Last year, Melvin McAllister stood at the podium during the Forrest City Athletic Hall of Fame banquet in place of legendary Lincoln High School coach the late Wallace Purifoy Jr., who was being inducted into the Hall.
McAllister -- "Big Mac" to his friends and classmates -- will make a return appearance to the Hall of Fame banquet Friday night but this time as an inductee.
A 1957 graduate of Lincoln, McAllister is one of three former Lincoln High School athletes -- Roy Weatherall and Archie Coleman -- who are being inducted into the Hall.
"I'm going to be nervous this time because I'm just not used to speaking in front of people like that," McAllister said. "But probably not as nervous as I was last year when I accepted the honor for Coach Purifoy. This is as good as going into the pro football Hall of Fame."
While McAllister did not play for Purifoy, it was Purifoy who taught McAllister and many other Lincoln athletes the fundamentals of the games of football, basketball, track and other sports.
During McAllister's high school athletic career, he played for Coach M.O. Livingston on both sides of the ball for the Tiger football teams which won three consecutive championships and won 33 straight games. McAllister also played basketball and ran track.
McAllister says he has fond memories of playing with all five Twillie brothers as well as many other great Lincoln athletes but remembered one particular game
"We had just defeated Helena for the league championship and our next game was at Fort Smith," McAlister said. "Clarence Jones (a 2001 Hall of Fame inductee) was injured and coach put me in his left half back position. It was raining and coach called the play and my number. I took the ball and ran for a 74-yard touchdown." McAllister went on to score one more touchdown in the game.
McAlister played two years at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, met his wife, the former Isabella Harris and made his home in Little Rock, working for Smurfit Stone for 36 years and retiring in 2000 as a supervisor.
Roy Weatherall is another of the Lincoln High athletes of the 1950s who played for M.O. Livingston and the Tiger football teams that won 33 straight games.
Weatherall played every sport while he was a student at Lincoln and said he "really did not have a favorite sport."
"I just enjoyed playing," Weatherall said. "Whether it was football, basketball or baseball, whichever season it was, that's the sport that I was playing."
Weatherall, who has made his home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin since graduating from Lincoln High School in 1956, has fond memories of his years at Lincoln, where he was named to All-State football teams three times during his high school playing days.
Like many of his teammates and other great Lincoln athletes, Weatherall not only credits Coach Livingston as helping them mature as students and athletes, he also credits the late Wallace Purifoy Jr., who was inducted into the Hall of fame last year.
"Coach Purifoy was the man who taught us," Weatherall said. "We had two of the best coaches ever."
After graduation from Lincoln, Weatherall said he and Archie Coleman made the decision to attend school at a small college in Texas.
"That was a big mistake," Weatherall said. "The coach there already had his players picked and there wasn't any room for us. So we left. I know I should have gone to Philander Smith College in Little Rock."
But instead, Weatherall joined the U.S. Army where he learned his trade as a mechanic.
Weatherall continues to make his home in Milwaukee, but does take time to return to Forrest City at every opportunity.
"Forrest City is my favorite place to be," Weatherall said.
Weatherall will be attending the Hall of Fame Induction Banquet Friday at the Forrest City Civic Center.
Off the playing field, Archie Coleman did not have the appearance of an athlete.
But when Coleman stepped onto the field, he took on a completely different persona.
"He was rock steady as a football player," said Cecil Twillie, a former teammate with Coleman and also a Hall of Fame member. "He didn't do anything flashy on the football field. He just played hard on every down."
Unlike many of the other Lincoln High School athletes of the 1950s, who were multi-sport athletes, Archie Coleman only played football.
Coleman was the older brother of DeJustice Coleman, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000. He graduated from Lincoln in 1956 and was another member of the great Tiger football teams which won 33 consecutive games and several league championships.
Being of average size, Coleman played guard with the Tiger football team and according to Twillie, was "feisty and just quick as a cat." Twillie compares Coleman to Tremaine Collins, a senior with the Forrest City Mustang football team this year. "He has that appearance is that kind of player."
Off the playing field, Archie Coleman is remembered as "quiet and reserved."
"He wasn't one to hang with a large crowd," Twillie said.
Clarence Coleman, younger brother of Archie and DeJustice still lives in Forrest City and is expected to accept the award for Archie at Friday's induction banquet. Clarence also accepted the Hall of Fame honor for DeJustice at the 2000 banquet.
Archie was also a classmate with Hall of Fame members Robert Harris and Maxine Kennedy Douglas.
Following graduation, Coleman settled in Chicago, Ill., and worked for the United States Postal Service for more than 20 years.
Coleman passed away in 1997.
Forrest City seventh-grade coach Lewis Etheridge gathers his players during a time out at a recent seventh-grade football game. Tuesday night, West Memphis Wonder scored a late touchdown to defeat the seventh-grade Colts 22-16 at Sam Smith Stadium.
Antonio Robinson scored both Forrest City touchdowns and added one of the two-point conversions while Lee Smith scored the other two-point play. The Forrest City eighth-grade Mustangs lost to West Memphis Wonder 14-8. Both the seventh and eighth-grade Mustang teams are 1-4 for the season.