MIDWAY — It was a momentous day for the purple and gold July 2 at the Samuel B. Harris Gymnasium.

Dozens of alumni from the old Liberty County High School gathered to remember their former school and induct their first class of members to the school’s Hall of Fame.

The basketball team went from playing in the USO to clay courts at the school, using fires lit in drums alongside for light, when the USO was not available, and eventually to its own on-campus gym. That gym, refurbished and renovated and adorned with purple and gold striping, bears the name of the coach — the late Sam Harris — who led the Tigers to a GIA state boys basketball championship.

“Thank God these walls whisper,” joked state Rep. Al Williams, a star athlete in his own right at the old LCHS, “because some things we don’t want them to tell.”

The original Liberty County High School lasted from 1953 to 1972. The first football team took the field in 1959, with Esaw Kelly at quarterback, Williams recalled. But at a time when “separate but equal” was being overturned in the Supreme County, the Liberty County school board wanted to show it could work, Williams said. So the old Liberty High got a gym on par or even better than the one for Bradwell Institute, which was then the school for white children.

“We had some unbelievable athletes,” he said.

While the school’s baseball team only lasted a couple of years, it still left an impact. H.C. Baker, one of the school’s alltime best athletes, played in the minors. But even before played pro ball, the first baseball player to get looked at was Almo Walthour Jr.

“He had the reputation of throwing a curveball that could go around a tree,” Williams said.

Walthour was killed in an auto accident at McLarry’s winning coach on July 2.

Curve before he could sign with the pros.

Thomas Walthour and Peter Walthour were standout basketball players, and Peter Walthour’s weapon of choice on offense was a hook shot. Then athletic director Alex Ellis called it the “Walthour hook shot,” Williams noted, “because all of them use it.”

The basketball team was known for “busting the clock,” scoring more than 100 points because the score total for each team only kept double figures. The football team did it too, scoring 100 points in a game once as well.

The football team played at Dorchester Academy before there was a field at LCHS. They did not want to play on Thursdays and the white schools played on Friday nights.

Donell Woods and James Hall, a former paratrooper, were the football coaches.

“You’d meet him on the sidewalk and he’d say, ‘be tough,’” Williams recalled. “He was the tallest short man I ever knew in my life.”

Even as tough as Hall was, Williams said, the most tenacious and ferocious faculty member may have been the school’s brilliant music teacher.

“I never had a football coach who was tougher than Ms. Deborah Robinson,” he said.

The Tigers went to play a new school in Savannah, Sol C. Johnson High. As the players gathered in the cafeteria there after the game, their equipment was stolen from the buses.

“We had to scrounge for equipment. We finished the last two games looking like a rag tag team,” Williams said.

Discipline wasn’t a problem at the school, he said, because everyone was a disciplinarian. Coach Hall let the team captains know what their responsibilities were with their teammates too.

While the school boasted “outstanding basketball” and “unbelievable football” teams, and fielded great girls teams too, Williams said, some of the players excelled not just on the field but later in life too. That was a result of what they learned and how they were formed inside the Liberty County High walls.

“The athletes who came out of here, the teachers who made it possible for us to do it, humanity, character, stand tall, be tough, that was extremely important. Because of that, we developed greatness all over this country,” he said. “They tried to instill character into us.”

Rodney McIntyre, who offered the prayer, was the first Black player on a golf team in Florida, Williams pointed out.

“He was Tiger before there was a Woods,” he said.

Williams also called for continuing to keep the memory of their old high school sacred.

“Don’t forget those who gave it all,” he said. “Don’t forget those who loved this school. Let’s not forget those who worked so hard to make it possible.”

Allison Cain said the stories of “triumph and tenacity are the bedrock of Liberty County High’s legacy. You are heroes who showed us what it means to persevere, to strive for excellence and to make every moment count.

“It was a place where friendships were forged, dreams were nurtured and sometimes fashionable choice were made,” she continued. “It was a place not just where minority students found not just education but found a community, a family, a future.

“It should be an inspiration for all those who come behind.”