By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA – West Rowan High School opened in the fall of 1959, a consolidation of country boys and girls from Mount Ulla, Woodleaf and Cleveland.
They had been playing against each other. Now they would be playing against schools such as Davie County and Mooresville.
While the Falcons had a quiet start in football, it didn’t take them long to make a serious impact in baseball and basketball.
West’s first baseball team won the North Piedmont Conference championship in the spring of 1960.
In 1961, coach Bobby Rusher, a Catawba graduate not much older than his players, directed a Falcon baseball team that won everything it could possibly win, including the championship game of the Western North Carolina High School Activities Association.
That 1961 team rode a 1-2 pitching punch of Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Famers Barry Moore, who lasted six seasons and pitched in 140 games in the major leagues, and Donald Heglar, plus a third arm, Dick Coulter, who would have been the ace for many high school teams.
Moore’s overpowering starts were just about automatic one-hitters or two-hitters with double-figure strikeouts. The only way he possibly could lose was errors, walks and hit batters, and the Falcons didn’t make a lot of errors.
One of the starters on that West team was George Allen Dean. His father, who owned a grocery story on old Highway 70, was “George,” so the youngster came to be called “Joe.”
Joe Dean died on Jan. 2 at 82, but he will be remembered for his role on West’s early baseball champions.
It was Dean who struck the first mighty blow of the 1961 season. Heglar was pitching the first NPC game, and the Falcons were deadlocked 1-1 with Winecoff, the school that would combine with Odell to form Northwest Cabarrus, when Dean stepped to the plate in the bottom of the sixth with teammate Loy Sigmon on first base. Dean socked a towering triple over the left fielder’s head that brought home the decisive run in a 2-1 victory.
“Joe was a good hitter, but he didn’t hit the ball long all that often,” remembers Bill Hall, a second baseman for the 1961 Falcons. “He was quiet, but he would come up with a wisecrack now and then. Never anything mean. Joe was just a nice guy who liked baseball and did his job.”
Rusher employed quite a few different lineups. Dean’s versatility helped. Dean would play first base when Moore pitched, with Gary McNeely catching. When Heglar pitched, the Falcons would keep Moore’s potent bat in the lineup as the first baseman, with Dean moving behind the plate, and with McNeely playing center field. Benny Robbins, the team’s top hitter for average, would move from center over to right field.
West’s strongest challenger in the NPC that season was North Rowan. Both teams were 7-0 in the league when the Falcons headed to Spencer for the showdown with coach Walt Baker’s Cavaliers. Even with Moore pitching a two-hitter, it turned out to be a wild game. Both head coaches engaged in spirited arguments with the umpires in the fourth inning. Dean came through with one of his best games with two hits and two runs scored in West’s 9-4 victory.
The Piedmont championship game between South Piedmont Conference kingpin Concord and West is remembered as the game at Webb Field in which Moore hit a ball so far that he fell down running the bases and still got an inside-the-park homer. Moore struck out 14, and McNeely threw out three Concord men trying to steal. Dean scored one of the Falcons’ runs in a 3-1 victory. More than 500 people saw the game.
“Joe got on base a lot,” Hall said. “Even if he didn’t get a hit, he’d usually get on with a walk and he could score that way.”
West was the host for the WNCHSAA championship game with Cherryville. West wanted to play it at Newman Park, but the Salisbury Braves, a minor league team, were scheduled to play on the Friday night designated for the WNCHSAA title game to be played. So they played the climactic game in Spencer.
The Falcons only got two hits, but shortstop Jim Summitt scored twice. It was 1-all in the 5th when Summitt walked. He stole second. When Summitt took off to steal third, the throw sailed into the outfield and Summitt was able to score the decisive run. Moore struck out 12. West won 2-1.
“The scouting report was that Cherryville’s catcher was good, but he could be scatter-armed,” Hall said. “Coach Rusher remembered that. We beat a great Cherryville team and faced both of their hard-throwing pitchers (Ronnie Hovis and Steve”Chew” Watts). We’ve always regarded that game as a state championship.”
Joe Dean got married at Salem Lutheran Church the summer after he graduated from high school in 1962. He married a girl who was a little older than him. Louise Watson had graduated with Mount Ulla High’s last class in 1959. She was a basketball phenom in the six-on-six days for girls. She scored 1,573 points in her three seasons for coach Oscar Stradley, who built an athletic dynasty at Mount Ulla. She scored 43 points one night and 41 on another occasion. She was the No. 2 all-time scorer for Mount Ulla and ranks No. 7 for all Rowan girls in that era. Mount Ulla was 43-6 in her last two seasons.
Joe and Louise proved to be a good match. They were still married when Louise, who worked as office manager for Graham Piping for 40 years, died in April 2025.
Dean was in the service in 1966 and was stationed in Nuremburg, Germany, when he was shocked to hear a voice with a familiar Southern accent. Buddy Poole, a 1964 South Rowan graduate, was in the U.S. Army and was on duty as a radio announcer for the American Forces Network.
Dean called the station. “Are you the same Buddy Poole that worked at WSAT in Salisbury?” he wanted to know.
Well, there’s only one Buddy Poole.
After that phone conversation, Poole and Dean got together that weekend in Nuremburg and for lots of weekends after that for almost 60 years.
Dean went to work for Norfolk-Southern after his military service and retired from the railroad.
Pooles and Deans ate a lot of meals together. Lots of barbecue and lots of Brunswick stew.
Joe and Louise Dean traveled on Poole’s RV to many Catawba football road games over the years. No matter how long the trip, they always made a fun event out of it. Dean served as a spotter for Catawba football broadcasts for two decades.
Dean remained a lifelong West Rowan fan and was a devoted follower of the Rowan County American Legion baseball team. During every WSAT Legion broadcast he ever did, Poole made it a point on the air to say hello to Joe and Louise Dean. He knew they were faithfully listening.
Poole spoke to Dean for the last time shortly before he died, and they talked about the good times they were blessed to have with Catawba football.
“I loved Joe like a brother,” Poole said. “I will hold onto the wonderful memories of my best friend.”
Services for Joe Dean were held on Monday, Jan. 5, at Salem Lutheran Church.
