1934 Boys State Champions
Vilonia High School Basketball Champions 1934.
They won both county and state in their division in 1934. They won 21 of 25 games. Front Row Left to Right: Lavon Walker, Ellery Pankey and Paul Conway. Back Row Left to Right: Coach F.M. Bollen, Walter Lewis Pierce, Doyle Simmons, Edwin Simpson, Tom Fortner and Archie Walker.
Liberty Jr. Boys Basketball team 1950/1951
They were Faulkner Co. Champions that year. They had 22 wins and 1 loss.
Front Row L to R: Jerry Stephens, Alvin Lackie, Sam Griffith and Cleo Ballard. Second Row L to R: Norman Matthews, Donald Naylor, Ben Roach, Alton Lackie and Coach Oren Heffington. Back Row L to R: Carroll Kelley, Jimmy Thomas and James (Bubba) Bostic.
The 60's
1960 Girls - 32 Sharon Hockenbury, 50 Phyllis Diehl ,34 Sissy Avery, 54 Manerva Atkinson, 44 Charlotte Lawrence, 10 Pearlene Johnson, lleona Faye gross standing, 52 Elsie lee Maynard, 30 Earlene Naylor, 20 Martha Heffington, Oneta Fortner and 24 Shirley Evatt. Coach Roy Hartwick was a great coach and a great athlete himself!
70's Dominance - 2 State Titles
The early 70's teams were quite good for several years. They won in 1971 and were runner-up in 1970. Holly Briley and Debby Wells were scoring machines. They grew up right across the street from one another. Vilonia was in Class A at that time.
The 1979 team was just that - an amazing team with few individual stars. Sarita Lary was arguably the greatest defensive player in Vilonia's history. Remember, this was back in 3-on-3 days. She rarely (if ever) played foward. Sherry Williams was a scoring machine. If I'm not mistaken, she poured in 42 or 44 against a heavily-favored DeQueen bunch in the semi-finals of that tournament. That preceded the infamous, ill-fated pep bus ride home with the overnight stay on the side of rainy I-40 at Mulberry. I was on that bus also. They beat the daylights out of Star City the next night at the West Fork gymnasium.
Don't forget that Claude Fulmer Jr. coached all of those teams. He was one of the best. The only thing he did better than coach was deflect attention from himself. He was one of Arkansas' greatest ever.
The 1979 team was just that - an amazing team with few individual stars. Sarita Lary was arguably the greatest defensive player in Vilonia's history. Remember, this was back in 3-on-3 days. She rarely (if ever) played foward. Sherry Williams was a scoring machine. If I'm not mistaken, she poured in 42 or 44 against a heavily-favored DeQueen bunch in the semi-finals of that tournament. That preceded the infamous, ill-fated pep bus ride home with the overnight stay on the side of rainy I-40 at Mulberry. I was on that bus also. They beat the daylights out of Star City the next night at the West Fork gymnasium.
Don't forget that Claude Fulmer Jr. coached all of those teams. He was one of the best. The only thing he did better than coach was deflect attention from himself. He was one of Arkansas' greatest ever.