Ringgold Record
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
May 11, 1900

The Maloy "featherweight" ball nine have organized with the following members: Everett PARKHURST, pitcher; Frank COWELL, center; Leo SHAY, 1st base; Dick HART, 2nd base; Lou WILLIAMS, 3rd base; Clyde COWELL, short-stop; Willie LAMBERT, right field; Ed SHAY, center field; Babe SMITH, left field; captain Everett PARKHURST.

Sports have always played an important part in the history of Maloy and its surrounding area.

The earliest date listed for a baseball team was around 1883 or 1884 as indicated in an article written by Luke E. HART in 1929. This pioneer team was called the County Line Team. They gathered at the Michael N. HART farm on the Taylor-Ringgold County line. Among those participating were George WARIN, Smile DAVIS, M. J. HANNON, M. N. HART, W. R. HART, John REYNARD, Frank REYNARD and others.

Monroe NEWTON added the following information.

Several elderly men soon came and watched and gave advice. Jed and Bob BEAMER, Harve DUNCAN Sr., Jack PARKHURST, Billie MATTHEWS, John HART, Frank WARIN were among these. Those who played regularly, in addition to the above mentioned, were Doug SHAY, Ben "Doc" WARING, Dora BEAMER, Frank CASEMENT, Ben WALTON, Joseph V. LEMLEY, John WOODSIDE, Alex and John HILL, Charles HATLON, Newt FROST and John NEWTON. They played bare-handed except for the catcher who migh thave a buckskin glove. Hoever, in 1890, Luke HART'S father designed a catcher's mitt of [a] large size and had it made by a Maloy harness maker. It was supposedly the first large mitt used in the county.

In the early nineties, others who placed were Bert HOFFMAN, W. H. HAY, Jerry COWELL and George HASKETLL. Michael N. HART was the manager.

Shortly after, others who contributed were Alvin COWELL, Andrew DUNCAN, John and Al MATTHEWS, Jim HAVILAND, Everett PARKHURST and John SHAY. Clyde "Peanut" COWELL developed as a short-stop and later became truly a star player. Other players were Frank FROST, Tom SHAY, Lee SHAY and Richard HART. By this time Herbert HART had developed into a pitcher of ability. Sam WORTHINGTON and Mike HART were often called upon to umpire and were considered to be very apt.

In 1916, in a tournament at Clearfield, Maloy fielded a team of all home talent. They were Ed SHEIL, Ed HART, Harry SHEIL, Leonard SHEIL, Jim LAMBERT, Everett PARKHURST, pitcher Herbert HART and catcher Lee SHAY.

Maloy continued to have teams several years later. Some who played were Jim WORTHINGTON and Leo and Emmett and Johnnie WARIN. Leo and Emmett later played at Creighton University. Others were Ed MULLIN, Joe O'CONNOR, Maurice CARR, Bill HULL, John NOLAN and Lee POLLEY. Ed MULLIN pitched for the Irish Emeralds in Des Moines and Joe O'CONNOR and Maurice CARR played while in college at Maryville, Missouri and Cedar Falls, Iowa, respectively. Lee SHAY was a college cathcer for St. Ambrose in Davenport.

The games played in later years were west of town on the field of M. C. "Chan" SHAY. The high school games were played east of the brick schoolhouse and later on the Dennis SHAY pasture west of the school building.

Rivalry between towns reached fever pitch at times. The towns would "spike up" their teames with hired players. They would try to conceal this until about game tme. By then, they inteded to have their bets covered as to the outcome.

Much research and communication has gone into making this an accurate accounty of Maloy area baseball activity over the last century. Special thanks to Pat CARR for his perserverance!

1926 Team

1929 Team

For a period of time, Maloy had a Town Team basketball organization. Although no formal records were kept, three players from Maloy who participated were Jim WORTHINGTON, Dick HIGGINS and Clem SHEIL. John NOLAN also saw some action.

They played in the high school gym and at times it was more physical than scientific.

One old ball player reported that when Maloy played against Harlan CAMPBELL at Blockton, Harlan did his best shooting when someone was on his back.

Although this team didn't play regularly scheduled games, many of the former high school players of ability helped out for invitational tournaments. Part of the team was made up o players from nearby communities.

In one of these tournaments the internationally known coach and player, Henry IBA, played with the Maloy team.

Henry Payne "Hank" IBA was born August 6, 1904 at Easton, Missouri where he grew up. After coaching at Northwest Missouri State University at Maryville, Missouri, he went to coach at Oklahoma A&M College (Oklahoma State University) in 1934. He stayed at the college or 36 years until his retirement after the 1969-70 season. For most of his tenure there he doubled as athletic director and coached the college baseball team from 1934 to 1941.

IBA's Aggies were the first to win consecutive NACCA titles in 1945 and 1946 and was voted coach of the year for both seasons. His teams won 14 Missouri Valley titles and one Big Eight title, winning 655 games during 36 season. Throughout his 40-year coaching career, IBA's teams won 767 games - the second-most in college basketball history at the time he retired.

As athletic director, IBA build a program that won 19 national championships in five sports - basketball, wrestling, baseball, golf and cross-country.

In 1987, the college's Gallagher Hall was renamed Gallagher-Iba Arena in his honor. A seat located in the southeast concours level of the arean is known as "Mr. IBA'S seat" and it maintained without a fan having sat in it.

IBA was elected to the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Hame, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the Missouri Hall of Fame, the Helms Foundation All-Time Hall of Fame for basketball, National College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007, the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007, and Nasmith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Henry IBA Award was established in 1959 to recognize the best college basketball coach of the year, determined by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

Hank IBA died in Stillwater, Oklahoma on January 15, 1993.

SOURCE: Maloy, Iowa Centennial History: 1887 - 1987 Pp. 47, 54-5. 1987.
Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Iba

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2011