Mention Marie Barnes Caldwell around Sam Boyd and he won’t be able to suppress a smile.
The man who has a gym named after him at Irving College will never forget his star player from the 1960s. And now, nobody else will forget either.
Caldwell, the state’s leading scorer as a Lady Tiger in 1969, was inducted into the Warren County Sports Hall of Fame last Friday. Caldwell, who spends her time in Missouri and Arizona, was on hand to take in the events and reminisce with her former coach.
“Marie was a pleasure to coach. She was real quiet and worked real hard,” said Boyd. “We knew to get the ball to her and she would score. I’m proud to have her here being inducted.”
Caldwell’s ceremony was held at Warren County High School, but Irving College was always her home away from home. She was able to go back and tour the school while visiting, even hoisting some jumpers in Sam Boyd Gymnasium before getting a chance to talk with current Lady Tigers.
The whole experience was special to the basketball star.
“It was truly amazing. I feel so honored to get to be in the category with all these great people,” said Caldwell. “It was great fun to go back to Irving College. It’s so cool to see the new gym.
“When I played, I thought our gym seemed big. But you had to stand sideways on the sideline to throw in the ball. Now you see the new gym and realize how small ours was.”
Caldwell’s talent was never hard to measure. She was a star from the start.
Boyd wasted little time bringing Barnes up to the high-school level. She was getting on the court against girls five years her elder by the time she was in eighth grade.
“When you’re the coach, you have to use the talent available. I player her on the high school team as an eighth-grader,” said Boyd. “She scored 690 points her freshman year. By the time she was a junior, she was All-Midstate and averaged 36.3 points per game.”
The only person who nearly stopped Caldwell was her dad, who was curious how his daughter would be able to make it to practices and games when she first made the Lady Tigers in sixth grade.
“I can recall, very vividly, after I tried out and made the team my dad telling me, ‘You can’t play basketball. You don’t have a way to practice,’” said Caldwell. “He was all against it until he saw me play.”
Caldwell would finish her career at Warren County High School after the consolidation. As a senior, she was named to the All-Midstate team once again and was named state MVP by the Nashville Banner.
Still, Caldwell’s playing career seems synonymous with being a Lady Tiger.
“I loved the game and I liked the people I played with. I think that was even more so because of the small school environment,” said Caldwell.
Margaret Robinson Hobbs was Caldwell’s teammate for several years at Irving College. She can vouch for how good of a teammate Caldwell was in their playing days.
“She was such a hard worker and so talented. I enjoyed my years of playing with her and I’m so happy she received this recognition,” said Hobbs.
Hobbs also remembers the game strategy once the lights came on and Caldwell rose from the bench.
“Marie was very quiet, almost shy off the court, but once the game started she was a fierce competitor,” said Hobbs. “We all worked to feed her the ball, because she had the ability to score under any condition – sometimes being triple teamed. She had an unbelievable jump shot and was amazing outside.”
That jumper now has Caldwell in the Hall of Fame.
Coming Friday: Story on Hall of Fame inductee Edd Cantrell Sr.