The Pillow Academy Sports Hall of Fame will be inducting two new members Friday night in Ed Lowe and Neil Turner.
The induction and ceremony will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Tol Thomas Library at Pillow. They will be the 45th and 46th members of the PA Sports Hall of Fame. There will be no basketball games Friday, so all the ceremonies will take place in the library.
Lowe is from the class of 1976, and Turner is a 1977 graduate of Pillow.
Jerome Goldberg, a teammate of Lowe’s, had nothing but praise for Lowe.
“Ed was the hardest hitter on defense on our team and maybe since Pillow has had a football team,” said Goldberg, who was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2012. “When we double-team blocked on offense, which Ed played next to me as a tight end, we had several plays where nobody could get by us.”
Lowe was named all-conference in 1975, and he received the head hunter award in 1974. He was also co-captain of the track team.
Turner is a current teacher and assistant baseball and football coach at the school. He and his wife, Jayne, have lived in Leland since 2005. He has one daughter, Haley.
This is Turner’s 29th year to be coaching and teaching in the MPSA/MAIS. He was hired as a part-time baseball coach at Pillow by Bill Davis. He later served as head football and baseball coach at Cruger-Tchula Academy. He also coached at Carroll Academy.
Turner played football, baseball, and basketball and ran track during his days at Pillow. He was a four-year starter for the football and baseball teams, being named the Most Valuable Player his senior year in baseball.
“I’m just very grateful and honored to be joining so many former classmates and friends,” said Turner. “I’m looking forward to the night. It really does mean a lot that there are a few who still remember what we did over 40 years ago.”
Turner played quarterback during his junior high days but moved to wide receiver as a sophomore. He remembers playing on the same team with Lowe.
“He was a year ahead of me, and we were teammates on the football and track teams,” Turner added. “He played tight end and some running back, and safety on defense. He was one of the hardest-hitting players on that side of the ball.”
Turner played for Mississippi Delta’s baseball team in 1978 and 1979, helping the team win a state title in 1978. He was named all-state and MDCC’s MVP in 1979.
He coached and played semi-pro baseball for the Greenwood Sluggers and Greenwood Merchants in the mid-1980s. He “retired” from playing in 1985.
- Contact Calvin Stevens at 662-581-7234 or cstevens@gwcommonwealth.com.
