Carmie ‘Pete’ Pompey on the football field in 1994. (AFRO File Photo)
Carmie “Pete” Pompey died of pneumonia on Jan. 22 at the age of 75. He had been living with Alzheimer’s disease since 2011. Pompey spent his 37 year career as an educator in Baltimore City where he touched the lives of countless youth. He spent 31 of those years as the basketball and football coach of Dunbar and Edmondson High Schools. Between both sports he coached 776 games and amassed 533 victories, and many of those years he also served as the school’s athletic director as well.
Pompey, a West Baltimore native and Douglass High School graduate, then went on to Morgan State University, where he played quarterback, until he graduated in 1964. His first job in the Baltimore City school system was in 1966 at Harlem Park Middle School where he became the physical education teacher and from there he would go on to Edmondson High School. In 1986 he took over as head football and basketball coach as well as athletic director after Bob Wade left the program to become the University of Maryland men’s basketball coach.
Pompey enjoyed the most success in his career during the six years he spent at Dunbar High School including a national 1st place ranking, a coach of the year award, a 57 game winning streak and the Dunbar Poets’ first state title in 1992. That celebration would be cut short in 1993 when Coach Pompey was placed on administrative leave for an alleged misuse of funds from the school’s athletic department. The money, in excess of $51,000, was said to be earned by students working in a concession stand at Camden Yards. Pompey was cleared of all charges after a 14 month long investigation by then Baltimore City State’s Attorney, Stuart O. Simms.
“Coach Pompey’s presence in the school makes a difference and the entire graduating class paid the price of your decision to remove him pending the outcome of the State’s Attorney’s investigation,” read the letter submitted by Lori Phelps, then a Dunbar student’s parent and volunteer in the school’s test preparatory association. The letter continued, “now that the investigation is closed and no charges have been filed, Coach Pompey needs to be reinstated at Dunbar High School.”
However, after the investigation Coach Pompey was reassigned to Edmondson in 1994.
Pompey is reportedly survived by his sisters Carole Brown and Jean Nicholas; daughter Rhonda McNair; son-in-law Thomas McNair and three grandchildren.
The viewing for Carmie “Pete” Pompey will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Jan. 31 at the Wylie Funeral Home in Randallstown, Md. The service to celebrate the life of Coach Pompey will be held at Morgan State University’s Murphy Fine Arts Center on Feb. 1 with the wake beginning at 3 p.m. followed by the service at 4 p.m. The family asks that anyone who attended a school where Pompey taught wear the school’s colors.