Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Chamber banuet most successful ever

It's being called the most successful Chamber banquet to date.

The 2002 Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Banquet, held Tuesday, March 26, was definitely one of a kind, and will be hard to top next year.

To no one's surprise, Jim McKenzie was named Citizen of the Year. This was a first, as the honor had never been presented posthumously.

McKenzie's wife, Betty, accepted the award, telling the packed house in the McRae Middle School cafeteria, how they returned to Prescott in 1968 after he got out of the Army.

"There was never any other option," she said. "We wanted to get back to Prescott.

"He was always excited about Prescott and loved the town, the community and people. He thought it was a great place to live and would be blown away by this award. He would be pleased and humbled at the generosity.

"On behalf of the family, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

The banquet began with the auction, which went much quicker than in the past.

Miss Arkansas, Jessie Ward, was the mistress of ceremonies, and provided a lot of laughs for the audience.

The best thing about coming home, she said, is sleeping in her own bed and her grandmother cooking for her.

Ward held an impromptu "Miss Arkansas" pageant pulling a quartet of men from the audience. The contestants were Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown, Chad Cornelius, John McCoy and George Cornelius.

Each was given a platform to discuss, such as pastels, hair care or pantyhose. The responses had the audience in stitches.

But this wasn't all. Ward also taught the contestants how to moon walk, again to the delight of the crowd.

In the end, it came down to a runoff between Brown and George Cornelius, with Cornelius being crowned after doing a better job of "runway walking," along with tossing in a moon walk at the end.

Carrie Nivens was recognized as the past Chamber president, with the Jay and Gail Ratcliff family honored as the Nevada County Farm Family of the Year for 2001-02.

The Treasure of Gold Award went to Gladys Kirby, who was out of town with sick relatives.

Prescott Flowers and Gifts was presented the Business Leadership Award. This was the third year for this award. It was accepted by Red and Billie McCain with their daughter Barbara Lowdermilk.

Ward presented three students with a new honor, one she developed this year  Student of the Year.

Devon McClelland took the award for the Emmet district, with Johnathan House getting it for Nevada. Miyako Franklin, an eighth grader at MMS, earned the Prescott award. The other two recipients were seniors at their respective schools.

Mary Godwin, executive director of the Chamber, recognized the Chamber volunteers for their effort throughout the year. They were: Megan Taylor, Pearl Payne, Flo Brackman, Virginia Easterling, Allene Spenser and Ruby Hasley.

Leslie Taylor was named Emmet's Educator of the Year.

For Nevada, the award went to Milton Lowe, while Eric Barbaree accepted the honor as Prescott's Educator of the Year.

Walt Coleman was the featured speaker, and provided a different glimpse of life as a National Football League official.

He talked about his first game, when he was a line judge calling the contest at Soldier Field between the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals.

Prior to the game, Coleman had asked the other officials how to deal with the coaches. He was told to take their comments as long as he could, then turn around and ask them if they were talking to him.

The problem was Coleman was on the home side and the coach in question was none other than Mike Ditka.

After listening to Ditka's comments for the first half, Coleman decided to prove himself. He turned and asked Ditka if he was talking to him.

Ditka's response was, "Guess, you've guessed at everything else all day."

In 1989 when the instant replay rule was first instituted, an official in the press box handled the situation.

During one game play was stopped, though no flag had been thrown. The senior official waved Coleman over.

"I went there wondering what I'd done wrong," he said.

It seems the official in the press box had noticed a slight problem with Coleman's uniform, the flag was sticking out an open spot in the zipper.

Coleman said he had put the flag in his back pocket early on, but changed and tucked in the front of his pants afterwards. This was because everyone can see if an official is reaching behind them, but the natural arm movement made when running isn't as noticeable and the flag can be plucked with no problem.

"I learned you can't take yourself seriously," he said. "The problem though, was how to fix it." The game was in New York and being nationally televised at the time.

Having a sense of humor came in handy for the AFC Championship game when New England and Buffalo were playing for the chance to go to the Super Bowl.

"For 59 minutes and 30 seconds it was a perfect game," he said.

With 30 seconds left in the game, Buffalo led by four, but the Patriots had the ball.

Drew Bledsoe threw a pass to the sideline. The official ruled it a catch, though the replay showed the receiver had one foot out of bounds.

With five seconds left, Bledsoe threw a hail Mary into the end zone. The ball fell dead, but was accompanied by a flag.

Coleman, who was the referee, asked the official what infraction had occurred, and was told it was defensive pass interference.

"Are you sure?" I asked him.

The official assured him the interference had taken place. With no time on the clock, the Patriots were given the ball at the one, and one play. They scored and won the game.

Coleman missed the first flight back to Little Rock, but arrived Monday morning to a harried receptionist and a stack of faxes.

It seems a disc jockey at a Buffalo radio station managed to get hold of the company's toll-free and fax numbers and broadcast them over the air.

Coleman shared an edited version of some of the faxes  all of which questioned his capabilities in some way or other.

Coleman himself made a mistake in the 2000 AFC Championship game between New England and Oakland.

He called a fumble, when, in fact, no fumble had occurred. "I had to admit I was wrong," he said, "and change the call."

Coleman did get serious during his talk. He said he's fortunate every Sunday by having the chance to be around people who are the best in the world at what they do.

"I'm also fortunate tonight,' he continued, "because I'm with people who are the best at what they do."

The thing about Chambers of Commerce, he said, is it gives people the opportunity to get together and do positive things for their community.

"In my life, the importance of the team is stressed, not the individual. If everyone remembers the TEAM and works together, they can be successful."