Gym artifact finds new home at PCHS
PHIL CAMPBELL — Fifteen years after the April 27, 2011, tornado destroyed Phil Campbell High School, a preserved piece of the old gym has found a permanent home in the lobby outside the school’s gymnasium.
The Bobcat-emblazoned center court anchors a display that also includes newly illuminated trophy cases and the original office clock from the former school.
Although the current Phil Campbell High School campus opened 12 years ago, the school’s history stretches back much further.
Principal Bart Moss said this year marks the school’s 100th graduating class and the 100th season of Phil Campbell football.
Moss said preserving school history helps current students understand the generations who came before them.
“Everyone needs to know, understand and respect their history and tradition,” Moss said. “My vision for the lobby and the school was for our students, staff and community to be proud of their school and take pride in their building.”
Deborah Bell stands next to the preserved center court she painted approximately 30 years ago.
Moss said improving the gym lobby had long been one of his priorities.
“Because of the size of the wall and the lobby, I had to wait until I had the money available to make my vision a reality,” he said.
Moss said over the past year, the school has added murals, motivational artwork and historical displays throughout the building, including artwork by Hannah Warhurst.
He said the old gym center court was installed this summer because the school finally had the time and resources to complete the project.
“There is so much that goes on in a school during the summer and this year we finally had the time and resources to make it happen,” he said.
Long before the display came together, someone first had to make sure the center court section survived.
Matt Smith, a 1995 Phil Campbell High School graduate and member of Carpenters Local 1209, said he knew the old gym would soon be demolished after the tornado.
Smith focused on preserving the center court along with sections of the painted “Bobcats” lettering.
Removing the floor required lifting the hardwood together with the plywood subfloor beneath it, then fastening two-byfours across the underside to keep the massive section from falling apart.
“It was a huge job to get it outside of the old gym,” Smith said.
His father, Mason, and two of his father’s longtime friends helped move the floor from the building.
The preserved center court remained out of public view for years. Smith later donated the piece but said he intentionally left its future to others.
“I didn’t know exactly what they were going to do with it,” he said.
This summer, Maintenance Supervisor Eddie Marbutt saw a project he had hoped to complete for years finally come together.
Marbutt, a 1990 Phil Campbell High School graduate, said he is grateful that someone had the vision to preserve the floor. He remembers taking physical education classes in the old gym, running track there, and attending his senior prom there.
Jeff Copeland and Eddie Marbutt stand in front of the school’s newly illuminated trophy case.
“I think it means a lot to a lot of people, especially ones that played basketball on that court,” Marbutt said.
Moving the center court from the gym stage to the lobby outside the gym created another challenge.
Jeff Copeland, a 1977 Phil Campbell High School graduate, helped move and mount the preserved center court.
The crew placed the floor on roller pads, slid it across a quilt, and turned it at an angle to fit through the doorway. Weight proved to be the biggest challenge.
“Getting it to the spot was worse than mounting it,” he said.
Once the floor reached the wall, Copeland and Marbutt drilled mounting holes, secured it with screws, and raised it into place by hand.
The installation took about half a day.
Copeland and Marbutt also completed another long-delayed improvement. Although the trophy cases had always contained lights, they had never been connected to electricity.
The pair ran wiring through a block wall to the breaker box so the cases could be illuminated.
“I think it all turned out real well,” Copeland said.
The project also restored power to the original office clock from the former school.
“We were able to get power to it too, so it’s actually running now and keeps time,” Marbutt said. “I think that’s pretty cool.”
At the center of the preserved floor is a Bobcat familiar to generations of Phil Campbell students. Deborah Bell remembers creating it.
“I was the original painter,” Bell said. “I’m very pleased to see it preserved and displayed this way.”
Bell, a 1976 Phil Campbell High School graduate, estimated she painted the center-court Bobcat nearly 30 years ago.
School officials wanted a mascot that looked like a basketball player, she said, so she used an older Bobcat illustration from a Phil Campbell yearbook as inspiration before creating the final design herself.
She painted the logo over the course of about a week before the floor was sealed. Bell said someone else later touched up the artwork after part of it was sanded during refinishing.
“This school is only 12 years old, but it is the only school these students have ever known,” Moss said.” There is a lot of history and tradition at this school for this community. Many of these students’ parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents attended the old school.”
The lobby project is not yet complete. Marbutt said the preserved “Bobcats” lettering from each end of the old court will eventually be mounted above the gym entrances once a lift becomes available. He hopes that work can be completed before basketball season.
“I think it means a lot to a lot of people, especially ones that played basketball on that court,” Marbutt said.
Moss said he hopes alumni experience that same sense of connection when they visit the school.
“I graduated from here in 1989. Both my mom and dad worked here, my mom for over 40 years. The old school was like a second home for me.”
