Moorhead was among top athletes during golden Shelbyville High School sports era

The 1950s was undeniably a stellar period for Shelbyville High School sports.

Golden Bears running back Jim Mewborn set a school record with eight touchdowns in a season-ending rout of Greensburg in 1951.

The 1952-53 basketball squad compiled a 19-9 record and made a tournament run that landed them in the Indianapolis Semistate. Jim Plymate, a member of that team, was named an All-State football player and was selected as a member of the 12-man 1953 Indiana All-Star Basketball Team.

A somewhat incredulous Plymate once declared, reflecting on his selection and referencing SHS teammate “Beanie” Phillips, “I wasn’t even the best player on my Shelbyville team.”

This was an indication of the remarkable SHS talent of that time.

The decade later featured Golden Bears athletic talents such as Ron Mitchell, Gary Long and Jack Krebs, all of whom played basketball at the Division I collegiate level. This is merely a partial recollection of 1950s Golden Bears athletic success.

Richard “Dick” Moorhead, SHS class of 1955 (main photo), competed during this sublime era of Shelbyville sports exceptionalism. He recorded football and track and field achievements that have stood the test of time, placed him in this company of excellence, and solidified his legacy as one of the school’s premier athletes.

Moorhead died on Dec. 11 following an extended illness, one week before his 90^th birthday.

Moorhead’s heroics proliferated newspaper accounts of Shelbyville games during his football playing days. He and teammates Bob McNew, Jim Deupree, Marvin McLane, Bob Cole, Willie Wilson, Marvin Hawkins, Bob Cramer and Bob Cowherd represent a “Who’s Who” of Shelbyville athletic greats from the mid-fifties.

A teammate once described Moorhead as possessing a “relentless tenacity” on the gridiron that set a strong competitive standard for his fellow competitors. Moorhead’s teams finished with a 10-4-2 cumulative record during his junior and season seasons, winning their first six games in 1954.

The right halfback registered several multiple touchdown games during his career, including scoring runs of 26 and 39 yards in a 1953 27-0 win over Seymour and two touchdowns against Rushville in a 1954 Bears win when they outrushed the Lions 248-69.

The Bears defeated Franklin 33-0 that same year with Moorhead contributing a touchdown and a conversion. Shelbyville amassed 289 total yards to Franklin’s 66. He was also cited for his efforts in the Bears 32-7 win over Connersville.

Shelbyville defeated Seymour 14-12 at the Meridian Street field (currently the site of the city aquatic center) in his final home football game. He once mentioned that winning that last contest in a hard-fought battle on a rain-soaked, muddy field at home meant a great deal to him. He said it felt good to leave the Shelbyville field for the last time as a winner.

Richard received Shelbyville’s 1954 Kiwanis/McKeand Football Award and was named to the 1954 All-South Central Conference Team. He and teammates Bob Cowherd, Marvin McLane and Willie Wilson received Honorable Mention All-State recognition following their senior season.

“Dad was particularly proud to have received the Kiwanis/McKeand Football Award,” said his son, Rick Moorhead. “He came from a humble background and had a difficult childhood. The recognition that the school and community provided him with the Kiwanis Award was an acknowledgement that he had truly achieved. He always treasured that.”

Moorhead’s track and field career was equally illustrious. He routinely competed in four events: the high hurdles, long jump, high jump and pole vault. He was the Golden Bears track team’s “High Point Award” recipient his sophomore, junior and senior seasons.

He won the high hurdles event in the 1954 sectional and led Shelbyville to the South Central Conference Track and Field championship in 1955 with a first-place finish in the pole vault and a third-place spot in the high hurdles. The Bears might have secured the crown earlier in the meet had Moorhead not tripped on a hurdle while leading the field and having to rise from the fall to salvage third place.

The conference championship came down to the pole vault event and head-to-head competition between Moorhead and Seymour’s Boggy Lewis. The Shelbyville senior won the pole vault on his final attempt and gave the Golden Bears their first ever South Central Conference track and field title.

Following his 1955 graduation, Richard served in the United States Navy and was honorably discharged in 1959. He worked at General Electric following his military service and then for more than 30 years at the Coastal Corporation Pipeline in Marietta.

Richard and his wife of 69 years, Barbara (Spillman) (photo), were regulars at SHS sporting events for many years with Richard customarily leaving at the end of the third quarter (“I hate fighting the crowds,” he would often say).

Eldest son Rick was a standout Golden Bears basketball player and went on to a Hall of Fame basketball career at Franklin College. He dedicated 27 years as a staff member at The Self Boys and Girls Club.

Another son, Randy, is Vice President of Brewer Machine in Shelbyville.

Youngest son, Rob, works at The Shelby County Co-Op.

Richard enjoyed the ordinary facets of life. Simple pleasures such as Little League Baseball games at Sunrise Park, a quiet evening at home or casual conversations with friends in his Blanchard Street and Van Avenue neighborhoods brought him satisfaction. He was a talented woodworker and an outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing.

He and Barbara were neighbors in the best sense of the word and will be remembered as Shelbyville people who represented the finest aspects of our community.

True to his character, Richard (photo with grandson Tyler) requested no fanfare for a funeral. He recently lamented that so many of his friends and associates had passed and that no one would remember him.

Richard understood that fame and glory are fleeting and was always quick to downplay his accomplishments. Still, Moorhead’s achievements are part of a storied SHS athletic history during a special period for Shelbyville High School sports that was the 1950s.

Dick Moorhead’s name has not graced the sports pages for more than seven decades, still, his objections notwithstanding, he will be remembered as one of Shelbyville’s best; simply because he was.  

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