For quarterback Maynard Jordan (3rd row from the bottom, 2nd player from the left), Hamilton High School’s city football championship in 1945 was a team, school and community achievement. (Photo from Maynard Jordan’s collection)

by Earnest Cole
Special to the Tri-State Defender    

In 1945, Hamilton High School won its first city football championship, and for the team’s quarterback it seems like it all happened yesterday.

Jordan was the starting quarterback for the only football team in the history of LeMoyne-Owen College. (Photo from Maynard Jordan’s collection)

A talented football and baseball player, Jordan worked 20 years as an environmentalist at the Shelby County Health Department. (Photo by Earnest Cole)

Maynard Jordan, now 81, said the spirit of the community led to the title. James Crutcher, who is now 82, played left guard alongside Jordan.

“Maynard was our leader and we had a pretty good all around team,” said Crutcher.  

Still, Maynard insists that every team member played a leading role in reaching the top, along with the school staff and community.

The team made tremendous strides after its first season in 1944, the same year HHS first opened its doors. Year one ended with a 3-6-0 record.

Jordan said the team started from scratch, playing with used equipment and uniforms from other local high schools.  

“These guys took nothing and made it into something,” said Crutcher. “They used football and the spirit of the community to overcome adversity and to win a significant championship….

“This team may have displayed that football is not just a game to obtain a winning score, but you can use it as a tool to obtain a winning community when times made it difficult to support anything in the black community,” said Crutcher.

Jordan recalled that the entire community stood behind the team under the leadership of coach and father figure, Henry A. Neale.

“Coach Neale was like our father, and the entire school staff was considered one big family,” said Jordan. “During this time, things were still segregated and parents had great trust in the role that the school staff and coach played in their children’s life. Football was used to keep kids out of trouble.”

Jordan’s football prowess earned him an athletic scholarship to play football for Lemoyne College – now known as The Lemoyne Owen College. He was elected co-captain his freshman year and became the starting quarterback for the only football team in the school’s history. The football program disbanded after 1950.

Not only did Jordan play football, but also throughout the off-seasons he played baseball in the Negro League. In the summer of 1948, he played for the Birmingham Black Barons and for the Houston Eagles the following summer.

Taylor Hayes, Jordan’s football coach at Lemoyne and owner of the Black Barons, was responsible for Jordan’s baseball career.

“Prior to (having) played baseball in the Negro League, Maynard informed me that he had never played organized baseball,” said Hayes, who noted that Jordan’s skills on the football field were not affected by his venturing into other sports.

“His continued dedication and leadership at Lemoyne College awarded him the captain position his junior and senior year. In Maynard’s senior season at Lemoyne, they would finish up with four wins and four losses.”

In 1950, Jordan graduated from Lemoyne College with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. The following year, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served for the next 20 years. After completing his military career, he retired at age 43 and returned to Memphis in 1971.

Jordan landed a job as an environmentalist at the Shelby County Health Department, where he stayed for another 20 years. And during this time, the man who helped make Memphis football history began working to help other teams around the city reach the top, including the Cypress Middle School Timberwolves, the Northside High School Cougars and his own Hamilton High School Wildcats.

In 2004, Hamilton High School held a reunion for the classes of 1946 through 1958 and Jordan was acknowledged for his accomplishments