By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA — Pull one one of those old Mount Ulla “Keepsake” school yearbooks off the library shelf, and you can see what Edwin Owens and Clifford Kerr looked like in their 1950s glory days.

They were genial fellows, strong students, class officers, admired and looked up to by their classmates, but they both have a different intensity and competitiveness about their eyes, even in a casual yearbook portrait.

They were outstanding basketball players, scoring machines. In their heyday, they were the most prolific 1-2 scoring punch the Salisbury Post had ever documented. They were 1,000-point scorers at a small school where the only sports were baseball, boys basketball and girls basketball.

Kerr passed away recently at 89. His official obituary appeared in the Nov. 21 edition of the Post.

The first six Rowan boys documented to have scored 1,000 points by the Post were Boyden’s Frank McRae, Granite Quarry’s Jay Ritchie, East Spencer’s Bobby Rusher, Landis’ Billy Ray Barnes and Mount Ulla’s duo of Owens and Kerr, who both scored their last points for the Mount Ulla Hornets in the early spring of 1955.

There were about 30 students in a graduating class at Mount Ulla. Figure half of the students were boys, so counting everyone from the freshmen to the seniors, there were about 60 male candidates for the boys basketball team.

Kerr was born Aug. 28, 1935. He was a year behind Owens in school.

Owens was a freshman in the 1951-52 season. He contributed 79 points, 4.2 points per game, to a 4-10 team that was led by Alex Morrow and Grady Hall.

For the 1952-53 season, Mount Ulla got a new coach.

James Oscar Stradley arrived from Iredell County to take charge of the athletic program. He taught P.E., social studies and driver’s education and coached the three athletic teams. He would become one of the most successful coaches in county history. In Stradley’s first season, the Mount Ulla boys basketball team jumped to 14-4 overall and had an 11-3 record in the Rowan County League, which consisted of Rockwell, Granite Quarry, East Spencer, Mount Ulla, Woodleaf and Cleveland. Owens, who poured in 32 against Granite Quarry, scored a team-best 14.2 points per game. Kerr averaged 9.8 points per game as a freshman.

In the 1953-54 season, Mount Ulla got even better. Owens scored 15.6 points per game, while Kerr averaged 15.5. The team went 18-7 overall and went 10-0 in the Rowan County League. Kerr scored 24 against East Spencer and had 22 in a playoff loss to Pilot.

In the 1954-55 season, Mount Ulla won the Rowan County League again behind Owens and Kerr. Kerr had an incredible junior season, pouring in 510 points. Those were short seasons, so that was an unheard of total for the time.

Owens (1,065) and Kerr (1,059) finished six points apart on the all-time scoring list, with Owens playing four seasons and Kerr three.

Kerr likely had passed the age limit to play as a senior in 1955-56. Mount Ulla dropped off a little without Kerr and Owens, but Bobby Boyd led the team to an 11-7 record and third place.

Kerr did win the Highway Patrol’s student bus driving contest as a senior, defeating competitors from Rowan, Cabarrus and Davie counties.

Kerr served in the U.S. Army and spent most of his working life as  general manager of Spencer Steel Supply Company. He spent his free time boating and fishing on High Rock Lake.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Betsy Iddings Morgan Kerr, who had played basketball for East Spencer, and nine siblings.

Owens graduated from West in 1955 and went to N.C. State to study forestry. He married Jo Carol Graham, who had been one of the stars of Mount Ulla’s girls basketball team.