Northeast Mississippi Community College Athletics

Only a select few individuals can claim they have witnessed as many Northeast Mississippi Community College athletic events since the beginning of the institution in 1948 as Jim Lamb.

Lamb has become a synonymous figure inside the Northeast athletic department. He has sat behind the scorers’ table at Bonner Arnold Coliseum and in the pressbox of Tiger Stadium for the better part of 40 years as the official scorer and public address announcer for both the basketball and football programs.

He continues in his role as the public address announcer for the Tigers’ home football games and also serves as a member of the Northeast Sports Hall of Fame selection committee over a decade after his official retirement.

The Winona native was originally hired by fellow Northeast Sports Hall of Famer and former president of the college Harold T. White as a natural sciences instructor in 1966. Among the subjects he taught were botany, general biology, human anatomy and physiology and zoology.

Lamb maintained his teaching position in the department of mathematics and sciences throughout his 36-year tenure as a part of Northeast’s faculty. However, he took on several additional duties during his career.

He stepped onto the Bonner Arnold Coliseum court as a coach himself to lead the women’s basketball team for three seasons from 1976-79. Lamb was the Lady Tigers’ second headman since the program was resurrected in 1973 following a nearly two decade long hiatus.

Lamb had three athletes that secured All-State honors during his first season at the helm, including Jennifer Churchill, Belinda Shelton and Debbie Strickland. Shelton was the leading scorer for the Lady Tigers while Strickland was the team captain.

Shelton was again the top offensive player on Lamb’s 1977-78 squad while Kay Strickland landed in that spot one year later. His final two captains were Mary Lindsey and Wanda Skinner.

Lamb was an advisor for Northeast’s branch of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society from 1972 until he retired in 2002. He was responsible for making the Iota Zeta chapter one of the greatest in not just the Magnolia State, but in the entire country as well.

He received many awards during his work with the Iota Zeta chapter. Lamb was named to the Phi Theta Kappa Hall of Honors in 1992 and one year later was selected as an outstanding regional Phi Theta Kappa advisor.

Lamb was a member of the Mississippi/Louisiana Regional Phi Theta Kappa Advisors Council. He earned one of the organization’s highest honors in 2003 as the Alumnus of the Year for the Mississippi/Louisiana region.

He was tabbed as the acting dean of the college in 1972 and director of student activities in 1973. Lamb was Northeast’s representative for the 1993 National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) Excellence in Teaching award.

Northeast also recognized Lamb as its annual Higher Education Appreciation Day, Working for Academic Excellence (HEADWAE) honoree that same year. Lamb was the building coordinator for McCoy Hall, which is the mathematics and science facility, as well.

Lamb was a grand awards judge for the International Science and Engineering Fair from 1993-98. He also loaned his expertise to the Mississippi State Science and Engineering Fair as a best of fair judge from 1987-99 and to the regional science fair hosted on an annual basis at Northeast.

His personal education included an Associate’s degree from Holmes Community College, a Bachelor’s degree from Auburn (Ala.) University and a Master’s degree from Mississippi State University with post-graduate hours from the University of Mississippi.

Lamb and his wife Donna, who was also employed by Northeast in the campus bookstore, have been residents of Booneville for over 50 years since moving from Akin, S.C., where he worked for the state government with the soil conservation service.