Dooms was two-sport star at Uniontown
Fayette County has a rich sports history, and this week’s Memory Lane is going to focus on a long forgotten gem from the past. Wauna Dooms was a football and track & field star at Uniontown High School in the 1930s.
Dooms was a fleet halfback for the Red Raiders, and registered some memorable performances on the gridiron.
On Nov. 15, 1930, in a game played in front of 4,000 fans at Uniontown, Dooms ran wild against Connellsville in a 20-6 Red Raiders’ victory.
Following a Connellsville touchdown on the ensuing kickoff, on the first play from scrimmage, Dooms, as the newspaper reported, ‘giving one of the cleverest displays of beautiful broken field running, Dooms zig zagged for a distance of 56 yards to score.’
He later dashed 20 yards after catching a pass for another score.
Dooms got away for a 66-yard run to set up the Red Raiders’ final touchdown. Dooms, who was also a talented kicker, booted two extra points.
It was track where Dooms really made his mark for the Red Raiders. In 1930 and 1931, Coach A.J. Everhart Sr. had two great runners in Dooms and Don Redd, sprinters who held the County meet records for years in the 100 and 220 respectively.
Dooms probably won more track medals than any of Everhart’s stars. He was tops in anything from the 100 up to the half mile, and could broad jump up to 20 feet. It was impossible to keep Dooms in all the events so he participated usually in the 100, mile relay and the broad jump with Redd running in the 220 and the mile relay.
It was the duo of Dooms and Redd that permitted the Uniontown mile relay quartets of 1930 and 1931 to win every big competition in the district.
Both Dooms and Redd covered the 100 in 10 seconds flat, with Redd for years holding the 220 record of 22.4 seconds for the county.
Dooms seemed to really shine on the big stage. At the third annual West Virginia University Games at Mountaineer Field House in February of 1931, Dooms won his final heat in the 70 yard dash in 7 2-10 seconds, equaling the then Field House record and bettering by one tenth of a second the mark made by Eddie Tolan, Michigan’s “midnight express,” in winning the college event.
A scheduling quirk was going to force Uniontown to use younger track participants in the county meet in May of 1931. The state championship track meet was scheduled for the same day, forcing Uniontown to send its top stars to Altoona. In a twist of fate, poor weather forced the county meet to be postponed. Uniontown had boys entered in only two events in Altoona. They won both.
Dooms skipped home in front of the field in the 100, and the Red Raiders easily won the mile relay. Dooms was clocked a 10.2 for the 100-yard dash. The time was slow, but considering the condition of the track, it was exceptionally good. The entire meet was held in a rain, snow and wind storm.
Dooms also anchored the mile relay team, being clocked at 51 seconds for the last quarter mile. Bob Farson ran the first 440 yards. Then came Julius Stern, followed by Redd and Dooms. The time was announced at 3.34.2. On a dry track, Coach Everhart had expressed confidence his boys could have broken the record of 3.29 4-5 seconds.
“The 1931 relay team is the best I have ever coached,” Everhart said. “Only one other team, the Peabody High aggregation that finished second in the national meet two years ago, can compare with it. They did the mile in 3.29.”
After graduating from Uniontown, Dooms went to Durham, North Carolina, where he was a star halfback and track star under the late Leo Townsend for N. C. College for Negroes, now known as North Carolina Central University.
He was a member of that nationally known NCCU team. Among his teammates were H. H. Riddick, late NCCU coach, William P. Malone, Irvin R. Holmes and Deedom Alston.
At NCCU, Dooms was a standout performer. Playing against Shaw University on Nov. 1, 1933, Dooms scored four touchdowns, 24 points and set a record that would stand for half a century for the Eagles’ most points and most touchdowns in a single game. He was an all-conference choice at halfback in 1934, and also listed in various newspapers All-American lists.
Dooms was for many years a Durham independent businessman, operating The Hat Shop, a hat blocking and dry cleaning establishment, the Crown Party Store and the Chicken Box Number Two Party Store. He also held a partial interest in the Chicken Box Number Two, a restaurant. Dooms passed away on Feb. 20, 1973, at the age of 60. He was inducted into the Alex M. Rivera Athletics Hall of Fame at North Carolina Central University in 1984.
George Von Benko’s “Memory Lane” column appears in the Monday editions of the Herald-Standard. He also hosts a sports talk show on WMBS-AM radio from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.