TUPELO – It was 25 years ago.

Ronald Reagan had the White House. Wham! topped the music charts. Postage stamps cost 20 cents. And a little-known concept called the Tupelo Sportsplex was about to become reality.

It has been a quarter century since a group of residents, led by Jim Ballard, rallied to build a state-of-the-art sportsplex in today’s Ballard Park.

When complete, it would boast a multi-field facility with parking, rest rooms and a concession stand. It would be large enough and nice enough to host state tournaments. And, most importantly, it would give Tupelo’s growing number of sports families a central location to watch children compete.

Planning started in 1985. Ground was broken in 1986. And the first tournament was played in 1987. Since then, the Tupelo Sportsplex has hosted thousands of children, hundreds of teams and countless activities. It also has grown with more fields, more lights and more amenities.

And now, to commemorate the facility’s silver anniversary, the city will unveil a $250,000 renovation project to enlarge the concession stand, add more bathrooms, construct a Wall of Champions and build the Weston Reed Memorial Plaza.

A dedication ceremony for those improvements is scheduled for March 25. But the memories already have begun.

“It just brings tears to my eyes,” said Judy Ballard, whose late husband, Jim, spearheaded the sportsplex effort.

“It was absolutely the happiest times in our lives when our children were playing soccer and having fun,” she said. “It was just a wonderful way for us to bond as a family. When I go back out there now, I’m just amazed that he started all this.”

Jim Ballard was president of the Tupelo Soccer Association in the mid-1980s. Although the association had some 50 teams, the city didn’t have many dedicated fields.

Some games were held in Skyline, others at the baseball fields in City Park, and some at what was then called Westwood Park – now Ballard Park.

It was renamed after Tupelo’s former mayor, James Ballard, unrelated to Jim and Judy Ballard.

“That was nothing but bean fields and we had one soccer field,” recalled Chip Petersen, who headed the city’s Parks and Recreation Department at the time. “We made three playing fields in the bean fields.”

Then Jim Ballard visited the Atlanta suburb of Conyers and saw a sprawling sportsplex large enough for several teams to play at once. Soon after, he had a vision.

“He actually woke up one morning and said, ‘Judy, I had a dream last night about that soccer complex in Atlanta,’” Judy Ballard said. “And he said, ‘We could do that. We’ve got enough good people in Tupelo. We could have a fundraiser and all the children can play at the same place.’”

Thus began a whirlwind process of spaghetti suppers, dances, car washes, solicitations, and check ceremonies that eventually drew in every sector of the community.

“Oh, I remember those spaghetti suppers and the dances,” laughed Kara Hobson, who played youth soccer at the time. “I haven’t thought about that in years.”

But it took awhile to convince people it had potential.

“I remember the first meeting,” said Jimmy Pappas, a Tupelo businessman instrumental in the process. “The room was full of people, and there were numbers flying around about how much it would cost to build it. After that, most people disappeared. They didn’t think it could be done. But a few of us hung in there.”

The sportsplex, they estimated, would cost an estimated $400,000, which in today’s dollars is more than $805,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the facility also would generate tax revenue – about $34,000 annually – by attracting out-of-town teams to compete in large tournaments. It also would be a jewel for the city, supporters said.

Slowly, people began to believe in the dream. The city of Tupelo allocated $45,000 to the project in 1986. The Convention and Visitors Bureau gave $70,000 the same year. And Cook Coggin Engineers donated thousands of dollars worth of engineering and design work.

Fundraisers and corporate donations provided the rest of the money. They were organized and solicited by numerous helpers, including Pappas and residents Jim Bain, Harold Hudson, Ellen Short and Paul Eason.

But most credit Jim Ballard with the yeoman’s share of the work.

“He talked to everyone he could imagine, and they probably just got tired of saying no and finally just gave in,” Judy Ballard recalled. “And then he talked to Mr. L.D. Hancock and talked him into donating some of the land. He was very, very supportive of donating the land.”

The facility opened in 1987 and immediately served more than 1,700 youth in the Parks and Recreation programs, as well as those in the Special Olympics. Among the first to play there was Adam Morgan.

“At the time it was kind of ground-breaking,” Morgan said. “There were eight to 10 soccer fields all at once. That was when soccer really started to catch on. We were well ahead of the rest of the state in building something like that.”

But since then, other communities have followed Tupelo’s lead. Sprawling facilities have emerged in New Albany, Corinth, Oxford and elsewhere – some surpassing what Tupelo has done.

The city has responded with major additions like the recent nine-field baseball complex and 1-mile cross country track. The expanded concessions stand and bathroom facilities also are part of that effort.

But the improvements shouldn’t stop there, Petersen said.

“We need to keep improving the facility because every city is copying Tupelo,” he said. “We need to make it bigger and better.”

It’s unlikely, though, that supporters can ever recreate the fundraising blitz of the mid-1980s. Many involved in the first effort said Tupelo has changed over the years. People aren’t as involved as they used to be.

Back then, said Parks and Rec Office Manager Lisa Russell, “they were all so excited about it. It was something fun, the dances and spaghetti suppers. It was like a PTO, and they had a big time raising money. Nowadays it seems you have to almost drag people to volunteer.”

People don’t need dragging to enjoy the sportsplex, though. Every week, thousands of families gather to coach and play and cheer their loved ones.

“It’s the city’s biggest community gathering, and it happens two or three times a week,” said current Parks and Rec Director Don Lewis. “It’s like a reunion of thousands of people – parents and grandparents and children and friends, all there together.”

And Lewis said, with any luck, the tradition will continue another 25 years. Or longer.

Contact Emily Le Coz at (662) 678-1588 or emily.lecoz@djournal.com.