2026 INDUCTEE – MARK MCCLANAHAN

By David Elwell
The Decatur Daily

Pride of Austin and Auburn

The process of completing a jigsaw puzzle requires all the pieces fitting together perfectly to create a finished product.

In Mark McClanahan’s athletic career he was a piece of the puzzle for two different sports teams that each celebrated accomplishments on the championship stage.

McClanahan was a starter on the 1973 Austin basketball team that won the Class 4A state championship under the leadership of Hall of Fame coach Joe Jones.

In 1977, McClanahan used his pitching talents to help the Auburn Tigers baseball team win the SEC championship and advance to the College World Series for just the second time in school history.

On June 20, McClanahan, 71, will be honored with induction into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame.

“I was blessed to play basketball and baseball with a lot of great people,” McClanahan said. “I was also associated with a lot of great people who helped me along the way.”

The McClanahan family lived on 2^nd Street, not far from West Decatur Elementary and the Boys & Girls Club on 3^rd Street.

“The Boys Club was a big part of my growing up,” McClanahan said. “That’s where I Iearned how to play basketball.”

McClanahan still has a team photo of a 10-year-old basketball team from the Boys Clubs. He’s standing on the back row directly in front of a kneeling Rickie Stukes. Just a few years later they would pose together in another basketball team photo as state champion of what was then the largest high school classification in Alabama.

The baseball exploits for McClanahan started with games at the complex called Wingfoot Field at what was originally the Goodyear plant on 19^thAvenue.

“There were two fields at Wingfoot with games four days a week and each team played two games a week,” McClanahan said. “My Dad (Scott) always coached my teams. Since we were always at the field, he got a job that paid $2 a game to keep score and send in the results to The Decatur Daily. It ended up being me keeping score while my Dad was busy talking to other coaches.”

The McClanahan father and son combination was difficult to beat, even with Mark usually playing in an older age group.

“I would average around 15 strikeouts in a six inning game,” Mark said. “We were playing Little League and we had a lot of success, but we could never get past the regional tournament because of those great teams in Huntsville.”

As McClanahan grew older the games moved to Water Tower Field at Delano Park and Herman Bailey Field behind the fire station on 3^rdStreet.

“That was a great time to grow up in Decatur,” McClanahan said. “If we weren’t at the ball field or at the Boys Club, we were together at somebody’s house. Everybody was just a short bike ride away.”

McClanahan’s trip to the varsity level at Austin continued after junior high. In the ninth grade he was a starting pitcher on the varsity baseball team. In the 10^th grade, McClanahan and Stukes were on the varsity basketball team.

“We didn’t play a lot as sophomores, but we practiced against some big seniors every day,” McClanahan. “We also got to learn what it was like to play for Coach Jones. That helped a lot when we got to be starters as juniors.”

McClanahan and his friends came along at a great time for basketball in Morgan County.  When they were in the eighth grade, Austin won its first basketball state championship in just the school’s fourth year of competition. Decatur won a state title in 1970 followed by Hartselle claiming its first ever in 1971.

“Mark and I grew up together playing with Butch Watterson,” Stukes said. “Donald Booker and (Billy) Dog Sandifer joined us along the way. We were all seniors together. Marvin Sales was the last piece of the puzzle. He joined us that season as a junior.”

The 1972-1973 high school basketball season might have been the greatest ever in Morgan County. There was a new school called Brewer bringing together talent from five small schools with great basketball history. There were hall of fame coaches and players at just about every school.

Jones’ led a group of coaches who would later become members of the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame. The group included Decatur’s Earl Morris, Danville’s Wayne Bowling, Brewer’s Wally Sanders and Hartselle’s Tommy Tomlinson.

The list of players who played that season and are in the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame, includes from Austin: Stukes, Sandifer, Sales and McClanahan; Brewer: Gary Winton and Ricky Allen; Hartselle: Gary Orr; West Morgan: Larry Tucker; Danville: Randy Lewis; and Falkville: Randy Nelson.

Brewer and West Morgan joined Austin in advancing to the state tournament. West Morgan’s season ended in the Class 2A finals.

One of the highlights of the season was the Morgan County Tournament played at Brewer in its brand new gym that could hold a crowd. In the semifinals, Brewer beat West Morgan, 70-67, and Austin beat Hartselle, 76-46.

The finals between the Patriots and Black Bears had an estimated crowd of 4,500. They saw a back-and-forth battle with Austin up by one after the first quarter, Brewer up seven at halftime and five after three quarters. Austin outscored Brewer 20-7 in the final quarter to win the classic contest 63-53.

“We went to our press defense in the fourth quarter and it paid off,” McClanahan said.

The momentum of the Morgan County Tournament championship had the Black Bears rolling. The only glitch the rest of the way was an overtime loss to West Morgan. The Black Bears finished the season with a 22-4 record.

“We lost four games that season by a total of six points,” McClanahan said. “We learned something from each of those losses that helped us later in the playoffs. If we had not had those four losses, I don’t think we probably win state.”

In 1973, the format to advance to the state tournament had eight regions in each classification. Each region champion advanced to Tuscaloosa to play at what is now Coleman Coliseum.

The Class 4A, Region 8 tournament was played at Flowers Hall on the campus of what is now the University of North Alabama. The finals came down to the River City rivalry of Austin vs. Decatur.

“The first time Austin ever beat Decatur in basketball was in our junior season,” McClanahan said. “That was a big deal. When Austin won the state championship in 1969 with Charles Lee Martin and that bunch, they didn’t beat Decatur.”

The Black Bears’ first win over the Red Raiders came in Florence in the consolation game of the Tennessee Valley Conference Tournament.

“The week after that win over Decatur we had a regular season game with them at Calhoun,” McClanahan said. “I remember the Decatur fans holding up signs that said ‘Never again.’ They beat us pretty bad that night.”

One season later with the region championship and a trip to state on the line, it was the Black Bears who celebrated with a 45-32 victory in front of a crowd of 4,300.

“They’re too little to win in this region and go to the state tournament,” Jones told the Decatur Daily on the night of the region championship. “I didn’t want to tell them. They might have believed me.”

Jones was correct about Austin’s size. The Black Bears were not big. Sandifer was the tallest player at 6-foor-2, but his leaping ability was more like that of a player several inches taller. What Austin did have going for it was the ability to play as a cohesive unit.

“This was back before basketball got rough,” McClanahan said. “It wasn’t about being the biggest or strongest. We knew how to play basketball because we were coached so well by Coach Jones.

“We had no super player and no supersize. We were just good athletes who knew the fundamentals of the game. We were not afraid to be down because we knew that we would find a way to win.”

The players were also great friends. Before home games, the players had a pre-game ritual of a meal at C.F. Penn Hamburgers.

“The one thing we all did well was play together,” Stukes said.

In 1973 the state tournament was an eight-team event and it took three wins to claim the state championship trophy. Up first for the Black Bears was Carver of Birmingham, considered by many to be the tournament favorite.

Carver led 29-26 at halftime and 52-42 after three quarters, but Austin found a way to win. The Black Bears rallied to outscore the Rams 26-13 in the fourth for the 68-67 victory. Stukes hit a shot at the buzzer for the winning basket. He finished with a game-high 28 points.

“I had the ball down on the baseline looking to pass to anybody that was open,” Stukes said. “Nobody was open and time was running out. I couldn’t even see the goal, but I had to shoot and somehow it went in.”

While Stukes was the hero of the game, McClanahan’s defensive effort on Carver star Eddie Cauthen did not go unnoticed. Cauthen scored well below his average with just 13 points while hitting just 5 of 18 field goal attempts.

“We all had to play a role and your role could change from game to game,” McClanahan said. “My role for that game was to slow down their top player.”

Next up for Austin was Talladega and its All-State center Pepto Bolden, who went on to star at Auburn. Bolden was supposed to give Talladega an advantage inside, but it turned out the advantage inside went to Austin with Sandifer. He set a state record with 43 points to go with 22 rebounds in the 76-59 Austin victory.

“I’m sure some people wondered how we would play after an emotional win in the first game,” Stukes said. “Dog carried us that night.”

Austin’s opponent in the Saturday night game for the state championship was Wenonah of Birmingham. The Dragons led 33-29 at halftime and 51-45 after three quarters. The lead ballooned to 59-51 early in the fourth quarter.

Then it was time for the team that thrived on finding a way to win to deliver. Stukes and Sales led a rally that tied the game at 63-63 at the end of regulation and then gave the Black Bears a 69-66 overtime victory.

“This is the gutsiest bunch of kids I’ve ever had and that’s the only way you can explain it,” Jones said. “They kept falling behind, but they never once showed a defeated attitude. Instead they just played that much better.”

Stukes with 24 points and Sandifer with 22 led the Austin scoring. Both were all-tournament selections. McClanahan scored five points, but again it was his defensive effort that stood out. He held Wenonah star David Desmond to just 12 points.

“We were a tight group that went through a lot that season,” McClanahan said. “Our goal was to win three tournaments – the TVC (Tennessee Valley Conference), the (Morgan) County and state and we did it. That was special.”

As soon as basketball season ended, McClanahan was ready to jump into the baseball season. It was the sport that would lead to a college career.

“I pitched a lot in little league and the older I got the better I seemed to get,” McClanahan said. “In the 10^th grade I started getting some notoriety after I beat Lee with just three hits in seven innings. They were a great team with Condredge Holloway and Randy Davidson. They won the state championship that year with just two losses.”

The East-West Lions Club All-Star games that culminated with the top high school stars in the state playing in Birmingham was a huge deal in the 1970s. Lots of  college coaches and pro scouts would attend. It was an event usually for seniors, but top underclassmen would sometimes be invited. McClanahan was invited as a sophomore and junior.

“I went 8-1 in my junior year and got invited back to Birmingham,” McClanahan said. “Then the Cincinnati Reds had a camp in Decatur for 10^th and 11^th graders and I went. More people started noticing.”

McClanahan signed with Auburn and became a part one of the program’s all-time best pitching staffs. In 1976, the Tigers advanced to the College World Series behind a pitching staff led by Robert Hudson, Terry Leach and Joe Beckwith. Leach and Beckwith would eventually pitch in the major leagues.

“It was a heck of a pitching staff. Going into the College World Series we had the second best earned run average in the country,” McClanahan said. “My role was as a reliever.

“I loved coming into games after Beckwith and Leach. My pitching style was different from them. I threw sidearm and it was difficult for hitters to adjust after facing them.”

McClanahan went 4-0 that season with a 2.16 ERA. In 41 2/3 innings he struck out 33 and gave up just 10 earned runs. He pitched in 18 games, 17 in relief and one as a starter. The one start was a win at Mississippi State that put the Tigers in the SEC championship series.

The SEC baseball championship format was different in 1976 than it is today. There were eight schools in the SEC. They were split into two four-team divisions. The division winners played a best 2-out-3 playoff series for the championship and a berth in the national playoffs.

Auburn beat Kentucky for the SEC championship and won the regional in Tallahassee, Florida, to advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Auburn lost the first game to Clemson, 9-4, and was eliminated with a 9-8 loss to Maine the next day.

Unfortunately for McClanahan, he was just a spectator for the playoffs. The week after the win over Mississippi State, he injured his arm in a game against Birmingham-Southern. Eventually he had to have surgery and then a second surgery.

“I just never could get back to where I was,” McClanahan said. “After I got my degree, I was ready to move on. I have no regrets that I gave it up. I just regret that I was not as good in college as I could have been.”

For a kid who grew up learning how to play basketball at the Boys Club and how to play baseball at Wingfoot Field, it was a pretty amazing career.