If you’re just traveling through Carthage, Texas on U.S. Highway 79, you might overlook the subtle allure of Panola College. The campus doesn’t announce itself the way a big state university does. No towering signage, no stadium visible from the interstate. But pull into the Arthur M. Johnson Gymnasium, named after a man who eventually became the college’s president, and you start to feel the weight of what has actually happened here over the decades.
Basketball at Panola College has never been boisterous. Programs at larger schools garner attention that has never been seen nationally. However, this small public community college in East Texas has quietly produced professional players, championship rosters, and at least one NBA coaching staff member over the course of more than 70 years. This is more than most programs, regardless of size, can genuinely claim.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the tale is the women’s basketball program. Despite being short-lived, winning back-to-back NJCAA National Championships in 1977 and 1978 is a dynasty. It takes true organizational dedication to win one national championship at the community college level. It’s more difficult to pinpoint what it takes to win two straight. Though the details have faded as small-program history often does, it’s possible that those teams profited from a specific coaching culture at Panola during that time.
There is a thread worth pursuing on the men’s side of the program. After playing for the Ponies in the 1981–82 and 1982–83 seasons, Dexter Shouse entered the professional ranks. It’s not a coincidence. Small programs in the NJCAA’s Region XIV Athletic Conference have historically served as proving grounds for players who needed a second look, players who weren’t recruited by bigger schools but had real ability. Panola played that part without drawing attention to himself.
Fabulous Flournoy is another. Just the name piques your interest. A former Panola player went on to lead the British Basketball League’s Newcastle Eagles before becoming an assistant coach with the Toronto Raptors. His journey from East Texas to the coaching ranks of the NBA is the kind of tale that most likely merits its own feature. It seems like a noteworthy oversight that Panola is never fully acknowledged for that connection.
The longtime PJC basketball coach whose name is above that gym door, Arthur M. Johnson, went on to become the college president from 1974 to 1981. Coaching on the same grounds he would later administer is an amazing arc. The fact that someone who dedicated years to the basketball program was trusted to oversee the entire organization speaks volumes about the culture of the place. Small colleges operate like that sometimes, where careers overlap and loyalty runs deep.
Playing in Region XIV of the NJCAA places Panola in serious competition. The conference is not soft. In order to prepare players for four-year programs and, occasionally, professional opportunities, teams in East Texas and the surrounding area push one another. There’s a sense that geography matters here too — sitting right on the Texas-Louisiana border, Panola draws from a wide base, including nearby Louisiana parishes, which quietly expands the talent pool.
It’s genuinely unclear if the program will be able to maintain its historical highs in the future. With rosters changing every year or two, community college athletics operate on thin margins. But history doesn’t disappear just because a gymnasium is modest in size. In that building, the Ponies and the Fillies have a record that most programs, regardless of level, would be happy to have.
