Johnny Looney

Butch Looney was not only the first black athlete to play any sport at Marshall County High School but also the first black from any school to sign an athletic scholarship with Athens College. He graduated in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education.

The football and basketball teams of M.C.H.S. received an immediate boost in the 1967-68 school year with the closing of Guntersville’s Lakeview High School. A year earlier, under Coach Adolph Scissum, the Lakeview basketball team won second place in Alabama in the division consisting of colored schools.

Looney transferred to M.C.H.S. as a 10^th grader in 1966, the first year the high school was integrated and a year before the top four grades at Lakeview were closed. He worked out with both the football and basketball teams but could not be a member of the teams due to the rule against playing for a year after transferring from schools in the same county.

Jody Chorba, an M.C.H.S. football player and son of the legendary Wildcat football Coach Joe Chorba said, “I will never forget the sight of that young black kid coming up that hill to his first football practice. All of us were standing in the door and windows of the old field house watching him.” The son of Emma Jean Breedlove was about to begin one of the outstanding athletic careers in Marshall County history.

Butch, with his grandfather J.D. Looney, had often watched Wildcat football from the high embankment of the old stadium. He told his grandfather, “Someday I will be playing on that field.”

The big gridiron games brought out the best in clutch catches and outstanding defense for Johnny Butch. In 1967, he caught a TD pass in his first Wildcat football game against Boaz, two passes from Danny Parker in the drive for the winning field goal against Huntsville, and two touchdown passes from Mike Jennings in a 42-19 win over Albertville. In 1968, he had a punt return of 65 yards for a touchdown to tie Scottsboro. “Automatic” Amado (David) added the point after for a 14-13 victory.

Upon finishing his M.C.H.S. Wildcat career, Looney was named outstanding male athlete. He made many All-Tournament, All-County, and All-District basketball teams including honorable mention All-State. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 180-pound Wildcat Most Valuable Player led the basketball team in scoring and rebounding his junior and senior years, averaging 19 points a game and 15 rebounds over his high school career.

The 1968-69 school year may be the first and only time any Marshall County school has been 100 percent victorious against county opponents in both football and basketball. The Wildcats were 3-0 in football and 13-0 in basketball against county rivals that year.

Johnny Butch Looney followed the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to become Marshall County’s first black star in integrated athletics.