The Ferguson brothers of Charleston, Ark.

When I was in school, there was a group of brothers who lived in Charleston who were amazing athletes. They were black, and lived in a mostly-white town, and in those days Booneville was in the same conference with them. Jesse, Mark, John and Melvin were the ones I knew. I got to see Mark and John play ball and run track. Mark was short and muscular, with amazingly large thigh muscles. John was a tremendous all-round athlete who was in the same class as I was, so I got to know him best. He just did everything well. I have heard some say that Melvin was the most talented of them all, but his personality was a little more easy-going. In any case, one of them was on the athletic court for the Tigers for a number of years, and you knew you faced a chore when you played Charleston with a Ferguson on the team.