The Rotary Club of Summit Rotary was founded in 1938 with Gordon Covington (Gordon Covington Memorial Gym) one of the members when the basketball program first started. For several years the Summit Rotary Basketball program was the only basketball program in the area giving rise to the statement "you had (in the area) Baseball and Summit Rotary Basketball".
When the Summit MS rotary club started helping the youth with the basketball program one of the venues was a gym not owned by the Summit rotary club in East McComb MS. This gym burned down and that was the impetus for the construction of the current gym. When the club had to put a new roof on the E. McComb gym it had to insure it. So when it burned down the club got the insurance money from that and as a result had 50K on hand. Nathan Wells was at the time the President elect and the most outspoken member in support of a building owned by the club, "so at the unanimous decision of the club" he was selected to spearhead the effort to build a gym.
When the building was first constructed in the early 90's it was just the shell with the construction all the interior rooms, the stands, tables and painting along with all the electrical work done by members with help from the community all donating professional time and effort. The amount over the 50K was raised by fundraisers and donations so that with the vision and perseverance of the members, the Summit club was able to erect a 200K gym for about 120K (1990 prices). The address is 4010 Robb Street West Summit MS (mailing address P.O. Box 94).
An interesting note is that gym floor was the practice floor used by Bobby Knight was able to be bought by the club and with the donation of time and effort by local carpenters the gym has a suspended playing floor. For those wondering during the time after the gym in E. McComb MS burned and the first use of the new building the basketball program continued mostly held at the gyms at SMCC (Southwest MS Community College).
The Pancake Breakfast - One of the original fundraisers - has become an area favorite and is held in conjunction with the Summit MS Fall Festival which is held the second weekend in October, the date this year is the 8th.
William Harris Jr President
Summit MS Rotary Club 2022-23