A lifetime Carthage resident shared sports history at the Carthage Historical Museum on Aug. 7. Mark Fry grew up less than two miles from the football field where his brother played football for the Carthage Bulldogs, and the museum holds their artifacts.
“These guys were really my first sports heroes,” Fry said about supporting his brothers and friends playing football at Carthage High School.
Fry said his oldest brother, Bobby Fry, is 12 years older, and his middle brother, Buck Fry, is eight years older.
A row of Carthage Football jackets is on the opposite side of a glass case with labeled photographs and typed history of the high school sports in the sports room of the Carthage Historical Museum. The glass case holds the only known surviving alternate Bulldogs’ jersey.
The alternate jerseys were worn on the day when John F. Kennedy died. And Fry is the “kid” who cut the surviving jersey’s tail off because “back then it was cool.”
Fry shares the story of the surviving jersey, and the game played during John F. Kennedy’s assassination, along with a humorous outcome. Fry was class president, and when the announcement was made that “the president has died,” his classmates thought it was him because he was at the football game instead of school that day.
He shares changes in the game he witnessed first-hand, names of the early 1950 – 60s football players, and personal connections of living residents, including biology teacher and distant relative, John Fry.
Mark Fry retired from Moore County Environmental Health and lives with his wife Sharron in the Berryfield neighborhood of Carthage.
Sharron Fry taught school for 30 years. She taught at Vass Elementary School, New Century Middle School and worked as a media specialist.
The Carthage Historical Museum is open on Sundays from 2 to 5 p.m. and is located at 202 Rockingham Street. Board members Joanna King and Carol Steed can answer any questions you may have while visiting.
Call (910) 947-2216 for inquiries about donating artifacts.
Feature photo: Joanna King of the Carthage Historical Museum, resident historian Mark Fry, and Carol Steed of the Carthage Historical Museum work to share local history on August 7 at the Carthage Historical Museum.
~Article, photo, and video by Sandhills Sentinel Reporter Stephanie M. Sellers. Contact her at [email protected].
