Saturday was a special day for a Kosciusko High School Coaching legend and a Weir sports legend. The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame held induction ceremonies for the six-member Class of 2019, and two have deep local roots.
Highly acclaimed high school football coach and Ackerman High School graduate Ricky Black coached Kosy from 1975-79 and former major league all star pitcher Roy Oswalt graduated from Weir before the two schools merged. They had the same reaction when asked what it meant to them.
“It’s the greatest honor you can have in any state to be recognized by the state’s hall of fame,” Black said. “It’s really great to go in with this class and its especially great to go in with Roy. Two guys in the same year. It’s really amazing.
“Choctaw County produces a lot of good athletes and a lot of good coaches. I’m always proud to represent Choctaw County and Ackerman.”
Oswalt said “It’s an honor. All the great players we have had from Mississippi in football and in all sports. Growing up seeing those guys and how they performed. It’s a great honor to be associated with them.”
Black, one of Mississippi’s most successful high school coaches, is a 1967 graduate of Ackerman, where he was an all Choctaw Conference quarterback in football. He also played baseball and basketball, was president of the student council and was voted Mr. AHS (Ackerman High School) as a senior.
He was head football coach at Kosciusko for five years, Tupelo for 11 years and is about to begin his 23rd year at Jackson Prep, where he has won 13 Mississippi Association of Independent Schools championships, including the last seven in a row.
In 2018 Black was named the national high school football coach of the year by the National High School Athletic Association, the first Mississippian to win the award.
He also served on the coaching staff at Mississippi state for six years (1991-96) under Jackie Sherrill.
Black has a 383-75 record placing him second all time in the state, 15 wins behind current Centreville Academy coach Bill Hurst. Becoming number one is not a priority.
“When you become a coach, you just want to win that first game, that first championship, that first state title. But after a while you realize that it’s really about who you are coaching. It’s not about the record and how many you win.”
His coaching philosophy? “Understanding is the greatest thing in the world.”
Oswalt played baseball and football at Weir and was a pitcher at Holmes Community College before being drafted by the Houston Astros in 1996.
He reached the major leagues with the Astros in 2001 when he was 14-3 with a 2.73 earned run average to finish second behind Albert Pujols in National League Rookie of the Year voting. Oswalt was a 20-game winner in 2004 and 2005, won 19 games in 2002 and was 15-8 with a league leading ERA of 2.98 in 2006. He finished in the top six in Cy Young voting six times.
Oswalt spent 13 years in the Major Leagues, the first eight with the Astros, three with the Philadelphia Phillies and one each with the Texas Rangers and Colorado Rockies, finishing with a 163-102 record and an ERA of 3.36.
Oswalt pitched in the postseason with the Astros in 2004 and 2005 and the Phillies in 2010 and 2011, with a 5-2 record and 3.73 ERA. The highlight was the 2005 National League Championship Series. He was 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA and was named series MVP in leading the Astros to a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals for a spot in the World Series.
Growing up in Choctaw County, Oswalt enjoyed watching baseball games on television. “We didn’t have a lot of games on television. It’s not like today when you can watch who you want to watch.”
The player he most admired as a youth is baseball hall of famer Nolan Ryan. “He’s the kind of guy I liked to emulate on the mound. Knock a guy down if you have to. Try to have an intimidating factor.”
Among today’s players, he admires Los Angeles Angels great Mike Trout. “He’s going to be a very special player for a long time.”
Oswalt follows the Astros, the team he played for the longest, and feels they have a great chance for a second World Series title in three years with the recent addition of Zack Greinke to the pitching staff. “When you have three pitchers like they have with (Gerrit) Cole, (Justin) Verlander and Greinke they’re going to be tough to beat.”
The other members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2019 are former Mississippi State all-SEC quarterback Rockey Felker, Cissye Gallagher, a 12-time winner of the women's Mississippi State Amateur golf tournament, former NFL running back Wilbert Montgomery, a Greenville native, and former Ole Miss football great Richard “Possum” Price.
There are 316 members of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.
