'Local hero' Hicks honored at Fox Pond
Jul. 30—HENDERSON — Eddie Hicks didn't get a piece of Fox Pond Park named after him Friday just because he was a great football player. He's been an active member of the community for decades now, perhaps best known for his tireless efforts as a Henderson-Vance Recreation and Parks Department professional.
But several of the speakers that paid tribute to Hicks on Friday as a park shelter was named in his honor couldn't help but be reminded of his glory days on the gridiron for Vance Senior High, East Carolina and the New York Giants.
"I still get excited every time I replay that touchdown you ran against UNC," Kesler Temple AME Zion Church Pastor Lawrence White said. "You broke their back and they never recovered in that game."
It was Oct. 25, 1975, when Hicks tore off a 52-yard touchdown gallop in Kenan Stadium, the day the Pirates toppled North Carolina 38-17 for ECU's first-ever win over the Tar Heels.
Hicks' former high school teammate Ricky Thompson was there that day in Chapel Hill. Thompson, a fellow ECU student, carpooled with Hicks down to Greenville on occasion.
" 'I know that guy,' " Thompson remembers thinking. " 'That's my friend.' I couldn't believe that I had a friend that was out on a football field doing something like that. That was pretty remarkable. I was just so proud of him and so happy. It was like part of me was out there on that field."
Hicks' three-touchdown performance against North Carolina proved to be his collegiate football coming-out party. He'd go on to a Hall of Fame career with the Pirates, leaving as the fifth-best rusher in school history before being drafted by the Giants in 1979.
Mayor Eddie Ellington was one of a number of local dignitaries on hand Friday to honor Hicks, along with City Manager Terrell Blackmon, Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame, Henderson Police Chief Marcus Barrow and Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce President Michele Burgess.
"A local hero forever etched in time," Ellington said. "Eddie represents an era for me when we were all together. There was one high school. We ran through Fox Pond. We ran on Veterans Field ... He represents what is good about Henderson and Vance County."
Hicks developed that side of his reputation for being a reliable city employee and friend. If you need something professionally or personally, just call Eddie Hicks, they say, and he'll be there.
Hicks' Imran Court family was there Friday to show their support as were representatives of the Beacon Light Masonic Lodge, and a whole bunch of others including Hicks' wife Jacqueline, who at one point held a microphone for her husband as he addressed the crowd.
"It's a great honor, a pleasure," Hicks said. "To get something done like this while you're still living, it means everything ... It shows me today a lot of folks appreciate what I do." Probably nobody more than Henderson-Vance Recreation and Parks Director Kendrick Vann, who considers Hicks not only a mentor but a "father figure and best friend."
Hicks reciprocated the praise for Vann, who worked under Hicks in the parks department as a teenager.
Born and raised on Flint Hill, Hicks credits the community for looking out for him when he lost his father at a young age. Now, he feels as though he's repaying the area by continuing to serve Vance County all these years later.
"This is my heart," Hicks said. "The Henderson-Vance recreation department means everything to me."
The rec department also helped forge what surely is one of ECU football's most loyal fan duos in Hicks and former longtime parks department athletic director Steve Osborne.
Hicks and Osborne are travel partners for Pirates home games, where Hicks is still very much a celebrity in the pregame tailgate lots surrounding Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
Osborne, a 1983 ECU grad, recalled the first time he traversed the tailgate scene with Hicks amid a sea of purple and gold.
"Someone shouted out, 'Eddie Hicks!' " Osborne said. "I was like, 'OK, here we go.' It's been like that forever. We try to get down there about three or four hours before game time and just walk through and speak to people. Most of them just want to feed us."
Eddie won't oblige unless they feed his friends too. Steve's brother Mark and Henderson's James Perry often tag along. Hicks still holds the ECU record for longest rushing play (95 yards), set against William and Mary in 1977, and his accolades include serving as a team captain for the 1978 Independence Bowl squad.
Thompson, donning a gold Pirates polo, hadn't seen Hicks in many years but recognized him Friday when he flashed his trademark smile, which hasn't changed a bit.
"I was really proud of what you did that day in Chapel Hill, Eddie," Thompson said, "but I think I'm more proud of what you've done for the town of Henderson than anything.
"You have really put your footprint on this town. And the love you show for this town and the love the town has for you — it's incredible."
