Cookson left lasting impact on area hoops

There are a lot of words to describe Carroll Cookson. He was a son, a father, a brother, a grandfather and a mentor — but to many, he was just coach.

Cookson died on Monday at the age of 88, but his impact on basketball in the Bootheel is something that will go on forever.

From his days as a Puxico Indian where he won two state championships as a player to his days on the sideline as an Advance Hornet where he won two more as a coach, the name Cookson goes hand-in-hand with excellence in Southeast Missouri.

“It was hard not to see that he had impact,” Carroll’s son, Steve Cookson said. “He was a ferocious coach back in the day, he and my uncle Ronnie, both. They were intense but once the game was over, they’d bend over backward to be nice to people.”

Carroll and Ronnie are both in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame as Carroll amassed a record of 524-128 in his career. It includes a 30-win season in his final year of coaching at Twin Rivers, where they fell to Cardinal Ritter and three future NBA players in Loren Woods, Chris Carrawell and Jahidi White in the quarterfinals.

Growing up, Carroll was a standout player at Puxico, under legendary coach Arnold Ryan. After being named Mr. Basketball his senior season, Carroll and several others earned an opportunity to play at Memphis State, but Steve said it wasn’t the right fit for his dad.

“Dad had never been in a place any bigger than Cape Girardeau,” he said. “He said he was like a duck out of water. He said he had to ask someone how to use the payphone to call grandma and grandpa to drive down and get him. Then he came home.”

After Carroll married his love Rozelle in 1956, they had three children, but Carroll’s basketball playing career wasn’t over yet.

At 28, he went to Southern Baptist College (now known as William Baptist) in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and received a scholarship — but he wasn’t the only Cookson the school wanted as Ronnie became a college basketball player as well.

It was in Arkansas where Carroll first started coaching basketball and his hall of fame career began.

Carroll Cookson: The Hall of Fame Coach

When Riche Walker was seven years old, he went to the 1961 state tournament with his father and watched Advance. Although the team fell in the state championship, upon leaving the arena, he told one of the passers-by he would one day play on that court.

He was right.

Walker, a former player for Carroll at Advance, was on one of those state championship teams.

He said his first memory of the Cookson brothers was when he was in seventh grade and they showed up during a pickup game he was in at the old high school. The duo then told the boys they were the new coaches at Advance High School and the rest was history.

Walker considered Ronnie to be his coach and he admitted he had a tough time when Ronnie moved to Scott County Central after his sophomore season.

“That was a blow to me,” he said. “Quite frankly, I was almost distraught because he was my coach.”

Walker said even though he considered Ronnie his coach, Carroll was the type of person one couldn’t help but respect and value.

“Carroll was a disciplinarian,” he said. “There were a lot of kids that graduated from Advance that didn’t play ball for Carroll Cookson that think the world of Carroll Cookson ...

“He would get in your face and chew your butt out for something you did but after that game, he had his arm around you talking about the good or the bad or the things you could have done different.”

Carroll took Richie and the Hornets to watch the state tournament during his junior season in 1971. While there, he realized why Carroll had taken them on that trip. He said it was to make them realize they had the talent and ability to compete on that floor.

“He knew that my allegiance was to Ronnie,” he said. “He said, ‘Rich, what’s your goal? Why do you play basketball?’ I told him that story (when Walker was seven) and I said I think we have a team that can go to the state championship. Quite frankly, I think we have the coach and between having the team and the coach, we ought to be able to go. He said, ‘We think alike.’”

It was in 1972, a year later, that Carroll, Walker and the Hornets brought a state championship to Advance.

The Hornets won another in 1975.

Dennis Wheetley, former player for Carroll and head coach at Advance, said during his first few years at Zalma High School, he knew Carroll was something special and transferred to Advance for his senior season.

“I wanted to play under him,” Wheetley said. “I watched his teams over here and I lived pretty well on the line and could go either way. I just watched him, watched his teams and I never could beat him so I wanted to play for him. I just knew he was a motivator ...

“I knew he was a winner and I knew he would push me. I knew he would get the best out of me … And he did get the best out of me.”

As a player, Wheetley said he didn’t see himself coaching in the future but after helping out with the junior high program, he enjoyed it.

“I started coaching here (Advance) and I’d always go back and I’d talk to him all the way up until he couldn’t talk,” he said. “If I had some problems, he could help me out so much — how to handle the kids. I learned so much from Carroll and all my practices, they came from him. Pretty well everything I learned is from him.”

Carroll and Rozelle

While his dad was a storied player and coach, Steve said his family was the most important thing to him and his dad was one of the most important things to Steve.

“Growing up, that was my identity,” he said. “I was Carroll Cookson’s son. I served in state legislature, as a state representative. But I was Carroll Cookson’s boy.”

One thing about Carroll was certain. Wherever he was, Rozelle was close behind.

“These two people were inseparable,” Walker said. “She covered for him like no woman I’ve ever seen in my life. When we would go to their house … She’d want to feed me a piece of cake and Carroll would say he don’t need it. She’d want to give me a glass of tea … These people showered you with their kindness and love.”

Wheetley echoed the sentiment.

“She took care of him all the way up until the end,” he said. “She was by his side. They were two peas in a pod. She helped me too. They were that good. They were very good people.”

When asked what will come to his mind when he thinks of his dad, Steve said there was one thing.

“My dad has always been my hero,” he said. “He’s my friend, my dad and my hero.”