James Geiger

He once scored 42 points in a basketball game for Boaz High School. Fifty years later, the 42 points are good enough for the second highest single game performance in Pirate basketball history.

Jimmy Geiger and classmate Roger Martin were starters as ninth graders for the Boaz varsity Pirates. Their senior season, 1955-56, Geiger and Martin were basketball co-captains. They didn’t realize it at the time but their lives would forever be closely connected as teammates, coaches and friends.

Geiger played for Marshall County Hall of Fame Coach Emmett Plunkett’s Boaz cagers from 1953-56. His senior year the 6-foot, 3-inch Pirate pivot averaged 25 points while leading his team to the county championship and second place in the eighth district. Geiger sparked the team into the state tournament for the first time in nine years and the third appearance in history. Despite a 58-48 first round loss to Fayette, Jimmy was the real workhorse in the game, going at full speed throughout the game with the hope of keeping the Pirates in the official running for the state crown. Plunkett’s cagers ended the season with a 20-5 record.

Geiger played quarterback for Coach James “Bear” Gunnin on the Boaz teams of 1954 and 1955. He was one of the best punters in Marshall County with an average of 39.3 yards per kick. Jimmy was a member of the Future Farmers of America and the school choral group.

The awards and recognition in high school basketball were three times All-County, two times All-District, two times All-Sand Mountain, two seasons co-captain, Most Outstanding Player 8^th District, All Time Individual scoring record Sand Mountain Tournament, North-South All Star Game at Tuscaloosa and a scholarship to the University of Tulsa.

As quarterback on the football team, Geiger was joined by basketball buddies Roger Martin at running back and Gerald Noel at end. The three formed a lasting friendship.

After a year at Tulsa, Jimmy joined former Boaz players Don Thomas, Gerald Noel and Coach Plunkett at Snead College. Playing for his former Boaz coach, he earned Most Valuable Player at Snead, MVP Region VII Tournament and led Snead to the Region Seven junior college championship. The 1958 Parsons became the first Alabama junior college team to play in the national tournament. They played three games, good enough for 10^th in the nation, before being eliminated in the tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Following junior college, Jimmy was given the opportunity to finish his career with Nichols State University. Geiger was listed in the Nichols State program as, “The best offensive rebound man on the squad. A tenacious driver and good jump shooter makes him a constant threat.”

Coach Geiger made the scene in 1962 as the Boaz Junior High basketball and football coach. Roger Martin had finished at Auburn and joined him as an assistant. Roger remained a Boaz educator for the next 30 years. Geiger left Boaz to become the varsity head basketball coach at Geraldine. After a short tenure with Geraldine, he returned to Boaz where he later became a varsity head basketball coach and assistant in football.

The late Johnny Wallace, an upper-classman and Pirate cager, once told Gerald Noel, “When Jimmy joined the varsity he was the best player on the team, even as a freshman.”

In the 1970s, Geiger moved from coaching into the business world. He continued to stay close to the sport he loved by officiating high school basketball. Then suddenly, the Boaz community and Marshall County were shocked and saddened when the tall, handsome athlete’s heart stopped at age 43.