Mr. Taylor was commonly called Prof Taylor at school and within the Colp community.  So I will out of  respect continue to do so in this article.  During his tenure at Colp (Herrin) HS  from approximately 1928 until his untimely death in 1947 there was no question of who was the head of Colp High School.  Even in sports when there were other different coaches, Prof Taylor was regarded as head coach.  According to Emanuel Duncan, a former student and classmate of members of the 1941 team, it was Prof Taylor who convinced star player Wm Riggins to stay in school his senior year rather than leave school to join the CCC Corp.  According to Emmanuel, Prof was convinced that Riggins was essential for his team to have a chance against much bigger schools in the 1941 tournament at Herrin.  After Mr. Taylor passed in 1947, Mrs. Taylor with her two young girls, Tony and Kay, took a teaching position in Carbondale.  This was a sad day when she left.

My personal experience with Prof Taylor started in the 7^th grade.  During the 7^th grade our grade school did not have any male teachers and Prof took on the added responsibility of coaching the grade school team.   We had another 7^th grade classmate on the team named Ed White who was the nephew of Sam Webb.  Ed, like his Uncle Sam, had a natural talent for the game and Prof assigned Ed as my tutor.  Our first game was at Carbondale.  We later played Duquoin and other grade schools.  Ed and I played together for the following three years under Coach Taylor.

Other grade school players on my 7^th grade team were 8^th grade students:  Lawrence Hatchett, Mayon Duncan, Bobby Spears and Wendell Brown

In the following year 1945-1946, Coach Taylor took our grade school basketball team to a 2-day tournament of grade schools to Mounds, Illinois.  Our team was very proud to come home with a 3^rd place finish behind Carbondale and Cairo, two much larger schools.  Most of our team members were also boy scouts under Mr. Taylor.

The following summer, our Boy Scouts troop participated in our first camp-out competition in the Pulaski, Illinois area.  Under the leadership of Scout Willie Duncan, we took pride in returning with a good share of ribbons to present to Mr. Taylor at his home.

When I graduated in 1950, our school was down to approximately 24 students with 4 graduating, including myself, Ed McKinley, Stella Stover and Nadine Cooper. I was pleased to later learn our chemistry teacher, Mr. Cliffton Moore left his teaching position and eventually became a Medical Doctor in Virginia.

Years later I got a 1931-1932 school picture (copy enclosed) of the Colp (Herrin) HS from my Aunt Armanda Kirby who then was a freshman there.  Her late husband and my uncle Norvel(Tat) Kirby had attended and played on the Colp basketball team during the years 1934-1938.  In 1931-32 & 1933-34 Colp was the SICCHS Runner-ups and in  1935-1936 were the SICCHS Champions.  I remember how proud my uncle was to have played for Prof Taylor and graduated from Colp(Herrin) HS.

The 1931-32 school photo revealed some interesting information.  At the time the school had 50 students and 3 teachers including Mr. Taylor, Carl Lee and Evelyn Bower.  There were 26 boys and 24 girls.  One girl Izetta Brown Williams was one of the first students to attend high school in 1928 at Colp, walking 3 miles from her home in Cliffort, Illinois.  She just turned 102 in July at Detroit and still has good health and memory of her old school.  Next to Izetta is Helen Kelly.  Helen was daughter of Lillian and step daughter of Hubert Russel and retired in Colp after a career as Professor at Purdue University.  On the front row sitting side by side were two sons of Dr. A.W. Springs, Andrew, Jr. and Jimmy Springs who later became a noted singer and returned to Colp in 1944 for the doctor's funeral.  A group of older boys stood on the top row in the order of:  Clarence Kincaid, Sr. Richard Lewis, Ike McMahan, George Webb, Paul Brown, George Tyler, Charlie Wilson, Fred McCellan and Floyd Williams. It has been reported that Colp played a football game in 1928 as the Colp Colts against Murphysboro and were the SICCHS basketball Runner-up in 1927-28 and as noted above in 1931-32.  It would appear that a number of boys on the top row were players in the football and/or basketball games during these years.

Although the Colp (Herrin) HS continued to lose attendance from 1931 until it closed in 1953,  I was told by Eugene Green that his 1941 freshman class started with a record number of 26 students  but graduated only 3 including Eugene who married one of my class graduates, Stella Stover Green.

One remarkable aspect of the 1941 freshmen class was the inclusion of  William Hatchett, Jr. and after only 6 months at Colp (Herrin) HS he was a big impact player on the March 1941 championship team that defeated East St Louis.  Hatchett brought to  Colp High School the size and toughness that was so important in this win.

It seems fitting that Sonja Williams Lancaster would end what her Aunt Izetta Williams started as a  member of the first Colp (Herrin) HS in 1928, by being among the last students to close the Colp (Herrin) school and enter Herrin HS during the 1953-1954 year.  She graduated in 1955 with over 150 other students.

To close from the collection of old school records of Harrison Baker, his 1929 eighth grade class of Attucks grade school held their graduation exercises Monday, April 29 at the Colp HS Gym.  The program in part was follows:

                                    March                          J. D. Davis

                                    Chorus                         Youth in Blossom Time

                                    Invocation                   Rev. J. D. Davis         

                                    Chorus                         The Open Road

                                    Salutation                    William Williams        

                                    Valedictory  Oration   H.C. Baker

                                    Chorus                         When Shadows Fall

                                    Class Address             Rev. A. Grim  

                                    Remarks                      Mr. E.J. Mayes, Member

                                                                        Board of Directors

                                    Presentation of            Supt. Don C. Moss

                                    Diplomas

                                    Singing                        Farewell

It is noted that William Williams was father of Sonja Williams Lancaster and E.J. Mayes was father of James Mayes of Colp and my grandfather.  Rev. J.D. Davis was long term pastor of Mt Olive Baptist Church of Colp from 1918 until 1953.  Sonja Lancaster provided information from the late Mr. Baker that he finished his grade and high school education as a straight A student and never missed a day of school in grade or high school.  H.C. Passed in 2014 at age of 99.