Book Synopsis
During the early to middle decades of the 20th century, Yadkin County—a small, rural county in northwest North Carolina—produced a remarkable sports legacy. A number of extraordinary athletes of the era hailed from Yadkin. Among them were East Bend native Ernie Shore, an ace pitcher and teammate of Babe Ruth on two of the Boston Red Sox’s World Series-winning campaigns, and Jonesville native Dickie Hemric, who set ACC basketball records that endured for decades and who helped the Boston Celtics capture their first NBA championship. And in 1950—in a feat reminiscent of the movie Hoosiers—tiny Yadkinville High School triumphed over nearly 100 teams in Winston-Salem’s famed Journal-Sentinel Tournament, at the time the largest high-school basketball tournament in the U.S.
A former Yadkin County Schools superintendent, Cleve Hollar writes about these and many other figures and events in Yadkin’s sports history and also details the 1-12 schools of the era that set a high bar for excellence.