College transition is "awakening' for Galbreath

(Editor's note: Fulton native Tony Galbreath - who started his football career with the Hornets, then starred at the University of Missouri and went on to a successful stint in the NFL - will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday in Jefferson City. Fulton Sun sports writer Josh Mosley recently sat down for a series of interviews with Galbreath, who lives in Fulton, to chronicle his career in a three-part series leading up to Sunday's induction. Today's first part focuses on Galbreath's college career, beginning at a small junior college in Iowa before wrapping up at Missouri.)

Bullets pierced the walls and floorboards. A light - later discovered to be a blazing cross - shone menacingly through the windows.

Members of the Indian Hills Junior College football team, including Tony Galbreath, reacted. They dodged the bullets anyway they could. Some even hopped out the windows of the house they were staying in to save themselves.

It was the Ku Klux Klan, which had just burned down the team's original dormitory.

This was all-new, frightening reality for Galbreath, but then again, Indian Hills wasn't exactly where he thought he'd be starting his collegiate career. It was 1972 and Tony's road to college football - and eventually the National Football League - took a detour to the tiny rural town of Centerville, located in southeastern Iowa.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.