Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Aug 29, 2024 – The celebration begins tonight and will continue all schoolyear long as the Jonesboro Public School District’s Golden Hurricane turns 100-years-old.
Although the JPS itself was founded in 1887, it did not have a football team until 1907 or its famous mascot, the Golden Hurricane, until 1924.
In an article transcribed from The High Times, the JHS Newspaper, that was published on May 21, 1925, the school team had not yet found a name, when Bernice Montague, a loyal booster of JHS, was asked to write up a prospective view of the 1924 football team, and in so doing, inadvertently helped to coin a name.
“The High School colors being Gold and Black, the team was referred to as the “Golden Hurricane.” This name became a catch phrase and stuck. Fans soon began calling the team the “Golden Hurricanes” and the newspapers liked the name well enough to use it. Other Arkansas school papers began using the name in writing up games played against JHS, and so it became universally known among Arkansas teams as the “Golden Hurricane.”
We feel a better name could hardly have been selected. If any team entertained any doubts as to what was meant by the JHS team’s name, they were dispelled long since for wherever the team played, it swept the field like a young hurricane.” – “How the “Hurricane” got its name” by Lafayette Sammons Editor in Chief of The High Times, May 21, 1925.
JHS Assistant Superintendent and JHS Alumni Dr. William Cheatham said that, basically, in 1924 after a football game, some students coined the name in the student paper and the Jonesboro Sun picked it up… “after that our nickname was the Jonesboro Hurricane.”
“It’s always been a pretty cool name just because there’s very few of them around the nation,” he stated, noting that they realized last year that 2024 would be 100 years and they knew we needed to do something because it would only come along once.
“So we got busy in the spring, and we’ve got different events planned,” Cheatham said. “The ones that are planned right now is volleyball which kicks off tonight with, it’s their second home game in our new building, but we’ve got alumni coming back.”
Cheatham also noted that he and many others have had a lot of fun helping to organize the upcoming alumni events.
The first of which will be tonight, August 29, with the One Hundred Years A Hurricane Volleyball Reunion.
It will start at 4:45 p.m. with an inside tailgate in the new JHS Activity Gym, followed by junior varsity game at 5 o’clock and, then, former Coach Craig Cummings will discuss a brief history of the program and recognize alumni.
The varsity game against Highland will begin at 6:15 p.m.
Then Friday, August 30, will be the One Hundred Years A Hurricane Football Reunion at the first home game of the season, which will also begin with a tailgate JHS Activity Gym at 4:45 p.m., however it will be followed by a ribbon cutting for the Steve Ewart Field House at 5:40 p.m.
According to Cheatham, they have remodeled the old field house and dedicated it in honor of former Head Coach Steve Ewart, who won the Foundation for Jonesboro Public Schools’ 2023 Winner of Distinguished Educator Award.
Coach Ewart served for 33 years in Jonesboro Public Schools as a social studies teacher and coached football, track and other sports.
Coach Ewart is best known as a football coach and he was the defensive coordinator of the teams that won the 1978, 1979, 1980 conference championships, the 1978 State Runner-up, and 1979 State Champions.
In 1987 he was named the head coach of JHS and served in this capacity until 1998. His first team as head coach went on to be the 1987 Conference Champions.
Cheatham, who played center from 1985 to 1988, noted that Ewart had coached him and many others.
“It was a lot of fun,” he recalled.
“We’ve going to have a little over 200 returning alumni for football,” he said. “Now that’s players, coaches, and managers; and they’re going to bring some family. So, we’re expecting anywhere from 400 to 500 total for just that group.”
He also noted the tours of the field house and indoor activity facility, which will begin at 5:50 p.m.
Alumni will then then make their way on the field for the Pledge of Allegiance, a moment of silence and the National Anthem, before the big kickoff against Conway at 7 p.m.
“We’re going to let the alumni tour that and some have never been back to see the indoor facility,” Cheatham explained. “They’ll get to see kind of where football and their home is now. And then we’ll recognize everyone at about 6:30. And then we’ll head back to the activity gym just for, you know, fellowship and to watch the game.”
He also noted that there are many more activities to come as well, including: the One Hundred Years A Hurricane Band Reunion on September 6, the One Hundred Years A Hurricane Cheer and Dance Reunion on October 4-5 and the One Hundred Years A Hurricane Chior Reunion Sometime in November; plus, all the winter and spring sports that will be scheduled through the year.
For more information and complete schedules, follow #100YearsAHurricane on the Jonesboro Public Schools Facebook page.