A former slave and several coaches among 5 named to Fort Mill Schools Hall of Fame
One new hall of famer lived through the Civil War. Another taught kindergarten a couple of years ago. All five left a lasting impression on students in the Fort Mill School District.
The school board in Fort Mill approved recommendations for five new Fort Mill School District Hall of Fame members Tuesday night. A formal presentation and celebration will follow in mid-March. Mike Hill, who is on the committee that sorts through annual nominations, presented a brief case for each honoree:
▪ Bill Banks taught and coached at Fort Mill High School for 35 years. He taught science and drivers education. On the field he coached several sports, including the 1961 and 1962 state championship baseball teams. Those squads won the first two state titles for a high school that now has more total championships than any other in the Rock Hill region.
Banks also was involved for many years with the American Legion baseball team out of Fort Mill before his son, long-time Fort Mill Times sports writer Mac Banks, took it over.
▪ Gloria Gainey worked as a kindergarten assistant in Fort Mill for 46 years. She started in 1975, after a decade in Fort Mill that included years of volunteering in schools before there was a kindergarten. Gainey started at Fort Mill Primary School and transitioned to Fort Mill Elementary School when the current campus opened. At her retirement In 2022, Gainey’s career was older than any existing school in the district, and her school’s principal, Jad Griffin, was a former student of hers.
▪ Pete Reynolds coached football, basketball and baseball at Fort Mill High School — at one point as head coach of all three — in the mid- to late 1950s before becoming principal at Central School, later known as the A.O. Jones school.
▪ Jim Shannon was a teacher and coach in the district for more than 25 years. He was principal at Fort Mill Primary School, later the Carothers school. Shannon took over for Reynolds as head basketball and baseball coach at the high school in 1957.
▪ Solomon Spratt helped build the first school for formerly enslaved people in Fort Mill. Spratt was born into slavery and has his name inscribed on the controversial “faithful slaves” monument in Confederate Park. After the Civil War, Spratt joined former soldier the Rev. Jim Spratt to build a school in town for newly freed children. Spratt lived from 1837 to 1894, and is buried at the private India Hook Cemetery in Fort Mill.
The school district hall of fame began with a 2016 class. It has 27 members enshrined prior to the new list.
