October 4, 2019
East Central Community College alumnus and former Lady Warrior basketball standout Pam Green Hampton of Quitman will join a distinguished group of former athletes when she is inducted into the college’s Athletic Hall of Fame during Homecoming activities scheduled Thursday, Oct. 17, on the Decatur campus.
Hampton said she was shocked and honored when she was notified of her award.
“Earlier this year, I was inducted into the Scott County Sports Hall of Fame,” said Hampton. “To be inducted into both of these the same year is one of the best feelings ever. I played basketball at EC because I loved the game, never knowing 32 years later anything like this would ever happen. Flabbergasted would be an understatement!”
She was a standout athlete at Sebastopol Attendance Center where her love of basketball began as a sixth grader.
“My science/health teacher, Coach Tony Bell, would take us to the high school gym during recess and let us compete in layups against the boys. That is when my love for basketball started.”
Hampton participated in various activities, including basketball, track, and cheerleading, throughout her high school career while also maintaining stellar grades in her academic coursework.
She received the hustle award her freshman year and during 10th grade was named All Cherokee Conference and Best Offensive Player. She averaged 10 points and six assists per game that year.
It was also during her sophomore season when their coach left during the middle of the school year and then high school principal Sammy Pace took over as head coach.
“He coached us for the rest of the year,” Hampton said. “He was a great coach and I learned a lot from that man. It was not just about basketball either. He taught us a lot of life lessons.”
Another coaching change came during her junior year when Truman Moore took over as head coach of the Lady Bobcats.
“He was this very high-strung, loud-mouth, tobacco-chewing, technical-receiving crazy man,
but we all loved him. Because we knew he loved us and cared for us and wanted us to win.”
The team continued to succeed under Coach Moore and won the Sub-District 6A East Championship and advanced to the South State Tournament. Hampton averaged 12 points and seven assists per game that year. She was selected All District and All Conference.
During her senior year, the Lady Bobcats won the Sebastopol Invitational, the Cherokee Conference Tourney, and the Division V-North Tournament, and had the best showing in school history as they finished State Runners-Up in Class 1A.
Hampton averaged 10 points, six rebounds, and nine assists during the historic season and was named All Conference and All State.
“My parents in the bleachers cheering me on is a feeling I will never forget. The whole community would come to the games and cheer. Man, it was loud! We didn’t win the championship that year, but we sure made some memories.”
Pace, who had coached her sophomore season at Sebastopol, was now the head coach at then East Central Junior College and signed Hampton and two of her teammates to scholarships.
“He recruited all of us Sebastopol girls, Penny Graham Scott, Deborah Blaylock, and myself. People were calling ECJC Sebastopol Junior College.”
She averaged seven points and four assists per game during her freshman season and helped lead the Lady Warriors to a winning record.
During her sophomore season, she averaged 18 points per game and 11 assists while shooting 62 percent from the three-point line, quickly earning herself the nickname “Three-Point Pam.”
“I loved shooting behind that line. And I still get called that nickname from time to time,” she said.
She scored a career high nine three-pointers during a game at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit on a night where even the home crowd student section got excited and began cheering for Hampton to shoot!
“Coach Pace also informed me right before I left East Central that I was two three-pointers shy of the national record. I can't remember what that record was, but I will never forget that,” she said.
Hampton and the Lady Warriors completed the season with a No. 3 ranking in the nation and an 18-8 record. The talented squad won the MACJC South Division Tournament and finished third in the NJCAA Region 23 Women’s Basketball Tournament.
She was named Second Team MACJC All-State and was selected for the MACJC South Division All-Star Team.
She said there was one game in particular that year in which the third ranked Lady Warriors did not perform as expected and Coach Pace did not spare them a punishment for their poor performance.
“We were ranked No. 3 in the nation at that time and we got beat so bad at PRCC (Pearl River Community College) that Coach Pace said he was going to run us so bad when we got back to Decatur that we would throw up. We stopped at a McDonald’s on the way home. Several of us thought he would not run us when we got back because it would be 2 a.m. when we got back. We ate a lot! I ate a Big Mac, fries, big drink, and got an ice cream cone. … We fell asleep on the bus during the long ride home because we were full. We returned back to the gym at EC and started gathering our gym bags and getting up to exit the bus. We heard Coach Pace yell, ‘Go get dressed!’ We could not believe he was about to run us at two in the morning. Well, he did! After running for several minutes, I heard Penny say, ‘I am going to throw up.’ I yelled, ‘Whatever you do, do not let Coach Pace see you throw up!’ A short time after that, coach informed us we could go get dressed. Let’s just say there were several outside puking our guts up, but we never let Coach Pace see us.”
In addition to playing basketball, Hampton was a well-rounded student-athlete and was involved in various campus activities, including Warrior Corps and The Tom-Tom newspaper staff, and she was named to Who’s Who in American Junior Colleges.
“The friendships made at EC are the best. Our basketball family was really like a true family. There are still several girls who I keep in touch with that played basketball and others who I don’t see a lot, but we still keep up with each other on Facebook.”
Hampton received several scholarship offers to continue her athletic career at the university level, but chose to walk on at Mississippi State University, where she had always dreamed of playing. By Christmas, she had earned a scholarship from then head coach Jerry Henderson.
“There were eight or nine walk-ons in preseason conditioning and I didn’t think I would make the team. Then it was down to only two of us. Before Christmas, Coach Henderson called us both to his office and informed me that I had been awarded a full scholarship and he appreciated my hard work and dedication. I think my parents were happy after that phone call.”
A highlight of her MSU career was when she set a school record by scoring 12 points in a minute-and-a-half.
Hampton also met her husband, Steve, in the intramural gym at MSU while playing a pick-up game of basketball with other members of the Lady Bulldogs.
“We would go in there a lot during the off season to have fun. We could beat the crap out of the guys physically because the guys were not going to call a foul on a girl, right? We won some and we lost a bunch. One day, I was guarding this really cute guy and he was complaining about me pushing and fouling. I told him ‘If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.’ I have been married to him for over 27 years now.”
Hampton received her bachelor’s degree in coaching/teaching at MSU in 1992 and later that year, she and Steve were married. The couple then moved to Columbus, where Steve coached boys’ basketball at New Hope High School and Pam led the 1994-95 junior high boys’ team to a district title.
They moved to Quitman in July 1995 only days after finding out they were expecting a child.
Pam was employed as physical education teacher at Quitman Upper Elementary and Quitman Lower Elementary in 1998.
She said, “I have used so many of the values I was raised on or the morals I learned from coaches and teachers.”
In 2005, she and Steve coached the Quitman High School girls’ basketball team.
“He coached and I was his assistant and we had a little child running around the gym. When they say it takes a village to raise a child, I have lived it. After that year, I decided I would let Steve have the coaching. He was way better than me anyway.”
Her success has continued in her professional career as she was named Teacher of the Month at Quitman Upper Elementary, an award chosen by the administration, and was also featured in the Clarke County Tribune’s Teacher Spotlight.
During the 2015-2016 school year, she was voted Teacher of the Year by her peers and in 2018 was selected a Golden Apple Award winner.
In addition to her teaching duties, Hampton serves as department chair for Quitman Upper Elementary Encore and represents Quitman Upper Elementary on the Teacher Advisory Committee for the Quitman School District.
This past spring, Hampton was Inducted into the Scott County Sports Hall of Fame.
Pam and Steve have one daughter, Hannah, who is a recent graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and is pursuing her master’s degree at Southeastern Louisiana. Her parents, Barney and Martha Green, still reside in Sebastopol, and she also has two brothers, Anthony and Brad.
“My parents have taught me that relationships are the main focus in life. How you treat people is a personal reflection of your character. This is one of the many reasons that they have helped me succeed during my years of teaching. They have always been positive influences in my life and so many others in our hometown. My husband, Steve Hampton, wore many hats in his 26 years as an educator. He has a strong work ethic with high expectations still today as an Alfa Insurance agent. He makes me a better person. Our daughter, Hannah, is the definition of ‘well-rounded.’ There is not one thing she can’t do. She loves to embrace a challenge. She, also, has a positive impact on anyone who comes in contact with her. She is my role model.
“From the basketball court to the classroom and all the way to the gym in Quitman where I teach today, East Central Community College will always be the place where I blossomed into becoming a leader and managing my time. While playing basketball and going to class, I learned to do both. The two years at EC were, and always will be, the best two years of my college experience.
