By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – One of the first people Spring Garden boys basketball coach Levi Hatcher met when he first came to the community was Panther superfan Mack Maddox.
Hatcher’s wife Lauren had told him of old man basketball games that were played locally, and he was interested in playing in them.
“Mack got in touch with me,” Hatcher recalled. “I met Mack when he was still playing ball.”
Like much of the Spring Garden community, Hatcher has seen a lot of Mack over the past few years, along with Mack’s close friends Harvey Kiser and Art Ingram.
The trio of Harvey, Art, and Mack, which Spring Garden public address announcer Brian Jennings affectionately nicknamed HAM, are as much a part of the Panther basketball teams as the players.
They formed a pact to never miss a game. You’d always see them front-and-center in the bleachers across from the Spring Garden bench, ready to fist-bump the starting five during introductions and cheer them on.
But on Nov. 29, 2024, Mack passed away at the age of 80. Games played in Dale Welsh Gymnasium on Ricky Austin Court haven’t been the same since.
Mack’s presence, however, will continue on as a permanent fixture in the gym.
On Saturday, the Spring Garden community commemorated Mack’s memory by unveiling a plaque attached to his seat in the bleachers between the varsity girls and junior varsity boys games with Sand Rock. It reads “Reserved Forever, Mack Maddox, 7/31/44, 11/29/24”.
Many of Mack’s family and friends, including Harvey and Art, were in attendance.
Jennings read a heartfelt tribute to Mack before the plaque’s unveiling. In the tribute, Jennings noted that Mack played basketball at Spring Garden and graduated in 1962. He was known as a scorer, a tough defender, and a tough rebounder when he played on the court.
Mack and his wife Jane raised raised four children: three boys and a girl. The couple has eight grandchildren, two of whom are currently involved with Spring Garden athletics.
Jennings especially noted Mack’s involvement with the Spring Garden Tip Off Club, in which he served multiple terms as the club president. He was perhaps best known for taking groups of 60-plus to work the NASCAR races at Talladega during his Tip Off Club tenure.
“To say the officials in charge of NASCAR’s concessions knew Spring Garden was an understatement,” Jennings said. “Under Mack’s leadership, we became the largest concession operator at the track. It was a huge boost in money and greatly increased the ability of the club to help every program here at Spring Garden.”
Both Spring Garden and Sand Rock fans gave a round of applause following the tribute.
“Reserving that seat for him, that’s definitely well deserved,” Hatcher said. “He was always so supportive of the players and of the school. All three of them are. They would travel wherever when they didn’t have to come to every game.
“That was just one of the things when I came over here, I thought ‘Man, Spring Garden really travels well.’ That’s just such a confidence boost when you have a lot of support like that.”
