Restoring Burley’s history

For 16 years the Burley Bears were the pride of Charlottesville’s black community. Before it was relegated to the middle school that most are familiar with today, Burley was the proud home of some of the best high school football teams in the state of Virginia. In a time before integration, the Bears gathered a slew of awards from Western District titles to state championships.
But over the years, those trophies were moved from one place to another, some going missing along the way. They wound up collecting dust in a storage closet at Charlottesville High until just a few years ago after being found and sent back to Burley.
As a defensive lineman for the Bears between 1961 and 1965, when Jimmy Hollins saw the awards on display, he was inspired to give them a proper home.
“These trophies were found at Charlottesville High School and sadly, they were about to be thrown away,” Hollins said. “Looking at them, I knew some were missing. So I wanted to try and get those replaced and get a cabinet to store them in.”
And so began the first major
calling of the Burley Varsity Club.
In 2007, Hollins started the Burley Varsity Club by throwing together a cookout for former Bears.
The response was strong, and in chatting with some of the alumni, Hollins was encouraged to tackle the task of finding a permanent home for the Bears’ accomplishments while refurbishing those awards that were damaged, and finding replicas to
replace those that were missing.
“It was about restoring the history and pride of Burley High School after a 42-year snooze,” Hollins said.
There is no shortage of history or pride for the Bears. In 1956, Burley went undefeated and did not have a single point scored on them — a record that still stands today — en route to a share of the state championship with I.C. Norcom. No title games were held at that time.
The strength of the program continued to the point where Burley and the University of Virginia were rumored to be putting together a scrimmage.
“There was a time back in the fifties where word was circulated throughout the community that the Bears were going to play Virginia,” said Sherman White, who graduated from Burley in 1960 and photographed and catalogued the football team’s success. “But the story goes that the Cavaliers didnt want any part of the Bears.”
Getting the trophies back and putting them on formal display is now a means of connecting generations, and those attended Burley when it was a high school from 1951 to 1967 have a strong sense of community.
“When it came to Burley, you had the black communities coming from Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Greene County, Nelson County, all over,” White said. “You had everyone coming together. The magic of that was there was such a bond, a fraternity, a sorority — that it didn’t matter where you were from, all you had to do was say Burley and nothing else mattered.”
Of course, there was another motivating factor for the restoration project — if it wasn’t done soon, the old alumni might never see it.
“When you’re young you don’t think about that kind of thing,” Hollins said. “You only think about that when you’re older. Once a certain group of people die out, that history is gone unless there is something there where people can see it and think about it. The last year at Burley [as a high school] was 1967, so those kids are now between 59 and 60 years old. That legacy —Burley’s legacy — is dying out real fast.”
So after forming the club, Hollins worked quickly collecting donations and this past May the Burley Varsity Club unveiled the new display case in lobby in front of the auditorium at Burley.
Now that the trophies have a safe new home, there are just five missing trophies, but the club is very close to finding replicas that best match what the lost trophies should have looked like.
“Hopefully this will show the young kids what we did in our time,” Hollins said.
In meeting and working with the current Burley classes, the nine current Burley Varsity Club members have been pleased to see the manner with which the students are taking an interest in the school’s history.
“The pride that we
exuded here at the high school, now the kids at the middle seem to have that same passion,” White said. “It’s great to see.”
Though it’s been just two years, the Burley Varsity Club, now a non-profit charitable trust, has come a long way from a community cookout.
For its next project, the club wants to help the current students put together a museum that will require removing a set of lockers inside the school.
For more information about the Burley Varsity Club, or to make a donation visit the web site http://www.burleyvarsityclub.com.