A better-than-average athlete in high school, David Meador did not let a tragic auto accident deter him from excelling in life and in his favorite sport. Meador lost his sight when a police car, in which he was riding on a trip home from completing his shift as a radio-dispatcher for the police department, gave a pursuit to a fleeing violator and crashed.

Meador, overcame his disability to become a successful businessman and one of the top golfers in the nation. He won the National Championship of the United States Blind Golfers Association (USBGA) at the Firestone Country Club at Akron, Ohio, in 1977 and has finished second seven times.
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Rod Wells, a three-sport star at Salem Community High School, rushed for 1119 yards in two years with the varsity Wildcats, averaged nearly 11 points per game his senior year in basketball, and was outstanding in the low hurdles in track.

A 1960 graduate of SCHS, he received an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs and was sixth in his graduating class in 1964. While at the Air Force Academy, he played freshman football and ended his football activity in his sophomore year after a broken collar bone and two separated shoulders.

In football his senior year in high school, he carried the ball 121 times for 742 yards, having exceptional games against Flora with 113 yards in a 40-12 victory, against Olney with 179 yards in a 25-19 win; and against Bridgeport with 92 yards in a 39-13 victory.
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Morris Steevens, a 1958 graduate, a fireballing left-hander excelled in four sports at Salem Community High School.

Steevens later pitched professionally for the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League.

Steevens started his high school pitching prowess with a four-hit shutout of Odin as a sophomore and also notched a four-hit victory over Centralia. During his junior year, he was the kingpin of the Wildcat pitching staff with five shutout victories, including a no-hit, 1-0 win over Flora. The Wildcats won their fourth straight North Egypt Conference championship that year and, with Steevens pitching a four-hitter, won the regional championship. During his senior year, Steevens combined with Jack Simmons and Billy Smith to pitch a 12-0, no-hit, win over Odin. Salem also won the district title that year, beating Centralia 4-2, with Steevens pitching a five hitter and contributing a two-run home run.
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A forerunner of the now essential “big man” in basketball, Dean White, was a key member of the 1943 Salem Community High School basketball team that won third place in the state tournament.

White participated in football, basketball and track three years at SCHS. He was a member of the North Egypt Conference football championship teams of 1940 and 1941. Salem was second to Flora in 1942 as the 13-0 Flora victory was Salem’s only conference loss that season. In White’s three years of football, Salem had a 16-1-1 conference record, with only one touchdown scored against them in NEC play in 1941.
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In college, his basketball coach called him “Mr. Hustle” and in high school and college he was always “Mr. Persistent”. Morris H. “Mush” Sterneck, a 1951 SCHS graduate, went on to serve as captain of the University of Illinois basketball team during the 1954-55 season.

Sterneck participated in basketball and track during his high school years, and participated in basketball and baseball at the University of Illinois. He was a consistent and game-wise player on the basketball court, on the baseball field, and on the track.

He exemplified his “persistent” tag in track. On a particularly rainy, cold day during a North Egypt Conference meet, Sterneck ran “his” race and won the mile run by doggedly staying in his routine. The time wasn’t nearly as good as the effort but he won the race.

Sterneck was a member of the Fighting Illini varsity basketball and baseball teams. In basketball, his sophomore year, he was a teammate of Hall of Famer Jim Bredar, a senior, who was captain that year.

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The oldest of the “Oldtimers”, Ross Smith, was the first outstanding track and field performer in Salem High sports. His specialties were the shot put, discus hurl and hammer throw – an event no longer held. In the South Central meet at Lebanon in 1905, an association that encompassed the southern part of Illinois, he garnered gold medals in all three events and advanced to the state track meet, taking second in the hammer throw.

Smith consistently won all the events in three years of high school competition. He won the shot put with 42′ 4″ and the hammer throw with 145’3-1/4″ – “a trifle more than the combined distance of the other contestants”. He was also an outstanding baseball player.

When a fire broke out during the 1905 graduation ceremonies, according to the Salem Herald-Advocate newspaper, he was credited with saving several lives by organizing an orderly evacuation.