James Virgil “Cuss” Wilson, former Marion High School basketball coach, teacher, district athletic director and co-owner of TVW Men’s Store, was born in Pope County at Dixon Springs on March 19, 1905, and was the son of the late Oral Moody Wilson (1868-1945) and Esther Lois Culbreth (1870-1951).
The name of “Cuss”, by which Wilson was known much better than by his given name, was given him by playmates when he was a very small boy. It originated from a youngster’s attempt at pronunciation of a name that sounded like “Cuss” to the other children, although some of his early playmates sometimes used the full name of “Custer.”
In the 1910 census, the Wilson family was living at 1110 S. Buchanan Street in a home which they owned free of mortgage. Oral Wilson was a 40 year old coal miner and his wife Lois was then age 36. Children present in the home were Roland 19, daughters, Marion 14 and Maude 12, and the youngest son, Virgil aged 5.
By the time the 1920 census was taken, the family had relocated in Marion to a home which they owned free of mortgage at 605 N. Logan Street. Fifty one year old Oral was now a mine manager for a coal company. Their daughter, Maude, now 21, was a public school teacher and 14 year old Virgil was still attending Marion schools. After the death of Virgil’s grandfather, Lois’s father, her widowed, 76 year old mother, Amanda Culbreth, had come to live with the family.
By 1927, the family had moved again to a home at 515 E. Main Street where Virgil was listed as a student. According to his obituary, following his graduation from high school, he worked in the coal mines for a while before entering Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
The 1930 federal census found the Wilson family living at yet another home which they owned at 915 E. Main Street and valued at $800. In this census, Oral was 61, Lois was 58 and the only child present in the home was Virgil, aged 25 and occupied as a coal mine loader. Later, in the 1940 census, the parents were still living in the same location after Virgil was married.
Wilson was a graduate of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and later held a master’s degree from the University of Illinois. According to his obituary, “although he had not played on the high school basketball team, at SIU he played basketball four years, the last two as captain.”
Virgil was married to Hazel Thaxton of Marion at Harrisburg August 24, 1930.
In the early 1930’s, Wilson got his first teaching position in Ridgeway, Illinois in Gallatin County.
Around 1934, he returned to his hometown of Marion to teach. Wilson was on the faculty of Marion High School for 32 years and retired in 1966. In his early years of teaching, Wilson, like many other teachers worked for the ice company during summer vacations to supplement his income.
According to a Southern Illinoisan article written in 1966, the year of his retirement,” Wilson began a coaching career at Ridgeway in the early 1930s. He soon was back in Marion as an assistant under Paul Houghton.”
As basketball coach at Marion he turned out teams which won 301 games in 15 years, an average of 20 each season, including 12 regional tournament titles and three sectional titles that sent his teams to the state tournaments in 1946, 1948, and 1951.
Marion’s pressing teams of the “Cuss Wilson” era always had a little man like Billy Buckner, Johnny Goss, Joe Wall, Pete Baggett who could steal the ball before an opponent knew what happened. Even Marion’s only state champions of 1921 had two little men, Pete Wallace and Luke Johnson.
Wilson, who had ulcers at one time during his coaching career, had one of the most quiet bench demeanors of anybody who ever coached. No matter how excited a crowd might become during the many furious Wildcat rallies and comebacks, Wilson hardly ever uncrossed his legs or yelled from the bench.
Wilson, who won over 300 basketball games as head coach at Marion until he stepped out of active coaching after the 1954 season, made a great contribution to Illinois prep basketball in teaching the full court press defense.
Wildcat teams under Wilson were usually small and exceptionally fast. They chased the ball as soon as the opponent could get the ball in play — or try to do so. Sometimes the Wildcats intercepted the ball time after time for layups before a startled opponent could even cross the center line.
He retired as coach in 1954 and continued on the faculty as teacher and director of athletics for Unit District No. 2 until 1966. He was also assistant principal from 1953 until he retired.
Upon his retirement from the faculty, he devoted full time to his interest in the TVW Men’s Store, with whom he had joined several years before in partnership with the late Virgil Vaughn who passed away around the time of his retirement. The name TVW was composed from the names Thaxton, Vaughn and Wilson, the names of the three business partners.
In 1955, the Illinois High School Coaches Association cited Wilson “for outstanding achievement in the guidance of young men by promoting ideals of character, leadership, dependability and sportsmanship; the development of a cooperative spirit of athletic teams; and the contribution to the coaching profession.”
In recognition of Wilson’s work the Marion Lion’s Club in 1957 established the “Cuss” Wilson Scholarship which is awarded annually to Marion High School’s outstanding athlete.
The 1967 graduating class at Marion high dedicated their yearbook to the retired coach and teacher. The dedicatory tribute accompanying a picture of the honored teacher quoted him as follows:
“If I had to do it over again, I don’t think I would do anything differently. I would have like to have been a better teacher, and I would have liked to have won more games, but I wouldn’t change it otherwise. I’ve been very lucky. I don’t believe there has ever been a happier guy in his work than I have been. I was happy teaching and coaching. But, then I enjoyed working in the coal mine, too, and also I was happy working in the summer carrying cakes of ice on my back.”
The gymnasium at the Marion High School is named Wilson Gym in his honor.
A signal honor came to him after his retirement from his teaching career when the Illinois High School Basketball Coaches Association elected him to the Coaches Hall of Fame in 1974.
Wilson, 71, died at his home, 804 S. Madison St., at 6:30 a.m. Monday, July 11, 1977. The popular and revered former teacher had survived a long fight with ill health, but in recent months had been active as usual in the clothing business of which he was one of the original partners.
He was a member of the Marion First Baptist Church, a member of the Illinois High School Coaches’ Association and a former member of the Marion Lion’s Club.
He was survived by his wife and one daughter, Mrs. Ben (Lois Jane) Bruce. Also surviving are three grandchildren, Anne Jane, and Ben Wilson Bruce, one brother, Roland Wilson of Marion, and two sisters, Mrs. Marion Swain, Belleville, and Mrs. Maud Witter, Chester.
Funeral services were held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Mitchell Funeral Home by the Rev. James E. Bryant, the Rev. C.R. Walker and the Rev. Everett Lynch. Burial was in I.O.O.F. Cemetery.
Pallbearers were John Kaeser, John Kent, John Goss, Floyd Hill, Jim Gulledge and Gordon Lambert. Honorary pallbearers were Mel Felts, Clay DeMattei, Cliff Storme, Wilbern Boatright, Wendell Starrick, Paul Houghton, Charles Hendrickson, Carl Sorgen, James Sanders, John K. Miller, Carlyle Sims, Bob McCoskey, Roy Campbell, Floyd Holmes, James Reid, Sr., Rev. Gene Baggett, Rev. Frank Trotter, Lloyd McMichael, Bob Bradley, Diz Carlton and Jack Connell.
Sam’s Notes: Virgil’s one daughter Lois Jane Wilson married Ben Bruce who operated Bruce Electric in Marion for decades.
(Extracted from the Marion Daily Republican obituary, July 1977; Southern Illinoisan articles by Merle Jones from 1966 and 1967; Federal Census Records; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 01/28/2014)