Street gets new name in honor of beloved WSSU basketball coach
By Paul Garber
Winston Salem Journal Reporter
Published June 5, 2006
Clarence "Big House" Gaines was a legendary basketball coach at
Winston-Salem State University. To the people on his street, he was
just a good neighbor who always kept up with them. Now that street
bears his name.
More than 100 people attended a ceremony yesterday at Second New Bethel Baptist Church to see signs unveiled for Big House Gaines Boulevard on what was formerly East End Boulevard.
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| Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, speaks during the street-renaming ceremony at Second New Bethel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. (Journal Photo BY Jason Arthurs) |
The street is off New Walkertown Road, and Gaines lived on the street for many years.
His next-door neighbor, Alma Keen, remembers that when Hurricane Hugo brought heavy rains to Winston-Salem in 1989, Gaines stopped by while it was still raining to make sure she and her husband, James, were all right.
He took the time to check on them although he had his own problems - a tree had crashed through the roof of his house.
"He was the best neighbor any person could know," Keen said.
Another neighbor, Geneva Brown, a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, praised Gaines' work with young people.
"Yes, he was big in stature, but he was big in heart," she said. "Not only did he coach those boys, he made men out of them. Our young people need those kinds of value systems in their lives."
Gaines died last year at 81 after complications from a stroke. He retired after the 1992-93 school year after serving 47 years as coach and winning 828 games. He coached the Rams to eight CIAA titles and a NCAA Division II national championship in 1967.
Tim Grant, who was a guard for Winston-Salem State from 1976 to 1980, said that there hasn't been a day since Gaines died that he hasn't thought about him or shared stories with someone about him.
"If you were a student at Winston-Salem State, he would take an interest in you," Grant said. "You didn't have to be an athlete."
Beaufort Bailey, a Forsyth County commissioner and one of Gaines' longtime friends, said that the new street sign will be a reminder to the community of Gaines' contributions.
"We'll see his name, and it will mean something to us," he said.
State Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, said he was looking for a physical means of honoring Gaines, and thought that naming a street in his honor would be a fitting reminder. "He helped put Winston-Salem State on the map, especially in the area of sports," he said. "We have not done anything in a physical way to remember him."
Street names are the purview of the Winston-Salem City Council, so he took his idea to Council Member Joycelyn Johnson.
The city council approved the name change in February.
It is an honor that Gaines' widow, Clara, said she never thought she would see.
"I feel blessed in the fact that it has become a reality," she said.
- Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com
