turn to the other direction.” He must have done something right. He accomplished what he set out to do. He created a football team from us hay hauling country boys.
Although he didn’t go to school Beulah Hubbard, he was one of us. The Beat Two clay ran through his veins. From the moment he stepped out of his new Plymouth convertible at BH, he became as much a part of Beulah Hubbard as anybody who ever went to school there. Johnny Neil Smith said. “My years at Beulah Hubbard were some of the best years of my life, but it came time for me to go. I will always miss Beulah Hubbard.”
Because of his love and devotion to the school, the community, and the students, he left a legacy at Beulah Hubbard unlike any teacher who ever set foot in the little school on the red clay ridge between Dennis Harrison’s cornfield and JR Chaney’s grocery. Anybody who ever played for him either in the band or football loved respected Johnny Neil. He had a way about him that caused you to give it everything you had. We love you Coach.
