Helping young people has always been a part of Earnest Galloway’s life.

The Vicksburg native and co-founder of the Fuzzy Johnson Baseball League that plays its games at Fuzzy Johnson Park on Mission 66, has been an advocate for getting recreational facilities for people in north Vicksburg for many years.

“I would like to see them (the city) spend the same amount of money and the same amount of interest they’re putting into the new park (the sports complex). When The Sports Forces comes here, they’re going to own it; they’ll have the rights to do what they want to do.

“I want to see (the Board of Mayor and Aldermen) put the same amount of revenue up here so we can stay here.”

And that means having the city transform the Kuhn Hospital property into a multifunction, multi-complex recreation area.

“It would be more proficient for this neighborhood,” Galloway said. “A place where they can walk to.”

Galloway recalled his younger days playing baseball at Leyen’s Hill Park near Vicksburg High School. The park’s director was James “Fuzzy” Johnson, who worked in the Vicksburg Parks and Recreation Department from 1961-1994. Johnson spent most of his career working with recreational leagues at the park at Mission 66 and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He died Aug. 9, 2009, at age 65.

“Besides my grandfather, Fuzzy was one of the biggest influences I ever had,” Galloway said as he sat in his office at Fuzzy Johnson Park. “I was a troubled kid like most of the kids I deal with. My Dad and mom separated when I was 10 years old.”

He met Johnson when he went to a gym to play and Johnson got him interested in playing basketball. He also played Little League baseball.

It was Johnson who got him interested in helping youth through sports.

Johnson, he said, approached him about coaching baseball.

“I told him, ‘Fuzzyy I really don’t have time,’ but I said I would take it under consideration. I went home and thought about it.

“Somebody cared about me, and it was time to give back. I was about 18 at the time. I came probably a week later and Fuzzy was at this park and he was standing outside that door (pointing to the door to his office), and I never had somebody greet me like he had seen God. I told him, ‘Fuzzy I’m here to help.’”

He worked as an assistant coach with a team until the team’s coach quit and he took over.

“I was 18 years old coaching 12-year-olds, and that was my first experience coaching. Some of those kids are 43 years old, and I’m going on 52. They still call me coach. Some are greyer than me.

“That got me the experience of connecting with the kids.”

Galloway was in his 40s when he decided to devote all his time to helping young people and renovating what was then Mission 66 Park.

“One day I passed by the park and something just stopped me. I got out and walked around, and the park didn’t look like it looks today. It was in disrepair, all grown up, beer bottles; everyone had taken the park over but the kids.”

He tried unsuccessfully to generate interest in cleaning the park. Then the city elections came.

“I got with Paul Winfield and I got on his team, and got in his ear,” he said. “After he got elected, he put me on the youth council.”

But the council, he said, was concerned with the then-proposed skate part at City Park and other projects. Not Fuzzy Johnson. Galloway asked Winfield to give him an opportunity see what he could do with the still derelict park.

“He gave me the keys and he said, ‘I’m going to get some stuff done,’ and they began cutting the brush around it but didn’t offer me any funding.”

Galloway joined forces with Glenn Farmer in 2010 to form the Fuzzy Johnson League. They were eventually able to get equipment and sponsors and children to play baseball.

Galloway said he and Farmer went to the children’s homes to recruit players; a practice they still follow.

“We started recruiting without any sponsorship. We told the parents we were going to have sponsors.

“We started out with faith and love and it grew from there. We recruited 200 kids our first year. We were only able to let 48 play. We got four teams.”

The league provided the uniforms and the city paid for an umpire and scorekeeper and provided game baseballs.

“Some of the kids that started with us in 2010 got scholarships and went on to college,” he said, adding the league in 2017 fielded 12 teams and he plans to have the same number of teams this season, with six teams in ages 9 through 12 and six for ages 13 through 15.

“Every kid gets an opportunity to play whether you have the money or not to play. We buy everything.”

Galloway is also working with young people through mentoring to help them with behavior problems, and exposing them to different experiences.

“We took student trips to a Mississippi Braves game, the Martin Luther King Museum in Memphis (Tennessee), to the Alcorn State and Jackson State rivalry. We do a lot of things together.”

He is now working on a partnership with NRoute, the city’s public transportation system and Alcorn State’s Vicksburg campus to find a place where children can get free tutoring.

“I’ve got some retired teachers to help,” he said.

He said sports is the key to moving the kids toward improving in school.

“Once you corral them with sports, you can redirect a kid anyway you want,” he said. “So once you get a kid interested in sports you can do a thousand things with a kid.

“A lot of kids don’t take school seriously. I don’t understand it, because that’s one of the most important things we’ve got. We’re trying to get them back to school, because a lot of our kids are behind in school. I tell them, ‘You can’t get anything without learning. You’ve got to learn to play baseball, learn to count. If you don’t learn, you can’t be the athlete you want to be.’”

When he looks back, Galloway said the most gratifying thing for him is watching the youth he’s worked with gain the confidence and skill to do other things. He said present city administration has been more helpful with improvement projects in the park.

He said he is training another person to take his place, adding he plans to go a few more years “and then go off into the sunset.

“I came back to the old ballpark and we’re pretty successful and pretty happy,” Galloway said.