Henry Lee Manuel Posthumously Receives Vaunted Coach Jimmy Bellipanni Distinguished Trojan Award
By Mark H. Stowers
Henry Lee Manuel – Football 1981-1982 / Track and Field 1982-1983
The late Itta Bena native put his name on the Trojan athletic program as a member of the Football and Track teams making Honorable Mention All State in football in 1982. He would go onto Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas where he competed in both sports as well and was named First Team All Conference and MVP of the Sunflower Bowl in 1982. He was named 1st Team All Conference in 1984. On the Track, he helped lead the team to a KCAC Championship in 1984.
Manuel was also inducted into the Future Champions Greenwood Leflore Sports Hall of Fame in July of 2022 for his accomplishments on the football field while at Leflore County High School.
Though he passed away in 2018, Manuel would return in spirit to his alma mater and "put his name" on the campus. He was the first African American Police Chief in Moorhead and the first African American Police Chief at MDCC. The new training center will bear his name as the Henry L. Manuel Law Enforcement Training Academy Complex and will be the first-ever African American to have a building named in his honor at MDCC.
