By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
Florine Tousant Bingham couldn't touch her toes in her high school physical education class.
Because of that, she had to settle for a B in the class, to go along with the all A's in her other classes.
Bingham says she still can't touch her toes, but during her high school years at Lincoln, she could certainly play basketball.
Bingham is one of four Lincoln High School alumni, who will join eight former Forrest City athletes being inducted into the Forrest City Athletic Hall of Fame on Friday.
The banquet will be held at the Forrest City Civic Center beginning at 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance.
The Hall of Fame inducted 12 into the charter class last year. This year's 12 inductees brings the total Hall of Fame members to 24.
Bingham and Charlotte Fields Wright, are the first two women to be inducted into the Hall.
Joining Bingham are former Lincoln athletes John Henry Watson, Clarence Jones Jr. and Rodney Echols.
Bingham remembers being a "target" during her basketball playing days at Lincoln High School.
"I was the one that the visiting teams keyed on," Bingham said. "Especially when we were playing on the road. I got poked in the eyes, jabbed and pushed around."
Bingham, who played basketball when it was still three-on-three, helped lead Lincoln to the district championship and into the state tournament, under head coach T.R. "Hank" DeLaney.
At Lincoln, Bingham averaged 15 points per game, playing mostly as a forward.
She says winning the district title is one of her most cherished memories from her high school playing days.
Bingham, who was inducted into the National Honor Society, serving as secretary, graduated from Lincoln in 1964 as valedictorian at the age of 16.
She attended Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., attending on a four-year academic scholarship.
"Lane did not have a women's basketball team," Bingham said. So she turned her attention to other areas.
She spent her sophomore season (1966) as a student ambassador to Lagos, Nigeria and Dahomey West Africa.
"I spent that summer speaking nothing but French, since that was a French-speaking country," Bingham said.
As a junior at Lane, she was president of the Student Council and was instrumental in developing an interracial student-academic relationship with students from Union University and Lambuth College in Jackson. She graduated from Lane with a BS Degree in Chemistry and Mathematics.
Bingham is also an accomplished pianist, beginning her musical career in the fifth grade where she took piano lessons from Charlene Warren.
In high school, she accompanied the choir and later led the Forrest City All-Star
Choir, a group that made a TV appearance on one of Memphis' local stations.
Bingham has remained faithful to Forrest City. She taught in the public school system here for more than 20 years. In 1975, she graduated from Arkansas State University with an MSE in Guidance and Counseling.
In 1995, Bingham served on the recruitment team with Danny Ferguson and David Dunn to recruit the Boar's Head Provisions Company of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Because of that, she was asked to join Boar's Head as Human Resource Manager and Director of Total Quality Management. She is now the Employee Relations Manager.
Bingham is the oldest of six siblings, the daughter of Marshall and Flora Tousant.
She has three children, Kevin, Veronica and Vallary.
"I was elated when they called me to tell me I had been selected for the Hall of Fame," Bingham said. "I knew I had been nominated, but I didn't know how good my chances were since no women were chosen last year. This will certainly be one of my most cherished memories."
Watson, a multi talented athlete, attended Lincoln High School from 1954 until he graduated in 1959.
He lettered in football, track and baseball, but his greatest accomplishments came on the gridiron.
At Lincoln, he was an All-State running back but also played on defense. As a sophomore he was the starting quarterback and linebacker. He stayed at QB during his junior year bur switched to safety on defense and during his senior season, he played quarterback, halfback, fullback, linebacker, safety and cornerback.
"I played wherever the coach thought I could help the team," Watson said.
Watson's Tigers' teams won the league championship two of the three seasons he played. He was a member of two Tiger football teams which played bowl games in Memphis.
In high school baseball, Watson was a three-year starter, played centerfield and batted cleanup. As a freshman, he was the leading hitter with a .529 average.
Watson played on the same Lincoln baseball team with DeJustice Coleman, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year.
"Dejustice was a senior and I was a freshman," Watson said.
In track, Watson had a career-best time of 9.8 seconds in the 100-yard dash, but also ran the 200-yard dash and ran with the 400-yard and 800-yard relay teams. He also competed as a long jumper.
Following graduation Watson received a scholarship to Texas College (Tyler), for football and track.
Texas College was a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference along with Grambling State, Jackson State, Prairie View AM&N, N. Wiley College, Texas Southern University, Arkansas AM&N and Southern University.
At Texas College, he was named All-Conference in football as a freshman, sophomore and as a junior.
He continued to play baseball in college where he was named All-Conference twice.
He graduated from college in May 1963 with a Bachelor's Degree, majoring in P.E with a minor in Biology.
After college, Watson was offered a free agent tryout with the New York Jets, but joined the Army and continued his football career as a quarterback and running back where he was named to the All-Army First Team in 1964.
"We were conference champions and played in two Bowl games," Watson said. Again, as he had done in high school, Watson played baseball and led the league in hitting with a .542 hitting average. He also led the league in stolen bases.
After college, he signed and played with several teams in the Continental Football League from 1966 until he retired in 1973, including the Hartford Charter Oaks and ending his career with the Los Angeles Mustangs.
In the CFL, he played defensive back, returned punts and kick offs.
"I know I could have played in the NFL, but I just didn't get the right shot," Watson said.
After retiring from the CFL, Watson continued his athletic career, playing semipro baseball until he turned 50.
In 1969, Watson moved to Los Angeles to become a health teacher, P.E. teacher and coach.
It was at Los Angeles High School that Watson coaches basketball, girls' track, baseball and was the head football coach for 27 years winning seven league titles and coaching one city league championship game.
He is now the Dean of Students there.
"I'm looking forward to coming back to Forrest City for the Hall of Fame induction," Watson said. "I wasn't too surprised when they notified me that I had been voted in this year. I knew I had been on the nominee list last year, so I felt like it was just a matter of time. It is a nice honor to be inducted with these fine athletes."
Jones, who now lives and works in the Chicago (Ill.) area for United Airlines, graduated from Lincoln in 1960, one year after Watson.
Like Watson, Jones was a running back for the Tiger football team and earned All-State honors four consecutive seasons.
Following graduation, Jones attended college at Adams State College in Alamosa (Colo.), where he was a running back. Adams State is a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
From there he enjoyed an NFL career with the Cleveland Browns, being selected as a free agent.
He spent a short time with the Detroit Lions. He also played for the United Football League, a semipro organization and for Montreal in the Canadian Football League.
Jones has, in the past, worked for the International Association of machinists and Aerospace Workers Union with alcoholics and drug addicts.
He has been married to his wife, Billie Ruth Cowley-Jones for 35 years. They have one daughter, Petrina Lynn Jones-Jesz, who resides in Nashville.
Echols, currently the superintendent of the Helena-West Helena school district, graduated from Lincoln in 1970, where he was a three-sport athlete for the Tigers.
While football was his best sport, he lettered in basketball and track as well as football.
He was an All-State high school quarterback and during three years compiled a 27-3 record. He also was the punter and field goal kicker for the Tigers.
On the basketball court, Echols played guard. and earned a scholarship to Harding University in Searcy, where he lettered for four seasons and was All-AIC.
Echols returned to Forrest City in 1974 to become an assistant basketball coach and head football coach of the Mustangs. He also taught Earth Science, Physiology and Health.
In July 1978, at the age of 26, Echols was named head basketball coach at Forrest City, becoming the first black head basketball coach in the district. His first victory came against Marion and his first conference victory came against Jonesboro.
His Mustang team were the runners-up at the NEA Tournament in Dec. 1979 and runners-up at the Class AAAA state tournament in March 1980.
His best year was the 1980-81 season which produced a 24-7 record during which his Mustangs were consistently ranked in the state's Top 10.
During his six seasons as head coach, Echols compiled an 83-63 won-lost mark with four winning seasons.
In 1984, his Mustangs shared the AAAA-East Conference championship, the first time in 15 years a Mustangs basketball team had done so. The team was ranked fourth by the Arkansas Democrat and 10th by the Arkansas Gazette. He was selected and served with the All-Star coaching staff.
Echols has been honored with such awards as the Excellence in Education Award (1991) and the Arkansas Leadership Award (1998). He is a member of many professional organizations including the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators; the Arkansas Association of Federal Program Administrators and the AAA.