Today marks anniversary of Wayne Frazier's appearance in first Super Bowl

Evergreen's Wayne Frazier

All four of our local varsity high school basketball teams are back in action after the long holiday break and, as of Monday, they all had winning records and remained in the playoff hunt.

Hillcrest’s varsity boys are leading the way with 13-2 overall record, a winning percentage of .867. Sparta’s varsity girls are next with a 13-4 overall record, a .765 winning percentage. Hillcrest’s varsity girls are 8-6 (.571), and Sparta’s varsity boys are 9-9 (.500).

All four of these teams are entering the short rows of their respective regular season schedules and most of the games they have left are area or region games.

As of Monday, Hillcrest’s boys and girls had just six games left to play, and Sparta’s boys and girls had just five left on their schedule. With that said, let’s do our part, attend all of the games they’ve got left and give them all the support they deserve.

All four of these teams are great ambassadors for Conecuh County, and I know a lot of local sports fans are looking forward to seeing them enter the postseason.

----- 0 -----

Today, Jan. 15, is also an important date in the history of Conecuh County sports. It was on this date in 1967, that former  Evergreen High School football star Wayne Frazier took the field to participate in the first Super Bowl, which was played in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Frazier, who passed away in March 2012, was the starting center for the AFL Champion Kansas City Chiefs. Other famous players in that game included Green Bay Packers center Bill Curry and quarterback Bart Starr.

I’ve been told that during the pre-game when the starting lineups were announced, Frazier’s name happened to be the first name called out over the loudspeaker by the public address announcer. When you stop and think about it, that’s pretty cool. There’ll never been another Super Bowl I, and the first player announced in that historic game was a player from Evergreen.

Frazier’s appearance in the first Super Bowl came seven years to the day after one of the biggest sports-related events ever in the history of Evergreen. On Jan. 15, 1962, Wayne Frazier Day was held in Evergreen to honor Frazier, who’d just finished his senior season at Auburn University, where he starred at center. This special day drew big crowds and featured day full of special events, including a program at Evergreen High School, a lengthy parade through downtown Evergreen and a bandstand ceremony in “No Man’s Land.” The day wrapped up with a 7 p.m. banquet in Frazier’s honor at the Evergreen Recreation Center.

----- 0 -----

Today is also the birthday of University of Alabama All-American defensive tackle Martin Anthony “Marty” Lyons, who starred at Alabama in the mid- to late 70s. Lyons is probably best remembered for being one of the key players in the famous “Goal Line Stand” against Penn State in the 1979 Sugar Bowl. Under head coach Bear Bryant, Lyons finished his career at Alabama with 202 total tackles, and he was a first-team All-American.