John Marable
Mr. Marable was Principal for thirteen years and started the football team which he coached.
John Marable came to Hendersonville in the fall of 1940 after graduating from Shaw University with a degree in English and French. He was encouraged to come by his former college roommate, Spencer Durante, then the Principal of Sixth Avenue School. Mr. Marable taught these subjects until 1943, at which time WWII interrupted his teaching career. When the war ended and he was released from the military, he made his way back to Hendersonville in 1946 to resume his teaching. It was in that year that Mr. Spencer Durante resigned as principal and Mr. Marable began his thirteen years as principal. With financial aid from the newly created G.I. Bill, Mr. Marable added to his professional credentials in 1949 by graduating with honors from the University of Pennsylvania with a Masters degree in Education.
Principal Marable was determined to present as many opportunities to his students as possible. Prior to 1947 there was no organized football team at Ninth Avenue. The young men in the school were eager to compete but there had been on one to lead them. Recognizing this need, Mr. marable gathered the interested boys around him on a late August afternoon and told them that if they wanted to form a football team, he would coach them. But there was one stipulation: they would need to prove their interest by helping to raise the money for their uniforms. Six weeks later on a cool October evening in Hendersonville at Deitz Stadium, after only two and a half weeks of actual practice, the Ninth Avenue tigers took the field in brand new uniforms. This was the kind of attitude that Mr. Marable brought to all the events at the school: together we can make it happen.
(Excerpts from A Brief History of The Black Presence in Henderson County by The Black History Research Committee of Henderson County with Gary Franklin Greene)
