Ken Shearer (2003) - Southern Miss M-Club Hall of Fame

Ken Shearer

Induction:
2003

There have been many people that have walked on to the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Some have walked onto the football field, basketball courts, baseball diamonds and such and left everlasting marks on the landscape of our athletic program. Some have done it by coaching and leading our great athletes to victories and accomplishments that few ever thought possible. While some have done it as trainers, sports information directors, presidents and faculty athletic representatives.
   Just look throughout the roster of individuals whose contributions were thought so highly of that they were selected for an honored place in our Sports Hall of Fame. It is amazing the different types of people who have been inducted over the years and each in there own special way has made our athletic program better.
   But Ken Shearer’s contribution to Southern Miss athletics is no less impressive
After graduating from Dublin High School in Coahoma County, Mississippi, where he played football, basketball and baseball, Ken came to Southern in 1955 to go to school and work for the grounds department. But with a keen interest in athletics by the spring of 1956 he was working as a baseball manager for Clyde (Heifer) Stuart and living under the East Stadium Dormitory opposite the football locker rooms.
By the following year athletic director Reed Green had put him in charge of Faulkner Field, including turning the stadium light off and on, making sure the stadium was clean and helping with the press box, ticket sellers and ticket takers, concession stands, scoreboards and field maintenance.
He continued to serve as baseball manager for two more years and when Pete Taylor took over in 1959 he served as a student assistant coach.
During those years he also helped out as equipment manager and in 1958 when head equipment manager Jim Crawford was hospitalized Coach Pie Vann called on Ken to fill that job until Crawford got back. It was not usual during those years for Ken to step in and fill virtually any job in the athletic department when needed and he did many, many times.
Green also called on Ken to coordinate the gates and money at basketball games in the old Sports Arena.
   So during his brief five years at Southern Miss, Shearer served in the capacities that are now known as ticket manager, equipment manager, facilities coordinator, and assistant coach, just to mention a few. He served as an administrative assistant to Coach Green long before that job even existed.