The Poplar Bluff Sports Hall of Fame inducted one of its more accomplished and decorated classes Thursday night.
Garland Martin, PJ Brown, Stan Revelle, and Janice-Lee York Romary were selected as the 2018 class during the 33rd banquet at Westwood Hills Country Club.
Martin, Brown and Revelle attended Poplar Bluff around the same time during the turn of the millenium while Romary competed in six Olympics between 1948 and 1968.
Brown and Martin won state championships in track & field while Revelle was named the Missouri High School Football Player of the Year in 2000 by USA Today.
Brown, Martin and Revelle became eligible for the first time this year while Romary is the 10th female athlete to be honored, 73 years after she graduated from Poplar Bluff High School.
Brown was inducted by his father, Jim Brown, who told the story of how PJ first picked up pole vaulting, which he would win two state championships in.
As the story goes, Jim told kids not to climb over the fence in the yard, to go and use the gate instead. One day, PJ's older brother Michael came home from high school track practice with the 7-foot long broken piece of what was supposed to be an unbreakable training pole for the pole vault.
As Jim said many times during his speech, PJ "figured it out" and was soon using the broken pole to vault over the fence.
Brown won a state title in the pole vault as a sophomore but going into his senior year had trouble getting past 15 feet.
At AAU nationals, he finally did just that, but finished second by two feet. In the family driveway in Poplar Bluff, PJ told his dad that whoever won the Missouri state championship that year was going to have to break the state record, because he was going to break it.
In his senior season in 2000, PJ set new personal records in nine straight meets on way to a state championship and set the Poplar Bluff record of 16-feet 9-inches that still holds today.
This was before cell phones, so PJ had to wait until he got back to the team hotel to try and call home with the good news. He picked up the pay phone in the hotel lobby and started dialing.
"Nobody answers the phone. Nobody," PJ said. "I ran out of quarters."
He went on to the University of Arkansas where the Razorbacks won five NCAA Division I National Championships and was a five-time All-Southeastern Conference pole vaulter, as well as a Division I National Championship qualifier.
"Probably the highlight of my night was being all to see all the familiar faces. All the support and all the coaches that were here and helped me along the way. They really came together to honor Stan and Garland and I, and it was fun to catch up with people I haven't seen in a long time," PJ said after his speech. "I haven't seen these guys in 15-16 years and it was just fun catching up."
Martin won the state championship in the 300-meter hurdles in 1999 with a time of 36.22 seconds, that to this day is the 29th fastest time ever by an American.
In his speech, he revealed why he was so fast that day.
Martin finished second in the 110 hurdles to future NFL player Brandon Lloyd by a split second after Martin hit every single hurdle in his race.
Prior to warmups for the 300 hurdles and while Lloyd was competing in the high jump, Martin asked if he was available for the 110 medal ceremony. Lloyd turned and laughed.
"I'm the state champion. We'll do the ceremony when it is my turn," Martin recalls him saying.
"I looked at him. Didn't warmup, didn't do anything. I was ready to go right then and there."
The Mules finished second at state as a team that year.
Later that year, Martin won what was considered to be a national championship in the 300 with a time of 36.57, and took third in the 110. He ran for Middle Tennessee State and earned All-American honors in the 2004 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in the 60-meter hurdles. He also competed in the IAAF World Junior Championships and was a US Junior Champion in the 110 hurdles.
He would get laughs sometimes when people asked him where he was from. Where is Poplar Bluff, Missouri? What's the Bootheel?
"They were going to know that day where Poplar Bluff, Missouri was," Martin said. "This really, truly was a great honor to be inducted into the Poplar Bluff Hall of Fame. This city has done a lot for me. Growing up as a small-town kid in Louisiana and coming to another small town in Missouri, for the community to embrace me and my family the way that they did ... to have everything come full circle almost 20 years later, to actually be recognized as part of this Poplar Bluff sports legacy, it is truly a great honor."
Martin was inducted by his then track coach Mark Barousse, who both he and Brown said gave them one of the best "butt chewings" they've ever had.
As a sophomore, Martin was having a bad year academically and was told in no uncertain terms that nothing in life is given to you. Everything is earned. The following year, Martin led the team in gold medals as a junior.
Brown, meanwhile, reminded the crowd that "whatever" is not an appropriate response to Coach Barousse.
Revelle was inducted by Billy Pyland, who recalled a miraculous comeback by Poplar Bluff against Kickapoo in 1999.
The Mules were down 50-26 on the road with 5 minutes left in the game. The stands had largely emptied.
With 1 second left, Poplar Bluff scored to cut it to a one-point game in front of the still empty stands. The Mules chose to go for two.
All game long they'd been running a tight wingback formation with PJ in the slot and Revelle passing to him. They set up in the same formation but this time Revelle faked the pass and handed off to PJ instead, who ran it in for the win.
Nearly 20 years later, Revelle enjoyed getting to hear the other side of the story from fans who went home early and couldn't believe the next day that somehow the Mules had won.
"I was able to have this honor in front of my family with my kids here. Just the company here and the quality of the inductees, I'm really humbled by the inductees," Revelle said. "It's been great to see how well (Martin and PJ) are doing, that they have beautiful families and that they are being so successful in what they do."
Revelle added that he was excited for Friday's homecoming game, which will be the first high school football game his sons will see.
Revelle set 11 records at Poplar Bluff and helped the Mules win two district titles. He was the first Poplar Bluff player to throw for 2,000 yards in a season, threw for 300-plus yards in a game four times and set passing records for a game (415 yards), season (2,505) and career (5,923).
He walked-on at Notre Dame and played on the scout team for four years.
All three made the trip from out of state for the ceremony. With Revelle traveling from Washington D.C., Martin from Los Angeles and PJ from Oklahoma.
But arguably the most accomplished athlete in the class was Romary, who graduated from Poplar Bluff in 1944, when she was on the homecoming court alongside fellow hall-of-famer Sam Giambaluca.
Three years after she graduated, Romary competed in the foil at the 1948 Olympics in London. It was her first of six straight Olympics, sending her to Helsinki, Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico.
At the Mexico games in 1968, Romary was selected by her fellow American Olympians to be the first woman to carry the American flag in the opening ceremonies. She finished fourth in the '52 games and second in '56. Romary was also a 10-time national women's champion, still the most by any American, male or female.
After her competitive career ended, she became an administrator at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and the '84 Olympics in Los Angeles.
She died in 2007 in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Her appearance on a May 1957 television show "To Tell the Truth" was shown during the banquet.
The PBHOF did not induct a class in 2016 or 2017.
The 2018 class will be recognized at halftime of Poplar Bluff's homecoming game Friday against Farmington.
Stickers commemorating Poplar Bluff educator and sports legend Tom Hoover were passed out before hand. Hoover died Sept. 6 after a long battle with cancer. A small memorial was displayed in his honor during the ceremony featuring a picture and the last Poplar Bluff basketball scorebook he ever kept. Hoover, as well as Sam Giambaluca who passed away a couple years ago, were consistently mentioned as people who will be missed.