The Old North State has produced its fair share of superstars in the sporting world. And some more folks are about to be recognized for their contributions.
The N.C. Sports Hall of Fame recently announced the 2018 class of inductees. This year's class includes people involved in sports as diverse as baseball, golf, tennis, volleyball -- and even speedskating - though this year's class skews to baseball.
“The achievements of this year’s class of inductees enrich North
Carolina’s remarkable sports heritage, and the individuals have
certainly earned the honor of joining the 336 men and women who have
been previously enshrined,” said Nora Lynn Finch, president of the Hall.
“This is our 55th class, and we look forward to celebrating this
special time in our state’s sports history."
Here, courtesy of the N&O, is a bit more about this year's inductees, who will be enshrined on May 4 in Raleigh:
DONNA ANDREWS: An outstanding
golfer, Andrews won a major title on the LPGA Tour and five other
tournaments during her time on the tour from 1990 to 2005. She finished
in the top 10 in money earned in a season three times. The Lynchburg,
Va., native is now a teaching pro in Pinehurst.
SCOTT BANKHEAD:
Bankhead, an All-American pitcher at North Carolina, had a 10-year
major league career, including six with the Seattle Mariners, with whom
he won 14 games in 1989. The Raleigh native and Asheboro resident
produced two of the best seasons in Tar Heel history.
HAL “SKINNY” BROWN *:
Brown pitched for six teams in his major league career, which spanned
from 1951 to 1964. His best season came in 1960 with the Orioles.
Baltimore battled the Yankees all summer for first place in the American
League race before finishing second. Brown, born in Greensboro, went
12-5 with a 3.06 ERA that season.
CHRIS CAMMACK*: Almost 50
years after graduation, Cammack still ranks as one of N.C. State’s best
all-around baseball players. The Fayetteville native starred at third
base for four years, earning all-ACC honors four times and set the
Wolfpack record for single-season batting average with a .429 mark in
1969. He was also a point guard on a state championship high school
basketball team at Fayetteville High.
JOEY CHEEK:
Cheek, a Greensboro native, has won three Olympic medals in speed
skating. He began as an inline skater as a teen before switching to
speed skating. He won medals in the 2002 and 2006 Olympic Games. He is
also a well-known humanitarian, co-founding Team Darfur, an
international association of athletes devoted to raising awareness of
humanitarian crises related to the war in Darfur.
WES CHESSON:
Chesson, a native of Edenton, played for former Duke star Jerry McGee
in high school at Holmes High and then went on to Duke himself. He was a
star receiver and punter for the Blue Devils in the late 1960s. By the
time he graduated, he was the leading receiver in ACC history and was
drafted by the Atlanta Falcons.
LAURA DUPONT *:
A native of Louisville, Ky., Dupont moved to Charlotte as a teenager
and quickly dominated the state’s junior tennis tournaments. She
attended North Carolina, where she won the pre-NCAA national collegiate
championship. After graduation, she joined the WTA Tour, where she was a
standout in both singles and doubles.
MINDY BALLOU FITZPATRICK:
Fitzpatrick, a native of Sea Level, was a volleyball and basketball
standout at West Carteret High School. She went on to become a
collegiate basketball star at South Carolina, where she played from
1983-86 and was a three-time All-American. She later became a
championship surfer.
BILL HAYES:
Hayes spent 27 years as a college head football coach and won 195
games, including stints at N.C. A&T (1988-2002) and Winston-Salem
State (1976-87). After his coaching career, he served as athletic
director at his alma mater, N.C. Carolina Central, Florida A&M and
Winston-Salem State.
JACK HOLLEY*:
Holley was an outstanding athlete at New Hanover High School and
graduated from Guilford College. He coached 46 years at the high school
level, and his football teams won 412 games, which placed him in the top
10 nationally at one time. His stops included Tabor City and two long
stints at Wallace-Rose Hill, among others.
PAUL JONES*: Jones,
born in Thomasville and a graduate of East Carolina, compiled a
brilliant basketball coaching record at Kinston High School. He spent 38
seasons there, from 1957 through ’95, and his teams won 662 games and
18 conference championships along with two N.C. High School Athletic
Association state titles and four runner-up finishes. He also coached a
team to a state title in baseball.
MIKE MARTIN: Martin
has built one of the greatest collegiate baseball programs in the
country in his 38 years at Florida State. The Gastonia native has the
most wins and the highest winning percentage of any active coach. Under
his direction, Florida State has become a fixture in the national polls
and NCAA Tournament play.
FRANK “JAKIE” MAY*: A
Youngsville native, May had a 14-year major league career. The
left-hander pitched for three National League teams between the 1917 and
1932 seasons. He had 72 major league wins, including 15 for Cincinnati
in 1927, and finished his career with a 3.88 ERA.
JOE WEST: West was born in
Asheville, graduated from Rose High in Greenville and played football at
Elon. He is the longest tenured umpire currently working in major
league baseball, with over 40 seasons, and prior to his induction in the
Hall has worked in six World Series, nine League Championship series
and three All-Star games.
FRED WHITFIELD:
Whitfield has teamed with Michael Jordan to run the Charlotte Hornets.
President and chief operating officer of the franchise, which he joined
in 2006, the native of Greensboro graduated from Campbell University and
is in that school’s sports Hall of Fame. Thousands of young people in
Charlotte have benefited from his civic work over the years.
*Inducted posthumously
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baseball. Show all posts
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Friday, January 23, 2009
Former N.C. Gov. Scott & oldest living MLBer Werber pass away
Rob Christensen has penned a nice piece about the passing of former Gov. Bob Scott, who died today at age 79.
"Scott served as the state's chief executive from 1969 to 1973, a time of social unrest arising from racial divisions and the Vietnam War. Scott was instrumental in unifying the state's university system and helped push through the legislature the first tax on tobacco -- then a political sacred cow. ...
" 'North Carolina has lost one of our greatest governors today, and many of us have lost a friend,' Gov. Beverly Perdue said in a statement.
"Scott, she said, 'always believed that North Carolina could be a better place, with wider doors of opportunity for all our people, and he worked to make it so.' She ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset Tuesday. ..."
Across the Piedmont, in Charlotte, Bill Werber, the oldest living Major League Baseball player, died at age 100.
"Scott served as the state's chief executive from 1969 to 1973, a time of social unrest arising from racial divisions and the Vietnam War. Scott was instrumental in unifying the state's university system and helped push through the legislature the first tax on tobacco -- then a political sacred cow. ...
" 'North Carolina has lost one of our greatest governors today, and many of us have lost a friend,' Gov. Beverly Perdue said in a statement.
"Scott, she said, 'always believed that North Carolina could be a better place, with wider doors of opportunity for all our people, and he worked to make it so.' She ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff until sunset Tuesday. ..."
Across the Piedmont, in Charlotte, Bill Werber, the oldest living Major League Baseball player, died at age 100.
Werber was also the first basketball All-American at Duke.
"Werber had lived in Charlotte since 1998 at the Carriage Club retirement community to be near daughter Pat Bryant, who closely supervised his day-to-day care.
"Even into his late 90s, Werber would stay up past his normal 9 p.m. bedtime to watch Duke basketball games on TV.
"He often wore a Duke golf shirt and usually kept a Duke blanket wrapped around his legs."
Friday, December 05, 2008
Winston and Salem's baseball team no longer the Warthogs
Winston-Salem still has a minor league baseball team, but they are no longer the Warthogs.
Instead, the team will be known as the "Dash," a "nod to the hyphen between 'Winston' and 'Salem' and the city's history," says the Journal.
"The team unveiled the new name -- and the new logo, uniforms, colors and mascot -- at a midday party yesterday at the Millennium Center downtown."
(Warning: This part coming up does not sound promising. ...)
"The team's mascot is a yet-to-be-named red furry animal, a cartoonish cross between a bear and a dog with a mohawk and lightning bolts over its ears."
Instead, the team will be known as the "Dash," a "nod to the hyphen between 'Winston' and 'Salem' and the city's history," says the Journal.
"The team unveiled the new name -- and the new logo, uniforms, colors and mascot -- at a midday party yesterday at the Millennium Center downtown."
(Warning: This part coming up does not sound promising. ...)
"The team's mascot is a yet-to-be-named red furry animal, a cartoonish cross between a bear and a dog with a mohawk and lightning bolts over its ears."
The team's owners and managers collected more than 3,000 submissions for the new team nickname, then narrowed those to five. The team eliminated the four others -- Rhinos, Aviators, Wallbangers and Racers -- after talking with corporate sponsors and season-ticket holders, Kevin Terry, the team's president, said.
"A lot of people leaned toward the Dash," Terry said. "You can't have Winston-Salem without the dash, and then it ties into baseball because you can dash around the bases and an outfielder can dash after a ball."
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Quick hits: One museum sees dwindling numbers, while another is running out of space
10 years after fire to Wolfe house, visitors dwindle
"Any other old home so badly damaged by fire would have been razed.
"Early on the morning of July 24, 1998," writes the Asheville Citizen-Times, "an arsonist broke a window in the dining room of the Thomas Wolfe House, a wood frame home memorialized in the author’s autobiographical 1929 novel 'Look Homeward, Angel.' The person started a fire that smoldered for an hour or so, then erupted into a conflagration.At 3:07 a.m., a call to 911 sent more than 25 firefighters to the house on Spruce Street, and they found flames shooting through the crumbling slate roof of the rambling, 29-room home.
"Built in 1883 and significantly expanded in 1916, the house was the boyhood home of the famous American author from 1906-16 and a tourist draw that brought in 30,000 visitors annually.
"And it was burning down.
" 'I would say in another five-eight minutes we would’ve lost that house,' said Tommy Brooks, a division chief with Asheville Fire and Rescue and a captain at the time of the fire 10 years ago this week.
"Firefighters saved most of the structure and 85 percent of the artifacts, though, and after an extensive renovation, the site reopened in 2004. But visitation has never returned to pre-fire levels, and state officials and site workers struggle to explain why. ..."
A museum loaded with N.C. history
"Walk into the North Carolina Baseball Museum, and you wonder where to begin," writes the News & Observer's A.J. Carr.
"The 3,200 square-foot space inside Fleming Stadium is stocked with about 4,000 items, from a 1893 Eastern League scorebook to an autographed bat by Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton.
"Since the facility opened in 2004, an estimated 30,000 visitors from 45 states have perused the montage of pictures, pennants, gloves, bats, hats and other memorabilia.
"Organizers say it's running out of space, while still seeking more memorabilia. A campaign is getting under way to raise $200,000 to add more room. ..."
"Any other old home so badly damaged by fire would have been razed.
"Early on the morning of July 24, 1998," writes the Asheville Citizen-Times, "an arsonist broke a window in the dining room of the Thomas Wolfe House, a wood frame home memorialized in the author’s autobiographical 1929 novel 'Look Homeward, Angel.' The person started a fire that smoldered for an hour or so, then erupted into a conflagration.At 3:07 a.m., a call to 911 sent more than 25 firefighters to the house on Spruce Street, and they found flames shooting through the crumbling slate roof of the rambling, 29-room home.
"Built in 1883 and significantly expanded in 1916, the house was the boyhood home of the famous American author from 1906-16 and a tourist draw that brought in 30,000 visitors annually.
"And it was burning down.
" 'I would say in another five-eight minutes we would’ve lost that house,' said Tommy Brooks, a division chief with Asheville Fire and Rescue and a captain at the time of the fire 10 years ago this week.
"Firefighters saved most of the structure and 85 percent of the artifacts, though, and after an extensive renovation, the site reopened in 2004. But visitation has never returned to pre-fire levels, and state officials and site workers struggle to explain why. ..."
A museum loaded with N.C. history
"Walk into the North Carolina Baseball Museum, and you wonder where to begin," writes the News & Observer's A.J. Carr.
"The 3,200 square-foot space inside Fleming Stadium is stocked with about 4,000 items, from a 1893 Eastern League scorebook to an autographed bat by Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton.
"Since the facility opened in 2004, an estimated 30,000 visitors from 45 states have perused the montage of pictures, pennants, gloves, bats, hats and other memorabilia.
"Organizers say it's running out of space, while still seeking more memorabilia. A campaign is getting under way to raise $200,000 to add more room. ..."
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