MDCC Sports Hall of Fame - James "Dickie" Bennett - Track & Field - 1960-1962

By Mark H. Stowers

Growing up in Blaine, James "Dickie" Bennett attended high school in Moorhead when Sunflower Junior College and Moorhead High School shared a campus. Dickie found a home there and continued his athletic prowess in field and track as a Trojan. So much so, he'll be enshrined in the MDCC Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday.

His track story began with an Olympic Sports update at the local drive-in movie in the late 1950s. Dickie and his family saw Olympic highlights and the high school athlete decided he wanted to become a pole vaulter. But with no coaches or equipment, the country boy had all he needed on the family farm to get started with his record-breaking career.

"I was in maybe the 7th or 8th grade and my folks went to the drive-in theater and they had a movie back in the late 60s, these different events," Bennett explained. "They had the pole vault, they had the high jump, they had all the running and jumping events. And so, when I got home, I set up a track. I didn't have a pole, so I went out and found me a pecan sapling and then cut it off. I started jumping barbed wire fences."

Not leaving much room for error, Bennett noted, "They always say if you're a pole vaulter, you got to be stupid and not afraid."

The fearless pole vaulter kept at it on his own until he had the chance to show coaches what he could do.

"I was training out one day and they were pole vaulting. We came from a little school and we didn't know anything about athletics. The only thing we played maybe was a little baseball. I was watching this kid. I don't even know who he was. Coach (Jimmy) Bellipanni was the coach at the time. And Coach Bellipanni was out there watching him jump and I was sitting on the side and I told one of the guys that was a friend of mine, 'I can out-jump that guy two or three feet.' And Coach Belafonte heard me. He said, 'Show me what you can do.' I had just regular shoes on and I out-jumped the guy in the pole vault. And that's how I started pole vaulting."

Bennett hit 10 feet while in high school and set state records jumping between 10-feet, 6-inches up to 11 feet.

"My second year in high school I jumped 11-feet, 9-inches."

Bennett stayed at home when he got a scholarship to attend what was then Sunflower Junior College and then Mississippi Delta Junior College. His pole vaulting acumen continued to increase and he started looking at offers to Mississippi College and Arkansas A&M once his time as a Trojan was done. He went and discussed the options with Coach Jim Randall, the head football coach as Bennett was a student manager for the team.

"I said, 'Coach, I decided that I'm going to go to Arkansas A&M and run track over there.' He said, 'No, you're not either.' I said, 'Well, that's the best scholarship I got.' He said, 'Oh, no, you got a scholarship to Mississippi State.' I said, 'Well, this is the first I've heard of it.'"

Bennett's pole jumping had caught the eye of Mississippi State track coaches unbeknownst to him. Coach Randall had been talking to the Bulldog coaches since Bennett had been a high school senior and freshman. State thought he was a sophomore.

"They were going to give me a scholarship the next year, and Coach Randall said he can't get me because he's got one more year over here," Bennett said.

A day or so later, MSU Coach Simmons offered Bennett and he became a Bulldog.

"I was the first guy to jump at the state record over at Mississippi State at 14 feet. I was the first guy to ever clear at 14 feet. I had to jump in the SEC that year. I was also a triple jumper and a long jumper. And at Mississippi State, I ran a little bit on the sprint middle of the relays, but I wasn't what I'd call a speed demon."

Once his competition days were over, Bennett became a student coach at MSU for one year. He then took a job coaching high school track. He was set to come back to MDJC and coach track under the Title IX vocational program but the program ended before he could take advantage of it. He went to Clarksdale to coach track and a few years later, Coach Randall had money for Bennett to come home and coach but it wasn't as much as he was already making. He stayed in Clarksdale but soon got the opportunity to enter the financial world. And he credits his time spent training and learning under MDJC coaches as the main benefit in his financial career's success.

"I ended up as President and Chief Executive Officer for South PCA and the federal credit fund. That came about because of coach Randall had put me in the right spot, at the right time and the winning. They treated you like people. They didn't treat you like a bunch of dogs. They treated you like they cared about you. And that is something that always stuck with me. Every time I got ready to do something, I thought about those guys and thought about what they did for me. And I said, you know, I learned a lot. That's really where I learned something. If the Lord puts a door in front of you, you can either get out or not get out."

He noted that Coach Stonestreet, Coach Bellipanni and Coach Randall were all held in high regard and his later coaches "used to get tired of me talking about them."

When Bennett was informed of his induction the MDCC Sports Hall of Fame, "I was really shocked. I was nominated 35 years ago but nothing came of it. When they called me, I was really, really shocked, to be honest with you. After somebody's been away that long, you know. It doesn't ever happen to you."

MDCC Trojan Hall of Fame – Blaine's own James "Dickie" Bennett.