Born: Feb. 6, 1961 in Milwaukee. Raised in Arab, Ala.

Parents: Hank and Marlene Matuszak.

Marital Status: Single.

Children: None.

Lowndes County Connection: Worked in three capacities at The Commercial Dispatch, serving as a sports writer from 1984-87, sports editor from 1994-2008 and sports copy editor from 2008-10.

Henry Matuszak received the surprise and thrill of a lifetime on April 18, 2025 when he was honored at the inaugural Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame board of directors called a special session during the banquet and passed a motion to create an award in Henry’s name.

Members of the board presented the unsuspecting recipient with the Henry G. Matuszak Founders Award in recognition of his role in starting the Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame.

In making the presentation, the board announced the award would be presented annually to individuals who made behind the scene contributions to sports in Lowndes County. 

The idea of the award is to recognize individuals like Henry, who was a basketball manager and statistician in high school and college and later became a sports writer/editor (most notably at The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus).

Henry first presented an idea to honor sports icons from Lowndes County when he got an interested party to meet at the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau on Dec. 16, 2022. He met with Nancy Carpenter, Frank Griffin and Glenn Lautzenhiser to see if it was possible to start a county sports hall of fame.

When it was determined there was enough interest, a board consisting of Henry, Glenn, Trip Hairston, Tom Buckley, Colin Krieger, Tony Phinisey and Jeff Smith was formed and soon afterwards the Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame was officially credited as a nonprofit organization.

Henry got the idea for the hall of fame when he was nominated for the Marshall County Sports Hall of Fame in his home county in Alabama. He started thinking he didn’t remember writing articles about a Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame when he wrote for The Commercial Dispatch. He quickly recalled there wasn’t such an organization.

Henry started to think about who he would put in a Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame if there was one. He began doing research and writing down names and eventually started writing profiles.

It started out as fun, but Henry soon began to wonder why he was doing so much work and thought there had to be a reason. That’s when he decided to make some calls and gauge interest in actually creating a Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame.

When the initial group met for the first time, Henry submitted nearly 200 names that he thought could be candidates for the hall of fame. He presented a list of athletes, coaches and contributors – both male and female. Listed were athletes and coaches who gained notoriety in football, basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, swimming, boxing, golf, tennis and track.

Before beginning his quest to start the hall of fame, Henry enjoyed two tenures at The Commercial Dispatch. He was a sports writer from 1984-87 and then sports editor from 1994-2008 and sports copy editor from 2008-2010.

Henry was dedicated to his career, getting his start as a sports writer at The Starkville (Miss.) Daily News. He also covered sports at The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News, The Decatur (Ala.) Daily and The Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial.

Henry is a 1979 graduate of Arab (Ala.) High School, where he was a basketball manager as a sophomore and basketball statistician as a junior and senior. He also kept baseball stats as a senior.

He went on to be a basketball and baseball statistician at Snead State Junior College in Boaz, Ala., from 1979-81 and a basketball manager at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa from 1981-84.

Born: Dec. 25, 1935.

Died: Feb. 12, 2026.

Parents: Dan and Carrie Moulds.

Marital Status: Married to Ann Clay Moulds.

Children: Danny Moulds, Mindy Moulds Klock and Patricia Moulds Madigan.

Lowndes County Connection: Worked for radio station WCBI in Columbus, announcing Stephen D. Lee High School football games on Friday nights as well as announcing Mississippi University for Women basketball games.

In a special presentation tonight at the Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet, the family of the late Doug Moulds will be presented an award on his behalf.

Doug was chosen this past December to become the first person not named Henry Matuszak to be a recipient of the Henry G. Matuszak Founder’s Award.

In a surprise motion by the Lowndes County Sports Hall of Fame board of directors at the inaugural ceremony last April, Henry was presented the award in his name for his role as the “Founding Father.”

In presenting the award a year ago, the board declared that the Henry G. Matuszak Award would be given to a recipient at each year’s banquet in the future.

The purpose of the award is to recognize individuals who contribute to sports behind the scenes rather than scoring touchdowns in football, making 3-pointers in basketball, hitting home runs in baseball, kicking goals in soccer and hitting golf balls and tennis balls.

Doug certainly fit the bill of being someone who had a major impact on sports in Lowndes County and beyond in a contributing role. His contributions came in the broadcast booth.

He started work at radio station WCBI in Columbus in 1963 right at the time the station moved its headquarters from the Gilmer Hotel to above The Commercial Dispatch building.

While working for WCBI, Doug became a popular and well known figure for reporting sports news and calling

Stephen D. Lee High School football games on Friday nights.

During his Lee broadcasts he became noted for giving thanks to “almighty God” and that made an impression on his listeners.

Some listeners claimed it was like they were actually at the games when they listened to Doug describe the action on the radio.

In addition to announcing Lee High football games for 13 years, locally he introduced Mississippi University for Women basketball to the airwaves by becoming the team’s first broadcaster in 1982-83.

Calling MUW games wasn’t Doug’s only experience broadcasting college sports. He called University of Mississippi men’s basketball and football games in 1974-75, University of Arkansas at Little Rock basketball 1979-82, Memphis State basketball and football 1984-85, Arkansas State basketball and football 1996-98 and East Mississippi Community College basketball and football 1998-2002.

Other media experience included being the weekend sports anchor for TV 7 in Little Rock and managing radio station WLOV in West Point, Miss.

Doug even devoted his free time to coaching Little League baseball at Propst Park and YMCA basketball and football in Columbus from 1966-71 when his son Danny played sports. His 1971 baseball team advanced to the state and regional tournaments.