CARBON HILL — Soccer balls have been bounced, baseballs thrown and bocce balls rolled at the Carbon Hill Homecoming. The one enduring sport that has perhaps best represented the festive occasion over the years, however, has been softball.
In keeping with tradition, the slow-pitch tournament — now named the Josh Cumming Memorial Tournament — is alive and well these days.
"The reason most of the people play softball here is because of the atmosphere around the town and all of the people who come to watch and party," Todd Cumming, the tournament director, said. "It's a real carnival atmosphere."
Back in the Day
According to Carbon Hill Historical Soceity and School Museum Curator Michele Micetich, the location of the current ball field took shape in 1938.
"The guys cleared the park so they could play softball, soccer and baseball there," she said.
The first year for the Homecoming was 1949 and it wasn't long before ball games of every variety were being played there. The docket from 1958 showed Little League, Babe Ruth League and Pony League games, an Old Timers game, a professional soccer match, a bocce ball match and a baseball tournament.
According to Micetich, the professional soccer match was big from the very beginning of the village.
"Soccer was a coal miner's sport," she said. "Teams came from all over to play ... In fact, two local teams — the Carbon Hill O.K.s and the Coal City Maroons — combined to play and they are the only ones to hold England to a tie."
That was at the turn of the century in the aughts. By the end of World War II, Carbon Hill was ready to start celebrating what became its homecoming.
Jumping and Pumping Strikes
The activities associated with the Homecoming have changed and taken shape over the years. By the 1970s, baseball action began dwindling down and the slowpitch tournament was taking stage at the front and center. Still, a fastpitch softball game was an annual tradition, along with an American Legion contest.
"They used to play American Legion ball during Homecoming in the late '70s but there were too many foul balls and people were getting hit so they did away with it," Cumming pointed out.
Another side activity at the time was having parachuters drop in at various times throughout the Homecoming.
"I jumped at Carbon Hill on Father's Day in 1976. It's also the last time I've jumped. It was the last day of the Carbon Hill Homecoming and the Morris Merchants always played a team from Kankakee in a fastpitch softball game there," Morris resident Dick Parker said. "I jumped onto the field with my uniform under my jumpsuit, landed right on the rubber, walked over to the side of the field, put my gear down, walked over to my wife (Jean) and daughter (Dana) and then went to the mound after I warmed up. I then went and threw."
"I remember that. They used to do that all the time, some that didn't have that kind of success," Cumming said. "I remember one year a guy parachuting in, getting caught on the backstop and then hanging there like Spider-Man."
Parker said he was contracted many years leading up to his final jump by the village mayor.
"I had a contract with them (Carbon Hill) to jump every year, which they wanted for their Homecoming festivities. I did it for 10-15 years," Parker said. "Usually I jumped at the end of the parade at 2 p.m. and then we'd get started with the game. That year we decided that I'd jump onto the field before the game.
"We took off from the Morris Airport, climbed up to the altitude and flew over there. We always played good games and Morris always won. We were good ... it would be another four years before we won the state tournament."
Here and Now
All the other forms of ball have gone by the wayside, but the one enduring tradition for the Carbon Hill Homecoming is the slowpitch tournament. Cumming said that he has been around as long as anyone and has seen people come and go along the way.
"I've played so long that I've played with some of the kids whose parents I used to play with. In fact, there is even on grandkid I've played with. I'm probably the oldest who has played, but some of the guys out here have been playing for quite a while," Cumming said. "I started playing in the tournament when I was 15. It was a team called Kenny's Liquors. I remember that I was 15 at the time because they had to come and pick me up and take me to the games. Now you have to be 18 or out of high school to play. That's because it's a money tournament."
In its current incarnation, the Josh Cumming Memorial has 16 teams — which seems to fit just right, according to Todd Cumming.
"A couple of years ago, it was 20 teams but we cut it down to 16 because it's easier to schedule around rainouts," he said. "That is important because the games all have to be done before the fireworks. Usually the championship is on Sunday at 6ish and done by 9 p.m. or so."
The 2011 Tournament features games every night running now through Sunday. Through Thursday the times run from 6:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. with just two games on Friday at 6:30 and 7:30. On Saturday games run all day from 2 p.m. through 9 p.m. and the games on Sunday go from 2:30 p.m. until the championship is complete with an approximate start to the finale at 6:30 p.m.