John Shearer: Remembering The Great Riverside High Basketball Teams And Coach Dorsey Sims, Part 2

 

“Coach (Dorsey) Sims (the Riverside coach) was just what we needed at the time,” he recalled during a recent phone interview.

“We were more adjusted and ready for college than the other guys.”

 

He said the team was able to get this way due to everything from exhaustive practice drills in which the players would slide back and forth across the court with their hands on the floor, to skilled tactical play in games. The latter ranged from an effective fast break to a half court pressure defense.

 

“We had plays for everything,” Mr. Baker continued. “We even had new plays for the state tournament. He (coach Sims) was a tactician.”

 

As this series concludes on the basketball program of the closed and former historically black school located where Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences is now, one fact that is clear is that playing for Riverside in the 1960s and early 1970s was a special experience.

 

The team won three state championships in a five-year period – in 1968, 1969, and 1972, with the last coming 50 years ago this past month under coach Leroy Alexander. The accomplishments are even more impressive considering that multiple state championships over a short stretch are rarer in boys’ high school basketball than in football.

 

Mr. Baker, who went on to live in Tulsa where ORU is and has enjoyed a career in youth mental health and substance abuse hospital work, does not take that period in his life lightly.

 

“It was a fantastic time,” he said. “You can tell God was with us the whole time.”

 

He even remembers fondly life away from the court, and how the Riverside faculty of the mid- and late 1960s would help guide the youth along. 

 

“We had outstanding teachers who really cared about us and showed us the classes to take,” he said, adding that he even learned typing, which helped him later in life as computers with keyboards became more commonplace. “The teachers were always on us. They cared about us.”

 

Even coach Sims made sure they learned table manners and how to use utensils properly in a home economics-like course, he added.

 

“We had to have manners wherever we went,” he said. “We were respectful everywhere we went, and people talked about how well behaved we were.”

 

Of course, this was no doubt a period in America’s and Chattanooga’s history when the world was changing, and many black youths were crying out for even more equality as the country had begun moving away from segregation following new civil and voting rights laws.

 

But somehow amid all the imperfections of late 1960s Chattanooga in a social sense, the accomplishments of the all-black Riverside basketball team were embraced by the entire community, and that makes their achievements even more meaningful. 

 

Mr. Baker has not forgotten how the city of Chattanooga saluted them after at least one of the state championships. “They gave us a ride in some fire trucks and met us downtown and paraded us,” he said. “It was a good thing how everybody came together. It was a magical thing.”

 

The man who was responsible for the magic and the first two state championships was coach Sims, who arrived in Chattanooga in 1965 with his family after coaching the black high school, Slater, in Bristol, Tn.

 

Some old city directories show that his family initially lived in a home at 4319 Benton Drive near Highways 58 and 153 in Chattanooga, and then at an apartment at 1000-A Oak St. during the state championship runs. About the end of his Riverside High tenure in 1970-71 before moving to City High as coach as city school officials were trying to create more racial balance, the family lived at 4001 Midland Pike near Talley Road in the Woodmore area of Brainerd.

 

The late coach Sims’ son, Dorsey Sims III, said over the phone from his Memphis home that his father enjoyed his time in Chattanooga. He remembered the days at the Oak Street residence near Engel Stadium and said Riverside player Eddie Woods spent a lot of time at their home, as coach Sims was like a father figure.

 

Although coach Sims played football at Tennessee State and not basketball, his son said he was taught the game by Tennessee State basketball coach John McLendon, who was reportedly the only black man taught the sport by basketball inventor Dr. James Naismith. 

 

Both coach McLendon and Harlem Globetrotter Marcus Haynes, who was originally from Oklahoma like coach Sims, were godfathers to the younger Dorsey Sims and his brother, Max.

 

Coach Sims knew a lot of people in basketball and elsewhere, and one of them came about by chance. As a health and physical education and history teacher and coach of other sports, he worked with other students, including future actor Samuel L. Jackson, a member of the Riverside class of 1966 and track participant.

 

After coach Sims had moved on to City, and Riverside won its third state title in 1972 with a 60-53 win over rival Howard in the finals, Howard featured a player named Usher Raymond III, who was the father of the world-famous singer Usher. The elder Mr. Raymond, who had scored two points in the game, died in 2008.

 

Although Riverside was the dominant basketball program for a period, Howard under coach Henry Bowles became equally competitive throughout the 1970s, reaching the state finals again in 1980 but never winning the state.

 

The Riverside-Howard games had already become so big that they began being held at neutral sites instead of each other’s arenas. Maclellan Gymnasium became the common place, but Frank Jones, one of the stars on the 1972 team, recalls playing one time on the Memorial Auditorium stage. 

 

The Trojans drew a crowd, and for good reason. Before coach Sims left for City, Riverside amassed an amazing 66-game winning streak. It began after the 1967-68 season was underway, went through the undefeated 1968-69 season and lasted until the team lost to eventual state champion Cameron of Nashville in the regular season the next season. Cameron featured future Oral Roberts and ABA star David Vaughn Jr.

 

During that streak, Mr. Baker said they beat Memphis Melrose led by future University of Memphis stars Larry Finch and Ronnie Robinson, and his Oral Roberts team later beat Memphis in the NIT with those two players.

 

Mr. Baker ended up at Oral Roberts his freshman year along with star Richard Fuqua and Jesse Traylor, with Eddie Woods coming later. Anthony Roberts came after the 1972-73 Riverside season.

 

Mr. Baker said they were drawn to the school due to coach Sims’ relationship with ORU coach Ken Trickey, who had formerly coached at Middle Tennessee State. It ended up being a great opportunity when traditional white schools were just starting to play black players, he said.

 

“Coach Trickey, he was a players’ coach,” he said. “He believed in starting the best five, whether you were black or white.”

 

With some of the Chattanooga players on the squad, Oral Roberts under coach Trickey reached the NIT quarterfinals in 1971-72, the NCAA tournament in 1972-73, and the NCAA Elite Eight in 1973-74. 

 

Mr. Baker said that ORU was playing in a 1,500-seat facility when they arrived, but a 10,000-seat arena was built due to the growing excitement over basketball.

 

Mr. Fuqua and Mr. Roberts would make good stand-alone stories for a later time. Unfortunately, efforts to reach Mr. Fuqua for this story proved unsuccessful. His wife, Gaysha, said politely when contacted over the phone that her husband is introverted and generally does not like to do interviews. 

 

The elder Mr. Fuqua averaged over 31 points a game as a sophomore and over 35 as a junior and once scored 60 points against Sewanee. He was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the fourth round but did not play in the NBA.

 

His and Gaysha’s son, R.J. Fuqua, had played for Oral Roberts in recent years.

 

Anthony Roberts followed the elder Mr. Fuqua at Oral Roberts and averaged 34 points a game his senior year of 1976-77. That same season he scored 66 points in a regular season game against North Carolina A&T and 65 against Oregon in the NIT.

 

He played several years with the Denver Nuggets. He struggled with drug issues after college, according to some old stories, but he later sought treatment with the help of a rehabilitation center in Chattanooga. He later spoke out about the dangers of drugs, one story says.

 

Mr. Roberts unfortunately died in 1997 at the age of 41 after an argument at an apartment parking lot in Tulsa. With most of the available coverage found in the Tulsa newspaper that requires a subscription, details about the circumstances do not seem readily available online.

 

Many of the other Riverside High players have gone on to enjoy rich and productive lives. Among them was Johnny Oneal, who began his career at Riverside but followed coach Sims to City in 1971-72 at the encouragement of coach Sims.

 

“He contacted me and asked how I’d feel coming up to City,” Mr. Oneal recalled. ‘I wasn’t planning on it. I had blue and gold in my heart because I spent so many years at Riverside.”

 

However, he enjoyed playing his senior year at City and developed even more respect for coach Sims. 

 

“He was quite the coach,” said Mr. Oneal. “He was a basketball genius. He had an answer for everything. He was one of the most innovative coaches I played for.”

 

As an example of the latter, he said that Howard was known for its full-court press, but coach Sims was able to combat it.

 

Mr. Oneal added that he also had a good relationship with coach Sims, and coach Sims gave the senior guard Oneal a lot of freedom on the court.

 

Coach Oneal went on to play a season at Cleveland State and later got into work mentoring young people through the city of Chattanooga parks and recreation department. That included working with what became the Centenary youth outreach program at First-Centenary United Methodist Church

 

Although the Chattanooga Public Library said it does not have any old Riverside and Howard annuals or clippings about the basketball rivalry – even though officials say people periodically come in asking for such information – it did have some City annuals.

 

In those can be found pictures of coach Sims as well as his records each of the three seasons. In 1971-72, the Dynamos finished 18-12 (not counting the Central game for which no score is given), 14-13 in 1972-73 and 5-22 in 1973-74. 

 

City was a tougher place to win at that time than Riverside had been. His time at City was also a period when he coached several white players, with his other four stops at historically black high schools, including later at Memphis Melrose. At Melrose, he would redeem himself, winning two state championships before becoming an assistant at the University of Memphis. 

 

While coach Sims was at City, a young 1967 Riverside High graduate named Leroy Alexander was leading the Trojan program and won the state in his first year with such players as junior Anthony Roberts and senior Frank Jones.

 

When contacted over the phone, Mr. Jones said that was an exciting time to be playing for Riverside. 

 

“We took a lot of pride in playing for the school knowing we had so many great players,” he recalled.

 

He recalled that as a younger player in junior high, they would watch Riverside play and then play after them, with people like Richard Fuqua often showing an interest in them. “They were like mentors to us,” he said.

 

He played for two years under coach Sims and remembered being greatly shaped by him. “It was great,” he said. “I learned a lot from him about how he coached players and how he helped players develop.”

 

Mr. Jones recalled that when you would try out for the Riverside team, coach Sims would ask players certain questions. 

 

“He knew a lot of people in the community and did a good job of picking out the players,” he said. “He had his way of questioning the kids to see where their heart was.”

 

Mr. Jones also remembers that the Riverside players all had to have their hair cut a certain way, adding, “He wanted us to represent not only the school well, but also the community. We wore blazers. There were different things he did to build basketball players into men.”

 

Mr. Jones remembers that when coach Sims went to City, a white coach was named to coach Riverside during those days when they were trying to achieve racial balance in the schools, but he did not stay long. And that is when coach Alexander was named to head the team after just finishing at Alabama State, despite his youthful age.

 

Mr. Jones said he enjoyed playing for coach Alexander, too. “His coaching style and Sims’ were a little different,” he recalled. “He let us let our hair grow, but we had the same discipline on the court and the expectations were the same.”

 

He added that the players also took care of each other and would encourage or correct each other if needed.

 

Mr. Jones was finishing at Riverside at the time when UTC was starting to recruit black players, and he talked to both head coach Leon Ford and assistant Ron Shumate and was interested in UTC. But he was receiving some conflicting information from each coach regarding whether coach Shumate was about to take over the program and felt a little uneasy about that. So, he ended up going to Tennessee Tech, where he had a nice career.

 

He had been named Most Valuable Player in the 1972 Tennessee East vs. West high school all-star game, and in 1976 was the MVP of the Tennessee vs. Kentucky college all-star game.

 

Coach Shumate, meanwhile, did take over as head coach at UTC in 1972 and led them to great heights later in the 1970s.

 

Mr. Jones was drafted by Buffalo of the ABA but did not play and soon got into coaching. Stints included being a coach at Kirkman, City, Tyner and Howard and working in administration at Brainerd. He was also the head coach at East Hamilton during the 2018-19 season.

 

“The Lord worked it out where I could be in each inner-city school,” he said with gratitude. “It was a good experience for me. I got to meet a lot of different people and realized every community is different.’

 

But Mr. Jones, who has also done some ministerial work in recent years, also fondly remembers growing up in the Riverside community and later getting to be a part of a special basketball dynasty that brought satisfaction to him and many other Chattanoogans a half century ago.

 

“It was a joy to be in that situation as a child growing up in that area and watching the older players play. To be a part of that atmosphere, it was amazing,” he said.

 

“We just loved playing.”

 

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To see the first story in this series, read here:

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/3/14/445122/John-Shearer-Remembering-Great.aspx

 

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Jcshearer2@comcast.net