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“Larry Hawthorne, a 5-9 guard known by his nickname ‘Sugar Bear’, scored 33 points and received a standing ovation from the packed house. The ovation which was mostly led by the people from Hancock, began when he was announced to the all-tournament team as the tournament MVP,” Lewis said. “I’ll always remember that. I still get chills when I talk about it. It meant so much, particularly during the times we were living in with integration of our schools.” Lewis said Hawthorne became one of the first two black players to play in the Mississippi All Star game. The third year, both of the HCHS basketball teams had good years, and in late spring, the school asked Lewis to take on the role of athletic director. He agreed to make the change and the administration said he would need to give up coaching one of the teams, and he chose to continue coaching the girls’ team. Shortly after this was agreed to, Coach Weathers called and offered Lewis a job as an assistant at Perkinston. It was a good move financially with the job paying more and plus the college would provide William and Janet Gale a place to live. Lewis spent three years with Weathers and learned more than he thought he could possibly know about basketball. At the same time, M.K. Turk was having monumental success at Copiah-Lincoln (Co-Lin) winning state championships and taking his teams to the national tournaments. One night near the end of the third season, Turk pulled Lewis aside and said that he is going to have some great opportunities shortly, and would be leaving the job at Co-Lin. He told Lewis that if he was interested, he should consider applying for the job. As soon as the season was over, true to his word, Turk called Lewis and said he was taking an assistant job at Memphis State, which at the time, Lewis said was one of the top 10 Division I basketball schools in the nation. Turk told Lewis to reach out to Dr. Billy Thames, the president at the time at Co-Lin. Lewis did so, applied for the job, and after an interview process of numerous candidates, he was offered the job, accepted it, and knew right away the expectations were very high. “M.K. had made the men’s program elite and I knew it was going to be a huge challenge. We had some talent coming back from a team that had went to the national tournament and finished in 3rd place,” Lewis explained. The first season was a one of ups and downs and Lewis learned a lot that first year. Taking over the job late spring, they were behind in recruiting, and he had to prove himself to the returning players. Just prior to the second season, Lewis hired an assistant coach to help with the men’s team and be the head coach of the women’s team. It was Gwyn Young. Young is still at www.southernsenior.info 15