Dr. Jimmy Scales has been named the 2019 Milam Award Winner.
Scales Honored as 2019 Milam Award Winner
ADA, Okla. – Pioneer, nationally-recognized, civic and social leader and educator are just some of the ways to describe the life of Dr. Jimmy Scales, the recipient of the 47
th East Central University Milam Award.
"We are very proud of Dr. Scales and are pleased that we can recognize his achievements as an athlete and as a professional," said ECU President Dr. Katricia Pierson. "He excelled in both realms and continues to be an inspiration to the ECU Tiger Family."
The Milam Award is presented annually, since 1972, at ECU's homecoming football game to a former Tiger football player who not only excelled in the classroom and on the gridiron, but also distinguished himself in his chosen career. The award is named in honor of Joe Milam, a former educator and coach in the states of Oklahoma and Texas.
"I am honored to receive the Milam Award and to be recognized as a former football player worthy of the recognition," said Scales. "When I reviewed the list of former recipients, I am extremely honored to be included with such an illustrious group."
Scales has certainly lived up to the criteria for the award and more. He was one of the first two African American football players for the Tigers during the 1960's. Scales and teammate Jackie "Tex" Rollins came to ECU during the midst of the civil rights movement and as the civil rights legislation was being passed. Yet, Scales remembers an ECU campus which accepted him with open arms.
"Some of the racial barriers were gone from campus after legendary basketball coach Mickey McBride recruited a couple of African American players a few years' prior," according to Scales. "But that doesn't mean the divisions were not around, especially on the gridiron when the Tigers were away from home."
Scales remembers and is amused by one incident in which ECU was scheduled to play a team from Arkansas in a home-and-home series. The Tigers were headed to Arkansas the first year with the return game scheduled for the next year in Ada.
"Coach George made a courtesy call to let the coach and athletic director at the Arkansas school know that there were two African American players making the trip," Scales said during an interview in 2015 before being the graduation speaker at ECU. "After a few days they called back and said they needed to leave the two of us at home. Coach George shot back and told them when they came over to play us, to leave their best linebacker and defensive halfback at home, no matter what color they are."
The games were not played, but Scales treasures that memory and many stories from his time at ECU.
After graduating for ECU in 1966, Scales did not waste time making the Tigers proud. Throughout his career he became a nationally-recognized educator and civic and social leader across the region, making stops in Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee.
The Oklahoma native served as a teacher, coach and later as a principal at Millwood High School in Oklahoma City and McLain High School in Tulsa before becoming superintendent of the College Station (Texas) Independent School District and deputy superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District.
Continuing in his pioneering way, Scales was the first African American appointed to the Oklahoma State School Board. He was appointed by fellow ECU alum Gov. George Nigh. That same year, Millwood High School received the National Exemplary School Award from the United States Department of Education. Scales also served as superintendent of Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga, Tenn., from 2006-2011.
The 2016 ECU Distinguished Alumni honoree and was inducted into ECU's Gene and Evelyn Keefer Educators Hall of Fame and in 2015.
ECU is not the only organization to recognize the contributions that Scales has made throughout his career. He was inducted into the Oklahoma African American Educators and Dallas County African American Educators Hall of Fame's, received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Booker T. Washington High School in Idabel and is a former trustee of Hillcrest Hospital in Tulsa and Texas College in Tyler.
He has also been an avid supporter of the United Way of America, is a Rotarian, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. and Alpha Epsilon Boule' of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, in which he serves as chairman of its Education Foundation.
Scales received his bachelor of science in health and physical education with a minor in history from ECU in 1966, master of education from ECU in 1969 and a Ph.D. in education and research from the University of Tulsa in 1991.
Scales and his wife, Cynthia, have three children – Jimmy V. Scales Jr., Rosalyn Aplin, and Jacquelyn Burden. Burden is an ECU graduate. The couple also have five grandchildren.
