Ground, pound

By EASportsToday.com
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Updated: June 14, 2025

New Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Young lived both ends, got in on ground floor of Alexandria’s run of state titles under Scales, Ginn.

OXFORD — One would think that running back fame at Running Back High School would put a guy one cut and a gear change from the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame.

Tony Young, 5-foot-7 but powerful, likely bowled few tacklers over on his way to the achievements that led to his long-awaited induction Saturday at Oxford Civic Center.

But to add up Young’s yards and touchdowns, which helped the Valley Cubs win their first-ever state title in 1985, would account for half of his contribution.

Maybe less.

There’s a whole other aspect to “Stump’s” total thump factor for Alexandria, back in the day of Lou Scales and Larry Ginn.

Not only did Young ground for a program long known for its ground game. He pounded, too.

Turns out there’s more that a 5-7, stoutly built young man can do in football besides run with it. Then again, his humble varsity beginnings as a nose tackle didn’t owe so much to his central-casting stature.

It wasn’t that two coaches who preceded Young in this hall of fame failed to see a running back, at first. Running Back High had the Woodruff brothers, Ronnie and David. They were older when Young was a freshman.

“It just wanted to get on the field,” Young acknowledged Saturday.

See why Alexandria people see Young as a quintessential Valley Cub?

Sure, he rushed for more than 5,300 yards in three seasons and made all of the “All” teams. More than 2,300 of those yards came during his junior season, when Alexandria won its first state football title in Scales’ final game as head coach.

What he did to help Alexandria get its first state-championship “ball on the wall” has a way of winning local love, but here’s the thing. Young kept playing defense. And special teams.

“The only thing I wasn’t on until my junior year, I think, was punt return,” he said.”That was because we were beginning to play offense.”

Young played running back in junior high school, so his coaches knew well what he could do. He just had to wait his turn there.

They had an opening at nose tackle, and Young lacked no eagerness.

“To me, I don’t know about the center, but I thought that was one of the best positions on the field, as far as defense was concerned,” he said. “I tried to give that center fits.

“I was fortunate enough to, or blessed enough, to have enough speed and quickness that it was for them to double team me. I was a little bit strong, too.”

So, Young earned the every-yard vote and the every-man vote in the Valley. He was a Valley dog.

That’s why a lot of Alexandria heads who remember him hoped to see his Hall day long before they, and he, did. Young had hoped to see it, too.

For the longest time, Young didn’t know that the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors forbids itself to nominate potential inductees. Nominations must come from from an outside source.

Board members have tried to get that word out in recent years, hoping that the spirit might move someone in the community to nominate long-overdue legends like another Valley Cub running back, a guy who came nearly a decade after Young.

No, Mac Campbell is not in the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame. Somehow, some way, no one has nominated a guy who rushed for 9,839 yards between 1993-97, a state record that stood until Elba’s Alvin Henderson rushed for 10,930 between 2020-24.

One can still find Campbell’s name lots of places on the AHSAA’s all-time rushing records, just not in the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame.

The wait can sting, especially for those who don’t know how the Board works.

“At one point, I didn’t know what the procedure to be nominated and voted on, and I was a little bit upset that maybe I should’ve been in a little sooner,” Young said. “I just thought the committee did the nominating, and I found out that they didn’t, so I’m good with it.

“I’m absolutely thrilled that I was nominated and voted in.”

There was no keeping Young off of the field and, at long last, there’s no keeping him out of the Calhoun County Sports Hall of Fame.

CCHoF Class of ’25

—Kevin Greene: Oxford native, played for Auburn University, four NFL franchises (Rams, Steelers, Panthers and 49ers), performer for World Championship Wrestling.

—Delvin Hughley: Anniston High football and basketball standout, played football for Jacksonville State University, played for Ravens and Broncos in NFL and Arena League’s Colorado Crush.

—Matthew Maniscalco: Alabama’s first Mr. Baseball, played for Oxford High, Mississippi State University and the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

—Chucky Miller: Alexandria native and basketball coach for Wellborn and Talladega high schools.

—Dr. Denise Peters: Volleyball, soccer and track standout for Jacksonville High, played soccer for University of Alabama-Birmingham.

—Tony Young: Alexandria High football standout, played for Troy University.

Hall of Fame moments

—Greene was inducted posthumously and represented by his wife Tara. She called son Gavin and daughter Gabrielle to stand on the stage with her, Gabrielle wearing her father’s Pro Football Hall of Fame gold jacket and Gavin wearing his hall-of-fame ring.

—Hughley credited current Jacksonville State head coach Charles Kelly, who recruited him to Jax State while an assistant there: “I just wanted to shout him out because he believed in me at times when I didn’t believe in myself.”

—Maniscalco noted that Sunday is Father’s Day and saluted his dad Charlie, a 2019 inductee. “Being a hall-of-famer means a lot, but getting to join it with you means everything.” Maniscalco choked up when saluting his late older brother Andy, who lived one day and would’ve been 48 years old this year.

—Miller thanked media who covered him through his 40-plus years of coaching and called being interviewed by Malcolm Street after winning his first area title in 1981 as “one of my favorite memories.”

—Peters thanked her parents for supporting her desire to play baseball, not softball, in youth league when it wasn’t common for girls to play with boys. The video presentation preceding her speech said she played baseball because she found softball “boring.” She credited long-time Jacksonville coach David Clark for teaching her a valuable lesson with a benching but said she got revenge by passing on a blind curve during a drivers-ed session with him.

—The 5-foot-7 Young approached the podium, ducked down then stood up. “There’s a reason why they call me ‘stump.'” Young ended his speech by getting the Alexandria crowd contingent to join him in the signature “Who Dat” cheer.