John C. Skelton reflects on the surprising 1950 Indianola team that made a run for a title
The 1950 Indianola Indians High School football team wasn’t expected to do much. The ’49 team had gone 5-7.
Second year Coach Charles Shumake didn’t expect much either. But the men on that team rose up to band together and put a 9-2 mark on their schedule. A season ending 14-7 loss to Belzoni knocked them out of the championship that year.
The lone remaining starting member, John C. Skelton, looked back on that season and his football career this past week.
Not that his memory needs the help, but those recollections are made easier by a treasure trove of yearbooks, game programs and trophies he has kept over the last seven decades.
“That was 70 years ago,” Skelton said of his senior season. “We didn’t have any face guards (laughing). We were past the leather helmets and were using the type that they use today.”
Skelton made First Team All Delta Valley as an end. The team played the likes of Sallis, Batesville, Yazoo City, Drew, West Tallahatchie, Tunica, Cleveland, Shaw, Leland, Winona and Belzoni. The 1950 team scored 196 points to average nearly 18 points per game and only gave up 67 – the defense had six shutouts that season giving up an average of only six points a game.
“My daddy (John C. Skelton Sr.) played at the same high school in 1929 and he was a mighty good player. And he played end,” Skelton said. “I had a brother two years younger (Bobby) who was better than any of us. My youngest brother (Gene) played a little bit too.”
The 1950 team wasn’t supposed to be that good.
“But we played 11 games and won nine and the last game was for the Delta Valley Championship. We lost that (to Belzoni) 14-7,” he said. “I think I’m the last surviving starter of that team.”
One of his teammates was the legendary late chemistry teacher and IA Coach Charles Bellipanni who played tackle. Skelton called off the starters of that team.
“Left end, Jimmy Vincent; tackle, Charles Bellipanni; JB Marquis, guard. The Center was Billy Van Cleve, he made all conference too. Next guard was Hiram Hill, the tackle was Jim Gilliland and the end was John C. Skelton. In the backfield, we had Deiter Vincent, Jimmy Lee Marquis, Louis Labella, Tootsie Labella and Bubba Marquis.”
The Indians ran a Single Wing offense and on the defensive side the Indians lined up in a 6-2 or 5-3.
“We didn’t have any fancy defenses. Everybody in them days ran the same stuff,” he said.
The Indians were more of a running team and Skelton was more of a blocking end than a pass catching one.
“We didn’t pass hardly any. I bet they didn’t throw passes to me but five times the whole year. We didn’t really have a passer. We played 11 games and six of the teams didn’t even score on us,” he said.
His successful career on the gridiron led him to take his skills to Mississippi Delta Community College (then Sunflower Junior College) where he played for a season.
“When I got over there, it was Coach Jim Randall’s first year and he had two returning players,” Skelton recalled. “I didn’t get there but about two weeks before the season began. He told me to get in at end but I saw I was the shortest one out there, so I moved myself to a guard. At that time, I was 5-foot, 10 and half and 160 pounds.”
Skelton went on to Delta State after hanging up his cleats while a Trojan.
He spent time in the military at the end of the Korean Conflict and was stationed in Germany.
He served for 21 months and then went back to Delta State University.
After college, Skelton woårked for and then owned a local auto parts store.
These days he works part time at the Veteran Service Office in Indianola where he helps veterans apply for benefits such as healthcare, pensions, disability, grave markers and more.
Seven decades have passed, and a host of the players from the 1950 Indianola team are gone, but the memories of those games and those friendships will last forever.
