SCOOBA — Two East Mississippi Community College alumni were honored during the college’s 2022 Homecoming activities.

Columbus native Ronnie Carter was named the 2022 Alumnus of the Year. Mike Luke, Class of 1972, passed away Oct. 12 and was posthumously honored with the 2022 Distinguished Service Award.

Carter and Luke were recognized Oct. 22 at an alumni reception and again later that day on Sullivan-Windham Field during halftime of EMCC’s Homecoming football game, in which the college defeated Itawamba Community College 38 to 10.

Alumnus of the Year

Carter was a defensive back on legendary football coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan’s 1963-64 team whose career in education spanned more than four decades as a teacher, multi-sport coach and administrator in Nashville.

“Obviously, being around Coach Sullivan was great but I was also around a number of outstanding teachers,” Carter said. “They had an unbelievable impact on me.”

A football and basketball standout at Lee High School in Columbus, Lee enrolled at EMJC in 1963, serving as freshman class president.

When his father accepted a job at a church in Birmingham, Alabama, Carter transferred from EMCC to Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee. After graduating in 1967, he embarked on a career in education in Nashville, teaching mathematics while coaching football, basketball, wrestling and track and field at various points in his career. In 1978 he landed his first administrative position as assistant director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) and was promoted to executive director of that organization in 1986 before retiring in 2009.

In the early 1990s, looking to drum up publicity for spring sports that were not getting the attention garnered by football and basketball, Carter and a friend came up with the idea of hosting a tournament for spring sports all at one site held within the same week.

“It was unbelievably successful and has grown every year since,” Carter said.

Spring Fling XXIX took place this year and included thousands of athletes competing in baseball, softball, soccer, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls track and field, and unified track and field, which includes students with and without disabilities on the same team.

Carter also served on rules committees in football, basketball and wrestling for the National Federation of State High School Associations and was a consultant for the Universal Cheerleaders Association. He has been inducted into six sports hall of fame classes, including those for EMCC (2014), TSSAA and NFHS National High School. Carter also garnered numerous awards, including the Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Nashville Sports Council, the Roy Kramer Award for contributions to football by the National Football Foundation and the Middle Tennessee Chapter, Distinguished American Award presented by the National Football Foundation.

Distinguished Service Award

Luke was a lifelong resident of Kemper County who grew up in the community of Preston. A two-time team MVP in basketball at DeKalb High School, Luke graduated from Noxubee County High School. He earned a basketball scholarship to attend EMCC, where he played for Coach Keyes T. Currie. A team co-captain during his sophomore year, Luke garnered best defensive player honors for the 1971-72 season.

Off the court, he was named vice president of the sophomore class. Luke later earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and history from Mississippi State University and accepted a position at Carthage High School where he served as a teacher and girls basketball and track coach.

When his father, who was the District 4 representative on the Kemper County Board of Supervisors, died in a 1977 accident, Luke was appointed interim supervisor to fill his father’s term and won every subsequent election for the post. Luke was in his 45th year in the position and, according to the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, he was the longest serving supervisor in the state of Mississippi.

Among his many accomplishments, he coordinated with other supervisors to bring the John C. Stennis Hospital to DeKalb, lobbied to get Lynville School listed on the National Register of Historic Places, assisted with the creation of Kemper County Lake, and worked diligently to get roads cleared in the aftermath of a 2010 tornado that damaged structures and downed trees.

Luke continued to coach when he wasn’t busy inspecting roads, attending supervisor meetings and connecting with the residents he represented. He coached softball at Neshoba Central, Philadelphia, Choctaw Central and Noxubee County high schools, and boys basketball at Kemper County.

He coached Kemper Academy to three straight third-place finishes in slow-pitch softball and guided the girls’ basketball team to the state semifinals. He started Neshoba Central High School’s fast-pitch program and led the Lady Rockets to four consecutive Top 10 state rankings. Luke’s four-year stint as boys basketball coach at Kemper County High School included a No. 1 state ranking in 2005 and a 93-17 composite finish. In 2018, Luke was inducted into the EMCC Sports Hall of Fame.

His stint at Kemper Academy provided him the opportunity to coach his daughters, Emily Lee and Amy Ivy, who played basketball and softball there.

“Coaching my girls in basketball was one of the highlights of my life,” Luke told a Kemper County Messenger reporter for an August 2022 article.

Ivy later attended Clarkdale High School. During her senior year she transferred from Clarkdale to Neshoba Central so she could play for her dad one last time.

“It was awesome,” Ivy said. “It felt as if things went right back into place with him. I wouldn’t trade that last year of being able to play for my dad for anything in the world.”