Letter: Charleston, New Madrid should honor Lennies McFerren

What do the great Jackie Robinson and the Hall of Fame Coach Lennies McFerren have in common? They both broke the color barrier in sports that I love. Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

Thirty years later and almost to the day, (April 14, 1977) Lennies McFerren became the first black high school boy’s head coach not only in the Southeast Missouri area but the first black head coach between St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee. At the time that the Charleston School Board and its Superintendent, Charles Rorex, decided to give McFerren the opportunity, he was one of the only two black assistant coaches in the area with the other being in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Lennies McFerren inspired so many other successful young men and coaches, but most importantly, his succeeding at Charleston ultimately led to other schools taking a chance on black head basketball coaches.

Lennies McFerren became one of the best high school basketball coaches in the history of the state of Missouri, winning ten state championships and winning numerous coaching honors including being inducted into the Missouri Basketball Hall of Fame. Yet, Coach McFerren has yet to have the highest honor bestowed upon him of having any basketball court or gym named in his honor.

The only two coaches in the state that can be mentioned in the same breath as Coach Mac are Ronnie Cookson and Floyd Irons and both of those coaches’ respective schools named their basketball court after them.

As a Charleston graduate and former basketball coach that benefited from Coach McFerren’s sacrifice and success, it pains me that both Charleston and New Madrid, Missouri, haven’t honored him yet.

Coach McFerren is literally the Jackie Robinson of boys high school basketball in the Bootheel, and both gyms should have his name on the court.

Roosevelt Mitchell III, Ed.S

St. Louis resident and former Charleston resident