|
| McClure Grade School Building - 2014 |
|
McClure (population approximately 200) is located in Alexander County near Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
McClure sits about a mile southeast of the Mississippi River on Illinois Route 3. The Old Prairie Creek flows through
the center of McClure. The area was first settled in 1836 and a post office there was named "Clear Creek Landing".
The town was later officially recognized and the name changed to "Wheatland" in 1887. The name of the town was changed to
McClure in 1895 in honor of a man named J.T. McClure.
At one time, in the early 1900s, there were five country schools in this area: Cother, Round Pond, East Cape, McRaven
and Gale that consolidated into the McClure School in 1920. This made the McClure School System a K-12 building.
The school building, built in the early 1900's, had two rooms on two stories with four more rooms later added.
In 1938, McClure High School was built through an effort by the Public Works Administration (A Roosevelt "New Deal" organization).
The school districts of McClure, Wolf Lake and Grand Tower consolidated around the mid-1950's into the Shawnee School District
with the high school building located in Wolf Lake in Union County. McClure retained their building and was (or is?) used
as a grade school.
REQUEST:
"My name is Brad McClure I would like to know if anyone has any thing left of the McClure High erray.
If you do, please contact me through the IHSGD website crew at ihsgdwebsite@comcast.net .Thank You,"
McClure High School "Quick Facts":
Year High School opened: early 1900s
Year new school opened:
1938
Year closed:
mid-1950s
School Nickname:
unavailable
School Colors:
Red & Black
School song:
unavailable
| Lester Johnson, 1929, in his Letterman's Sweater |
|
|
| Courtesy of Margaret (Johnson) Stubbings |
Athletics
McClure High School offered Basketball and possibly other sports. If you have any information about other sports offered
at McClure High School, please drop us a line. We are also looking for seasons records, coaches names, team nickname, and
school fight song.
| McClure HS Basketball Team of 1928 |
|
| Courtesy of Margaret (Johnson) Stubbings |
Boys Basketball
In Boys Basketball, MHS won two District Championships, which are listed below. The
photo to the right is of the McClure High School basketball team for the 1927-28 season. Lester Johnson, father of Margaret (Johnson) Stubbings, was
a freshman and is the second boy from the left on the bottom row (just left of the boy holding the ball). None of the
others are identified in the photo. Please contact us if you can identify them. Any further information regarding
the McClure High School basketball program is welcome.
Several scores from the IHSA State Tourney were located
on a website titled "Illinois Postseason Basketball Scores" involving McClure High School. These scores are listed below.
1933-34
Cairo District Tournament Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd lost to Ullin 46-17 1934-35 Anna
District Tournament Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd lost to Cypress 62-21 1935-36 Dongola
District Tournament Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd Beat Cobden 38-32
Semi-final lost to Buncombe 37-21
Buncombe beat Mounds in title game 1936-37 Anna Regional
Tournament Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd lost to Mound City 45-22 1937-38 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name
needed. 1938-39 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 1939-40 Postseason scores,
record, and coach's name needed. 1940-41 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 1941-42
Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 1942-43 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 1943-44
Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 1944-45 Mound
City District Tourney Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd lost to Mound City 47-37 1945-46 Postseason scores, record, and coach's name
needed.
1946-47
Dongola District Champions Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd Beat Tamms 54-24
Semi-final Beat Cairo St. Joseph 43-38
Title Game Beat Dongola 63-33
Anna Regional Runner-Up! 1st
Rd Beat Karnak 58-49
Semi-final Beat Cairo 41-39
Title Game lost to Anna-Jonesboro 57-28 1947-48
Postseason scores, record, and coach's name needed. 1948-49 Dongola District
Tourney Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd lost to Goreville 51-33
Goreville beat Alto Pass in title game 1949-50 Postseason scores, record, and coach's
name needed. 1950-51 Dongola District
Tourney Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd lost to Dongola 51-44
Dongola beat Alto Pass in title game
**1951-52 Dongola
District Champions Coach's name & record needed
1st Rd Beat Goreville 81-59
Semi-final Beat Grand Chain 44-42
Title Game Beat Dongola 55-40
Cairo Regional Tournament
1st Rd lost to Cobden 53-52 **Last
time that McClure was listed on the website "Illinois Postseason Basketball Scores."
According to an area newspaper account from 1931, the McClure Basketball team of that time consisted
of six of the eight total boys that attended the school. Roberta Van Briesen found this article on-line:
MC CLURE HIGH
SCHOOL
Alexander County/Illinois Genealogy
Trails
The last basketball game of the season was with Wolf Lake Friday
evening at the McClure gymnasium. The score was 27 to 11 in favor of McClure.
Miller Sams was the referee. It was a good, snappy game, with a team where
there are only eight boys in the high school and six of them play the game.
Wolf Lake has no gymnasium, either. --Source: Cairo Evening Citizen and
Bulletin, March 3, 1930, contributed by Anna Shelton.
Memories
Cliff Burchyett (McClure HS Class of 1949) had these fun memories of
his baseball playing days at MHS:
"We had a "cracker jack" of a baseball team. Mr. Ferd Glaab was our coach.
We always delighted "beating up" on the Thebes, Wolf Lake, and Grand Tower baseball teams. They were our "arch" rivals like the St. Louis Cardinal and Chicago Cub "love affair."
I was the McClure, "bullet arm" catcher and delighted throwing out a couple of the Grand Tower players. I think their
names were Charles "speedy" Dickson and Gene "fast ball" Wills. You might check this out
with them for verification of the facts. Often, as we become more "mature" we remember things "the way we want them to
be" rather than the way they actually were."
Thank you Cliff, for this light-hearted account of your days at McClure High.
Seeking More Information
More information is being sought about McClure High School. If you have more information about
MHS, including photos of the school, nickname, athletes and other great teams and high school memories you would like
to share, please e-mail us at ihsgdwebsite@comcast.net or you may write to us at:
Illinois HS Glory Days
6439
N. Neva St.
Chicago, IL 60631
|
