Thank You,

On behalf of members of the 1965 North Carolina High School Boys Varsity State Championship basketball team and the 1966 Hillside High School “Pony Express” basketball  record setting team,  I, Daniel McLaurin III, thank everyone for a wonderful heartfelt evening of celebration.This celebration honors our late great Coach Carl L. Easterling, the mastermind behind these highly successful teams. Without the guidance and innovative foresight of Coach Easterling, this celebration could not have been possible.

Indeed this was a celebration to be remembered because of the pre-integrated era in which it was achieved. After years of being buried on the back burner of irrelevance, we are now able to share these outstanding accomplishments with the students of the past, present, and future generations of Hillside High School. With patience along with dedication and constant communication with Athletic Director Bobby Hill, we got it done.

I thank Coach Hill for his hard work and dedication for bringing Hillside’s history into the present. After working closely with Coach Hill over the years we have developed a friendship. It is an honor to call him my friend. It is especially rewarding, because we communicated by phone from California to North Carolina. I also thank the current Principal Hans Lassiter, Mr. Jerome Leathers, and the Hillside High School administration. I extend special thanks  to Mrs. Martha Easterling and daughter Ms. Valjeanne Jones Williams. Thank you so much for your continued support of our efforts in honoring Coach Easterling.

With a profound thank you to NC House Representative Larry D. Hall for his attendance and the proclamation proclaiming January 22, 2010 as “Pony Express Day.” Former Hillside High School Principal Mr. John H. Lucas Sr., Coach Willie Bradshaw,  and the “old school alumni”  in the audience and those of you that could not attend, thank you. I thank Mike Spears, Frederick Stoney Brown, and members of the National Alumni Association of  Hillside High School for their participation. DJ Kraze and the Ideas! Coffee House for their  hospitality, as well as Alden Jackson for the use of his establishment,” AJ’s.” With a special thanks to Bonitta Best of “The Triangle Tribune” and John McCann of the “Durham Herald-Sun” for covering this celebration of Black History from the past.

" Black history is an oyster that sometimes produces a rare pearl."

 DMC, III