Coach Curley Farris was a legendary football and baseball coach at Lumberton, Corinth, Tupelo, Greenville, and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. A native of Corinth, Coach Farris served in the U. S. Navy during World War II and then played football and baseball at Hinds Junior College from 1947 to 1949. He then played both sports at Southern Miss from 1949 to 1951. Curley began his 37-year coaching career at Lumberton where he coached football and baseball. He then coached the same two sports at Corinth and then served as head football coach at Tupelo from 1957 to 1956. He then coached at Greenville from 1958 to 1962 when he signed on at Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College as a line coach and then head coach in 1963. During his tenure as football coach, the Bulldogs won four state JUCO championships and the 1971 NJCAA national title. In 1963, the school revived the baseball program and Curley took over as head baseball coach. Coach Farris’ baseball squads dominated Mississippi JUCO baseball and delivered 27 consecutive winning seasons. Curley’s diamond squads captured 20 MACJC South Division titles and 13 MACJC State Championships. His 1972 and 1975 squads finished as runner-up in the NJCAA Eastern District Tournament and his 1979 team took the NJCAA District VII crown. Coach Farris was a highly decorated coach who received the 1976 NJCAA Athletic Director’s Award Region VII. In 1978, the American Association of College Baseball Coaches presented him with the Award for Quarter Century of Leadership and Devotion to College Baseball. In 1983, Coach Farris was selected to coach in the United States Olympic Committee’s National Sports Festival in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The MACJC named Curley Coach of the Year four times and the MAC honored him with Coach of the Year awards three times. Coach Farris retired on July 1, 1989, after a distinguished career. In addition to MAC Hall of Fame membership, Curley was inducted into the NJCAA Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1990, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 as a charter member, and the inaugural class of the MACJC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007. The baseball field at MGCC was named in his honor. Coach Farris passed away on January 18, 2010.