Commemorative Wheaties boxes arrive in Peabody
Peabody Market received Monday a 14-count case of Wheaties cereal from General Mills picturing the 1966 NCAA basketball champions featured in the recent Disney movie "Glory Road." Peabody High School class of 1963 alumnus Dick Myers was a member of the team from Texas Western College that beat the legendary Adolph Rupp and the Kentucky Wildcats in the game for the national title.
The movie came out in January to good reviews and has been a popular family film. Myers, who lives in Morristown, N.J., has enjoyed a whirlwind of activity associated with the movie's success, including a Hollywood premiere and dinner at the White House with President and Mrs. Bush.
General Mills does not ship each of its package styles to every grocery store in the country. Many are only provided to specific regions with an interest in the sports figures on the box. Such is the case for the box featuring the 1966 Miners of Texas Western college.
Today the college is known as UTEP — University of Texas-El Paso — and that area of the country was the recipient of the lion's share of the boxes commemorating the team and the movie.
Rick Turner, owner of Peabody Market, found out about Dick Myers and the Peabody connection to the team and began trying to hunt down some of the cereal packages for his own store.
"We have a person at our warehouse who takes care of special orders," he said. "But I had to go straight to General Mills for this."
After explaining what he wanted and why, Turner had to wait while the company located a case it could ship to Kansas.
"They are a complimentary shipment," he said. "I won't be selling them since they didn't cost me anything. We will have some fun with them during the next couple of months."
Turner said he will give some away including a donation of several boxes to a community benefit auction for a thermal imaging camera for Peabody fire department.
"It will be interesting to see what they bring," he said. "It's pretty neat that someone from Peabody is on a Wheaties box."
