Edna Tarbutton

Sport: Coach

Induction Year: 1993

Induction Year: 1993

By Paul J. Letlow
Monroe News Star

Women’s basketball was a different game in Edna Tarbutton’s heyday as a girls high school coach, but success was just as sweet.

“Oh it certainly was satisfying to see the fruits of our practice pay off in the games,” said Tarbutton, who will become only the third woman and the fourth high school coach among the 151 persons enshrined in the state Hall of Fame since it was founded in 1958.

In 33 years, Tarbutton amassed a 654-263-2 record at Baskin High School, including an incredible five-year stretch beginning I 1947 when the girls won a national record 218 successive games. They didn’t lose until Jan. 7 1953, when Franklin Parish rival Winnsboro rose to the occasion before a packed house to beat Rams, 33-27.

Tarbutton’s teams at Baskin won eight consecutive state championships from 1948-1955and nine in all. Her record during that span was a staggering 315-2. Tarbutton’s induction into the Hall of Fame comes 17 years after her retirement from coaching in 1976.

She retired from teaching in 1980. She was one f the 10 original inductees into the Louisiana High School Hall of Fame in 1979 and becomes the sixth member of that group- joining Vida Blue, Gernon Brown, James “Big Fuzzy” Brown, Faize Mahfouz, and Greg Procell- to later earn election to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.

“I think it’s quite an honor,” said Tarbutton, 71, who still lives in Baskin. “It was quite a surprise.”

Not to her players, though.

“You always knew where you stood with her,” said Frances Lyles, who played at Baskin from 1946 until 1950. “She really built up the qualities that are so important in life. She taught us to be ladies.”

During the golden years at Baskin, the Rams were untouchable ladies, posting winning scores like 64-3 against Wisner, 74-2 against Crowville and 59-7 against Mangham.

Droves turned out to see the Lady Rams dominate.

“We had very big crowds,” Tarbutton said. “That little old country town followed us even to the state tournaments, even though the times weren’t quite like they are now.”

Known jokingly as “Tiny” (she’s 5’11), Tarbutton got her start in basketball playing at Ouachita High. She completed two years at Northeast Junior College and then went to Northwestern State in Natchitoches.

Three months after graduating from Northwestern in 1943, Tarbutton accepted the jobs of girls basketball coach and social studies teacher at Baskin High School.

Because of her dual role, players never called her coach, just Miss Tarbutton.

“It was a small school, and I taught them all civics and American history,” she said. “I guess it just carried over into coaching.”

In her first season, the team played only about five games because of World War II and gas rationing. No permanent scorebook or records were kept and there was no state tournament. In her second year, she produced her first state championship team in open competition, setting the tone for successful years to come.

Lyles, whom Tarbutton chose to make the presentation speech at her induction, said that the key to Tarbutton’s success was good, old-fashioned discipline.

“She was a very dynamic coach and strict,” Lyles said. “We respected that. She built our self-confidence and she motivated us to be the best we could be.”

The era of Baskin’s dominance began with the arrival of eighth-grader Dixie Baskin- a forward who never played in a losing game in her career- a freshman Mildred Ragdale, a 5’10 forward, and Juanita Glass. Others on those championship teams include Patsy Stephens, Lyles, Bobbie Jean Duchense, and Johnnie Merriweather.

A stretch at Baskin of Baskin, La., playing basketball for five years, has scored 3,919 of the teams 10,806 points during that time. Opposing teams scored only 4,743.

As girls basketball evolved into today’s full-court, five-on-five game, Tarbutton and the Rams experienced growing pains.

There were lean years in the early 1970s with the 1-19, 1-14, 3-18 and 4-19 records. Tarbutton, somewhat set in her ways, was originally opposed to changes in her sport. She said she never was able to teach the combined guard/forward skills needed for five-on-five.