'So many memories': Iconic Lawrence coliseum set to be demolished

Jan. 19—MOULTON — Hank Williams Jr. once performed at the A.W. Todd Coliseum, former Gov. George Wallace spoke there and countless high school basketball games were played in the once-iconic 63-year-old facility, but it is now dilapidated and scheduled for demolition this month.

Several former athletes and coaches said it will be sad to see the coliseum turned into rubble. The coliseum was the hub of high school basketball in the county for generations of players and fans.

"Playing the county tournament in the coliseum was a magical week every year," said Jack Steele, a former player and coach at county schools. "It brought out the best of all the teams in the county. It was the most competitive tournament in north Alabama year after year."

The Lawrence County Board of Education permanently closed the coliseum in 2015 as repair costs involving a leaky roof and electrical issues began to mount. Renovation also would've been too costly, and the school board has hired Complete Demolition Services of Atlanta to raze the structure for $141,000.

The coliseum has a long history of hosting other activities including cattle sales, prayer meetings, summer sports camps, wrestling matches, and even the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters multiple times. At one time it was a clothing manufacturing facility. In its last few years, Lawrence County High's JROTC program used it for training classes and drills.

Longtime Lawrence County educator and coach Andy Montgomery said in addition to Williams, country singers Barbara Mandrell, George Jones and the Oak Ridge Boys performed in the coliseum during the 1970s. He said Wallace gave a version of his "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow and Segregation Forever" speech in 1962 at the coliseum.

"I sure hate to see it torn down," Montgomery said. "I wish they could have fixed it when it needed to be repaired."

It opened as Lawrence County Coliseum in 1959 and hosted the county basketball tournament from 1971 to 2015. Some tournaments saw more than 3,000 people cram into the venue, the county's largest indoor event center, according to Montgomery.

Capacity was listed at 2,100, but it often ended up holding larger audiences than that.

Kenny Coffey, who coached the Mount Hope and then Lawrence County girls basketball teams from 1982 to 2016 when he retired, said, "The fire marshal actually closed the doors to the county tournament a few times at that place because we had so many people in there."

In 2002, Brooke Hand, one of Coffey's star players that year, hit 10 three-pointers and scored 47 points in the county finals against Hatton.

"The place was loud," he said. He said there was no place to sit or stand.

Stanley Johnson, a longtime coach in the county, remembers that night well.

"I was watching the county tournament with my 2-year-old niece Ivy Grace Johnson at the time and the place was packed. It got scary. I became a little paranoid and moved closer to the exit door just in case something was to happen," said Johnson, a retired Lawrence County educator who is now youth development specialist at the Oakville Indian Mounds and Education Center and Lawrence County High's cross-country coach.

"The coliseum was where the county tournament was played for many, many years. The entire county supported it. Everyone was there."

What Coffey most remembers about the coliseum's latter years was its leaky roof and water issues.

"The roof was leaking but not on the gym floor. It leaked in the dressing rooms and bathrooms and around the concession stand," said Coffey, who graduated from Lawrence County High in 1975. "It was a good home advantage for us, but actually we never practiced there, but I don't think the other teams believed that. We only played there for the county tournament."

He said the coliseum only had two basketball goals and that didn't suit him wanting to do multiple drills during practice. "It was primarily used for the county tournament and P.E. classes. It was sad when it closed, and I'm going to hate to see it go. I have so many memories there," Coffey said. — Jack Steele's memories

Steele may have had more success in the coliseum than any other person.

In 1973, Steele scored a dozen points in the county 10th grade tournament finals to help Courtland win the championship.

"It was the first county tournament championship of any kind I was a part of," he said. But his success in the building was just starting.

He was coaching the Hazlewood Golden Bears girls team when Bridgett Doss scored an all-time tournament high 57 points in a win over Hatton High in 1983. "And that was before we had the 3-point shots in high school," he said.

His success didn't stop there. His Hazlewood girls won in 1986, lost in the finals in 1987 and took home the championship trophy every year from 1988 through 1992.

A dozen years later, the county tournament became a part of Hazlewood seventh grader Amber Jones' life. Last week she recalled scoring 14 points in her first varsity game. "We lost to Hatton and those Rutherford girls in the semifinals, but I was 12 years old playing in the varsity county tournament," she said.

Jones said she doesn't remember how many county tournaments her Golden Bears girls teams won, but remembers the different atmosphere in the A.W. Todd venue every year.

"Everybody came to watch," she said. "The people dressed their best to be seen there."

A 2009 graduate of Hazlewood, Jones starred in basketball at UAB, where she is a top-10 all-time scorer and second in games played for the university. She then played professionally for three years in Europe. Jones, 31, is now CEO of Life Key Financial Group in Birmingham, where she helps professional athletes and entertainers with their financial credit and helps them start businesses.

"I hope to get back to town and see the coliseum before it is torn down. It'll be sad to see it go," she said. — Building deteriorates

Superintendent Jon Bret Smith said the coliseum could be demolished as early as next week. He said initial plans call for the coliseum site to be used for school bus parking and the coliseum's parking lot would be used to expand the Career Tech Center, which is just east of the lot.

In 2015, then-Superintendent Heath Grimes said a $1 million price tag to repair the coliseum roof would not be money well spent. The county school system was having to cut back staff and services because the county's largest taxpayer, International Paper, closed its Courtland mill in March 2014 and took 1,100 jobs with it. He said the $1 million estimate didn't include improvements to the restrooms, bleachers and aesthetics.

"It's just not worth investing that amount of money in," he said at the time.

At the time, the school board purchased an old bank building on Market Street on the square for $190,000. JROTC moved into the Career Tech Center the following year.

Grimes said the school system didn't even have money to raze the coliseum at that time.

Since then, the building has fallen further into disrepair. For a few years, the school system used the coliseum for storage.

The canopy over the entranceway fell to the ground about four years ago. Windows around the coliseum have been smashed. — Getting it built

In 1995, state Rep. Sam Letson of Lawrence County got a resolution passed in both legislative chambers to rename the coliseum the A.W. Todd Coliseum in honor of the former three-term state commissioner of agriculture and industries. It was officially renamed Aug. 2 that year.

Franklin County native Arvel Woodfin Todd was responsible for the state erecting seven coliseums across the state including venues in Moulton, Russellville, Huntsville, Florence and Cullman. Todd was first elected ag commissioner in 1955 and then again in 1963 and 1990. In 1957, Lawrence County agriculture agent Sam McLendon asked Todd for funding of an event center to promote agriculture and community events.

Reports said Todd secured $50,000 to build Lawrence County's coliseum, and in March 1959, the county sold $110,000 in bonds at 4 1/2 % interest to help finance the project. Lawrence County purchased the coliseum property from Mrs. W.P. Montgomery, according to published reports.

Todd's daughter Nancy Todd Pinion, the curator of the Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum in Oakville, said she has mixed feelings about the demolition.

"It was satisfying to see dad get some recognition for everything he did in his three terms as ag commissioner, especially since I have lived here since 1970," she said Monday. She said her family grew up in Russellville.

"I think it was a shame that it wasn't maintained," she said. "It originally belonged to the county, and they gave it to the school system believing it would be properly maintained. The maintenance was ignored over the years. It didn't happen overnight."

The school system donated the coliseum's building marker to the Lawrence County Archives.

"I'm sorry the building has to go, but I'm thrilled that we have the plate here and that we're saving a little piece of the county's history," said Wendy Hazle, county archivist.

Johnson remained upbeat about the demolition plans.

"If they're not going to use it, they need to tear it down and make way for another use for that space," he said.

— mike.wetzel@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.