Dr. Mary S. Graham, MGCCC president, back row, with Alumni Hall of Fame honorees, from left, Dr. John Harold Pardue, Jackson County Campus; John Michael Hairston, Jefferson Davis Campus; and Dr. John Harold Mallett, Perkinston Campus.
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College inducted the 2013 Homecoming honorees during a special ceremony held on Oct. 17 at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi. The induction included honorees for the Alumni Hall of Fame, Athletic Hall of Fame, Sam Owen Award, Bulldog Hall of Honor and Spirit of Gulf Coast. The honorees were also recognized during the pep rally and halftime activities on Homecoming Day, Oct. 19, at MGCCC’s Perkinston Campus.
Alumni Hall of Fame and Sam Owen Award honorees are the following:
Dr. John Harold Pardue
Jackson County Campus
1983-1986
Dr. Harold Pardue, a native of Ocean Springs, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College 1983-1986. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of South Alabama (USA) and his doctorate in information and management sciences with an emphasis in statistics from Florida State University. He worked at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, moving to USA in 2000. In 2005, he was appointed to a full professorship in the School of Computing. He was appointed Information Systems program coordinator (chair) in 2008 and the director of graduate programs in 2013.
Roger Earl Moore, baseball; Gene Ganucheau, football; Timothy Edson McCabe Jr., golf; Dr. Mary S. Graham, MGCCC president; Dr. Chris Frigo, Sam Owen Award; Kenny Glavan, Spirit of Gulf Coast; Lowell Harrison "Harry" Roberts Jr., track; and front row, from left: Raymond Wendell Weathers, basketball; Randi Kay Bennett, basketball; Elaine Vogt, Bulldog Hall of Honor; Emily (LeBlanc) Tisdale, softball; and Thomas Mitchell "Tommy" Boutwell, football.
John Michael Hairston
Jefferson Davis Campus
1981-1982
John M. Hairston, of Gulfport, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College’s Jefferson Davis Campus from August 1981-May 1982. After leaving the college, he graduated magna cum laude from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering. Hairston has been co-chief executive officer of the Hancock Holding Company since 2006 and has been its chief operating officer since 2008. He has been the chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Hancock Bank of Louisiana, Hancock Bank of Alabama, Hancock Bank of Florida and Hancock Bank of Mississippi (all subsidiaries of Hancock Holding Company) since December 2008.
Dr. John Harold Mallett
Perkinston Campus
1976-1978
John H. Mallett, M.D., is a native of Biloxi. He attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College’s Perkinston Campus for two years, graduating in 1978. He received his bachelor’s degree at Delta State University, and then attended the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, graduating in 1985. After his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Richland Memorial Hospital at the University of South Carolina, he began his practice at Biloxi OB GYN Medical Clinic in 1989. He has been on staff at Biloxi Regional Medical Center for almost 25 years and currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the hospital. He is also on staff at Cedar Lake Surgery Center in Biloxi.
Dr. Chris Frigo
Sam Owen Award
Dr. Chris Frigo, of Bay St. Louis, is a 1984 Perkinston Campus graduate and a letterman on that year’s national-championship Bulldog football team. Frigo, who was also a track-and-field letterman at Perk, received his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in 1987, and was a member of the LSU SEC championship football team in 1986. He began his dental education at the LSU School of Dentistry, graduating in general dentistry in 1992 and orthodontics in 1999. He graduated at the top of his class and was inducted into the Omicron Kappa Upsilon Dental Honor Society. He is an active member of the Southern Association of Orthodontics and the American Association of Orthodontics. He completed an advanced general dentistry residency with the Air Force, and he practiced general dentistry at a private practice for two years before becoming an orthodontist.
Athletic Hall of Fame, Bulldog Hall of Honor, Spirt of Gulf Coast honorees are the following:
Emily (LeBlanc) Tisdale
Softball
Emily LeBlanc, of Pontchatoula, La., attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College from August 2004-May 2006. An outstanding athlete, Leblanc played every inning of every game her freshman and sophomore years. Her freshman batting average was .448, with 41 hits, 11 doubles, five triples, four homeruns and 32 RBIs. She was selected for First Team All-State and National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) All-Region 23. In 2006, she was chosen as team captain. Her sophomore year batting average was .406 with 47 hits, six doubles, two triples, eight homeruns and 47 RBIs. Her team voted her the 2006 MVP—Defense. She was selected for the 2006 First Team All-State and NJCAA First Team All-Region 23, NJCAA All-American and NJCAA Academic All-American.
Gene Ganucheau
Football
Gene Ganucheau, of Biloxi, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College from January 1970-January 1972. He graduated on May 14, 1972. He was the tight end for the 1971 state championship team and NJCAA national championship team. He was selected for All-State and All-Star in 1971. In 1971, at the Shrine Bowl in Savannah, Ga., (which was also the NJCAA national championship game) the team’s tight end, Ganucheau, smashed into five Fort Scott (Kansas) Greyhounds, turned back, dodged right, eluding all five tackles and sped 40 yards down a rain-soaked field into the end zone for a touchdown. Marcus Holland, executive sports editor of the Savannah Morning News, said that Ganucheau’s touchdown run in the third period “was one of the most determined anybody will witness.” MGCCC won that game 22-13 and took the 1971 national championship.
Thomas Mitchell “Tommy” Boutwell
Football
Tommy Boutwell, of Gulfport, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College from June 1965-January 1967. He was the third baseman on Coach Curly Farris’s first state championship baseball team in 1966. Boutwell was also the starting quarterback on the 1966 Bulldog football team, leading the team to victory (33-0) over the Pearl River Wildcats for the first time since 1948 on Nov. 12. That same year, he led the Bulldogs to victory over the Jones Bobcats to secure the first Bulldog state championship since 1948. He scored the winning touchdown on a 1-yard sneak in the fourth period. In postseason play, he led the team to victory in the Shrine Bowl in Shreveport, La. In 1966, he was named All-State, First Team Offensive All-Star and All-American. At The University of Southern Mississippi, Boutwell led the football team to the first-ever victory over Mississippi State University in both 1967 and 1968. He was selected Senior College Honorable Mention All-American and was drafted by the National Football League, playing for the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins.
Raymond Wendell Weathers
Basketball
Wendell Weathers, of Perkinston, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College from June 1976-May 1978. He graduated on May 10, 1978. In 1977, he was a member of the South Division championship team and in 1978 was a member of the state championship team. He was selected All-State and State Most Valuable Player in 1978. He holds the record for most assists in a single game and single season. He served as a graduate assistant coach at Delta State University, coach at Buras (Louisiana) High School and Coach at Thibodeaux (Louisiana) High School, winning Louisiana District Eight 4-A Coach of the Year in 1987. He returned to MGCCC as assistant coach to Bob Weathers (1988-2002). During that time, the team won three South Division titles, two state titles and three NJCAA Region XXIII titles, and was ranked fourth in the nation in 1991 and fifth in the nation in 1993. He became head coach in 2002, winning the 2007 South Division championship; 2009 Region 23 championship, advancing to the NJCAA tournament; and the 2011 and 2012 South Division and state championships.
Lowell Harrison “Harry” Roberts Jr.
Track
Harry Roberts Jr., of Gautier, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College from September 1967-May 1969. Roberts was a member of the 1967 state championship 1967 Bulldog football team and the 1968 football team, playing the positions of cornerback and running back. He was also on the 1968 state championship track team. The four-man, 880-yard relay-winning squad he was on set a record of 1:30:00 on May 4, 1968. He was part of the four-man 880-yard relay squad that broke its previous record by posting a new record of 1:29:2 at Moorhead on May 10, 1969. Roberts was also a member of the four-man squad that tied Mississippi Delta at 42.8 to set a new co-state record for the 440-yard relay. He has been a member of the MGCCC Board of Trustees for more than 20 years.
Randi Kay Bennett
Basketball
Randi Kay Bennett, of Gulfport, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College (MGCJC) from September 1974-May 1976. She graduated on May 14, 1976. In 1975, Bennett played on the first MGCJC women’s basketball team to be sanctioned by the Mississippi Association of Junior Colleges since 1955. In 1976, while Bennett was still on the team, the team was the first to bear the name “Lady Bulldogs.” She was also on the 1975 and 1976 Mississippi Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW) state championship volleyball teams. Bennett, who has worked at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College since 2000, teaches health and physical education at the Jefferson Davis Campus. An avid outdoorsman, she loves to play golf and tennis, fish, camp, and SCUBA dive. She became a SCUBA diving instructor in 1992. She is certified by the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and by the Handicapped Scuba Association (HSA).
Timothy Edson McCabe Jr.
Golf
Tim McCabe, of Gulfport, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College from August 2001-May 2003. The 6-A Mississippi High School Athletic Association Champion in 2001 (at Gulfport High School), McCabe joined second-year MGCCC golf coach Tommy Snell’s team in 2001-2002. In 2002, he earned the title of Division II Medalist at the Hinds County Community College Invitational, shooting a .74. In 2003, as a sophomore, McCabe received All-State honors, was the MACJC Division II State/Regional Golf Champion Individual Low Medalist and the NJCAA Region 23 Individual Medalist Golf Champion. He participated in the NJCAA national golf championship tournaments in 2002 and 2003 in Phoenix, Ariz. After graduating from MGCCC, he signed a scholarship with The University of Southern Mississippi and played there for two years, majoring in sports administration. In 2008, he won the Slavic Invitational.
Roger Earl Moore
Baseball
Roger Moore, of Wiggins, attended Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College from September 1982-May 1983, January 1984-May 1985 and September 2002-December 2004. He graduated from MGCJC on Aug. 2, 1985. He played baseball for Coach Curly Farris at MGCJC in 1984 and 1985. Known as “Lightning” due to his ability to steal bases, Moore was 36 for 36 stolen-base attempts in the 1984 season and 67 for 69 in the 1985 season. His stolen-base record stood until broken five years later by Matt Lawton. His second-place stolen-base record still stands. In 1985, he scored 71 runs and had 49 walks, a record for walks that still stands today. He was chosen as All-State and All-Star in 1985, was an NJCAA All-American and All-Region 23 in the same year. From 2003-2007, he was the volunteer first-base, base-runner and outfielder coach for MGCCC baseball.
Elaine Vogt
Bulldog Hall of Honor
Elaine Vogt Ehlers, of Long Beach, attended Perkinston Junior College (PJC) from September 1957-May 1959. She graduated on May 17, 1959. Vogt was the first woman to earn an Associate of Science degree in drafting from PJC. She was a member of the Perkette Dance Team in both her freshman and sophomore years. She was elected Homecoming maid in 1957 and Homecoming queen in 1958. She also served on the annual staff, was elected sophomore class treasurer in 1958-59, and was chosen as Best Dressed and Campus Favorite the same year. After graduation, she worked for Olin Mathison Aluminum Corporation in Gulfport as a draftsman, where she worked for three years. In 1961, she married Vernon Ehlers, an MGCCC alumnus.
Kenny Glavan
Spirit of Gulf Coast Award
When Kenny Glavan was a defensive lineman for the Bulldog football team, he learned a valuable lesson from head coach George Sekul: Set your goals higher, and challenge your own leadership ability day in and day out. During his time at Perk, the football team won two state championships and contended for a national title. Today, Glavan, general manager of the Four Points by Sheraton Biloxi Beach Hotel and a member of the Biloxi City Council, is a major supporter of MGCCC. He is a member of the Hospitality and Culinary Arts program advisory board and has also worked closely with Ladd Taylor, MGCCC college dean of Athletics, on several events, including the Mississippi Bowl.