Eight Named To Join NCHSAA Hall of Fame
CHAPEL HILL—Eight more outstanding individuals in the annals of state prep athletics have been selected for induction into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Rosalie Barden of Wilson, Sheila Boles of Wilmington, Jimmy Fleming of Creedmoor, John Frye of Vass, Jerry Johnson of Goldsboro, the late Mike Matheson of Catawba, the late John Morris of High Point, and Tom Suiter of Raleigh have been named as the 26th group of inductees to join the prestigious hall. That brings to 140 the number enshrined.
The new inductees will be honored during special halftime ceremonies at a football game at Kenan Stadium on Saturday, September 10, when North Carolina takes on Rutgers. The University of North Carolina has designated the day as the 27th annual NCHSAA Day. The new class will officially be inducted at the special Hall of Fame banquet next spring in Chapel Hill.
The NCHSAA Hall of Fame is supported in part by a special grant from GlaxoSmithKline.
“These individuals joining the Association Hall of Fame this year have had a tremendous impact on high school athletics across North Carolina,” said NCHSAA commissioner Davis Whitfield. “Their accomplishments are impressive, but the character they exemplify and the lives they touched are truly representative of what the NCHSAA stands for. Their selection maintains the standards of excellence established by our previous inductees, and we are proud to honor these deserving individuals.”
Rosalie Bardin
Rosalie Bardin has been an outstanding coach and administrator during her career in education.
After graduating from Lucama High School and then magna cum laude from Atlantic Christian (now Barton) College, Bardin began a stellar run at Southern Nash Senior High School, where she coached women’s basketball for 12 years, volleyball for 18, track and field for seven, and softball for 24, including the transition from slow pitch to fast pitch. She also served as cheerleading coach and athletic trainer during her tenure at Southern Nash.
She compiled a brilliant record in slow pitch of 373-130 and her fast pitch mark was an outstanding 71-11. Her teams earned 15 conference championships in softball, one state championship in slow pitch in 1995 and a runner-up finish in fast pitch.
Bardin moved into administration in 1998 and wound up serving as principal at Southern Nash for several years, where she has twice been Nash-Rocky Mount Principal of the Year.
Sheila Boles
Sheila Boles compiled an impressive record as a coach in several sports, but is perhaps best known as the first woman to coach a men’s varsity basketball high school team in North Carolina.
A graduate of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville, where she was a three-sport star, Boles was the first female scholarship athlete at UNC Wilmington, where she was a standout in volleyball and basketball. She began her teaching and coaching career at the junior high level and then in 1989 went to Hoggard in Wilmington. She coached men’s basketball for 11 years of her almost 20 there, men’s golf for eight and women’s golf for two and was also athletic director.
Her career coaching record in basketball included more than 300 victories, with a 167-120 men’s hoops mark at Hoggard and a school record 24 wins in one season. Her men’s golf teams won five conference titles and finished in the top five in the state four times.
. She has won a number of awards previously, including the NCHSAA Courage Award, NCHSAA Athletic Director of the Year and served on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association.
Jimmy Fleming
Jimmy Fleming is one of the state’s outstanding coaches in softball but also coached men’s basketball, track, football, baseball and cheerleading during his career at South Granville.
A graduate of Creedmoor High and East Carolina University, Fleming is best remembered for his success in softball. His teams did win four men’s conference basketball championships, but in softball South once won 14 consecutive league titles in 14 years and a whopping 164 conference games in a row to go with a 54 consecutive game win streak that spanned three different seasons. His teams won a total of seven NCHSAA state championships, including five in slow-pitch.
A member of the NCHSAA Board of Directors from 1990 through ’94, Fleming also served as athletic director at South Granville for 33 years. He coached in the North Carolina Coaches Association East-West all-star basketball game in 1986.
John Frye
Although John Frye has spent his entire teaching and coaching career in Moore County, he has had a tremendous impact across the state in the sport of tennis.
A graduate of Carthage High School (1962) and Appalachian State University (1967), he started his coaching career in 1968 at Union Pines High School and has coached in an amazing six decades. He has coached both men’s and women’s tennis, winning almost 50 conference championships and earning state team championships in both men’s and women’s tennis. The number of dual match wins Frye has earned in men’s tennis is approaching 600.
In addition, he has been a great supporter of the sport of tennis and has directed numerous conference, regional and state championship events during his career. He was the championship director of 29 different NCHSAA state finals.
Jerry Johnson
Jerry Johnson has had a stellar career in officiating as both a game official and booking agent.
A graduate of Orange High School and North Carolina A&T State University, Johnson spent 30 years in education, 26 in the Wayne County system and 15 of those as assistant principal at Dillard Middle School. His contributions in the area of officiating, however, are enormous.
He has umpired high school baseball for 36 years, calling over 3,200 games and five NCHSAA state championship series along with 22 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) tournaments. In football, his career spans 35 years and well over 1,000 games, including two NCHSAA state championships, an NCAA Division II national championship, and numerous CIAA championship games. His basketball career includes 26 years and almost 1,800 games, including a couple NCHSAA state 4-A women’s championships.
Active in his church in Goldsboro, he has earned numerous awards, including the Association’s coveted Golden Whistle Award in 2008.
Mike Matheson
The late Mike Matheson had his coaching career cut short by his untimely death due to cancer at age 41, but he compiled a remarkable legacy primarily in women’s basketball at Bandys High School in Catawba County.
A graduate of South Iredell who earned his college degree at Appalachian State University, he had an unprecedented run of success coaching the varsity women’s basketball team at Bandys from 1979 to ’89. His Bandys teams during those 10 years posted an incredible record of 268-29 and won four NCHSAA state championships, in 1981, ’82, ’87 and ’88. Those teams won 10 conference championships and lost only four games on their home floor in 10 years.
Matheson founded a basketball camp to raise money for underprivileged children that was later named in his memory.
He is a member of the Catawba County Sports Hall of Fame.
John Morris
The late John Morris was an outstanding coach and athletic administrator prior to his death at the age of 48.
Morris graduated from Perquimans High School and then from Duke University in 1958, where he had played football and baseball.
He coached football and baseball at Roxboro, posting a record in football there of 62-18-4, before moving to Reidsville for a seven-year stint as coach and athletic director from 1967 to ’74. He coached two seasons at High Point Andrews before leaving active coaching in 1976, when his diabetic condition wound up leading to the amputation of both legs. His career coaching mark was 120-58-6.
From 1976 until his untimely death in 1984, however, he served as athletic director for the High Point City schools. He was president of the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association in 1973-74.
Tom Suiter
Legendary sports television anchor Tom Suiter enjoyed a tremendous career at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, and high school athletics was an integral part of it.
Suiter, a native of Rocky Mount, attended Christ School in Arden and then went to Erskine College in Due West, S.C. Upon graduation from Erskine in 1971, he joined at WRAL and moved from weekend anchor and sports reporter to the weekday sports anchor, staying there for his entire career and retirement from full-time broadcasting in 2008.
He anchored the award winning Football Friday show on Friday nights, pioneering coverage of so many games in a single show starting in 1981 and is still running today.
The Extra Effort Awards were started at the station under his direction, honoring a high school student-athlete who excels on the field or court as well as in the classroom. He has previously been named the winner of the annual Media Representative of the Year by the NCHSAA.
The Hall of Fame plaques are on permanent display in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s Hall of Fame room, located in the Simon F. Terrell Building in Chapel Hill that houses the Association offices.
THE NCHSAA HALL OF FAME
Class of 1987 (Charter Members)
Bob Jamieson, Greensboro
Leon Brogden, Wilmington
Dave Harris, Charlotte
Class of 1988
Tony Simeon, High Point
Wilburn C. Clary, Winston-Salem
L.J. “Hap” Perry, Chapel Hill
Class of 1989
Russell Blunt, Durham
Lee Stone, Asheboro
Class of 1990
Bill Eutsler, Rockingham
Harvey Reid, Wilson
Jay Robinson, Chapel Hill
Simon Terrell, Chapel Hill
Class of 1991
Thell Overman, Wallace
Frank Mock, Kinston*
Raymond Rhodes, Raleigh*
Richard “Bud” Phillips, Greenville
Class of 1992
Everette L. “Shu” Carlton, Gastonia
George J. Cushwa, Jr., Thomasville
Norma Harbin, Winston-Salem
James G. “Choppy” Wagner, Washington*
Modeal Walsh, Robbinsville*
Everett L. “Shorty” Waters, Jacksonville
Henry Thomas “Toby” Webb, Albemarle
John W. “Jack” Young, Ahoskie*
Class of 1993
Frank Barger, Hickory*
Donald Bonner, Lumberton
George Whitfield, Hamlet
Class of 1994
George “Buck” Hardee, Wilmington
Doris Howard, Fayetteville
Bruce Peterson, Asheville
Homer Thompson, Winston-Salem
Class of 1995
Willie Bradshaw, Durham
Robert P. Colvin, Robbinsville
Joe Paul Eblen, Asheville
Augustus B. “Gus” Purcell, Charlotte
George W. Wingfield, Reidsville*
Class of 1996
Paul Gay, Sanford
John W. “Honey” Johnson, Elizabeth City*
Glenn Nixon, Clayton
Robert R. Sawyer, Greensboro
Class of 1997
Dr. Wiley “Army” Armstrong, Rocky Mount*
Chuck Clements, Gastonia*
David Lash, Winston-Salem*
Larry Lindsay, Wake Forest
Class of 1998
Gerald “Pearlie” Allen, Shelby
Norris “Pee Wee” Jones, Asheville
Bill Mayhew, Troutman
Dr. Craig Phillips, Raleigh
Mary Garber, Winston-Salem
Marvin “Red” Hoffman, Wilkesboro
Dr. Andy Miller, Asheville
Class of 1999
Charles “Babe” Howell, Webster
Paul Jones, Kinston
Jerry McGee, Elizabeth City
Jim Mills, Garner
Joe Mills, Raleigh
Donna Norman, High Point
Robert Paroli, Fayetteville
Class of 2000
Marion Kirby, Greensboro
Don Patrick, Newton
Hilda Worthington, Greenville
Charles England, Lexington*
Class of 2001
Jack Groce, Boone
Tom Northington, Greensboro
Walter Rogers, Roxboro
Wally Shelton, Mount Airy
John Swofford, Greensboro
Morris Walker, West Jefferson
Herb Young, Cary
Class of 2002
Cliff Brookshire, Brevard
Andrea Cozart, High Point
Bill Friday, Chapel Hill
Herman Hines, Reidsville
Bob Lee, Southern Pines
Ray Oxendine, Pembroke
Class of 2003
Gerald Austin, Greensboro
Pat Harrell, Hertford
Hoy Isaacs, Reidsville*
Raymond “Buddy” Luper, Fayetteville*
David Maynard, Burlington
Clarence Moore, Asheville*
Pres Mull, Lexington
Tom Pryor, Edneyville
Stuart Tripp, Ayden
Class of 2004
Mike Brown, Wilmington
John Clougherty, Raleigh
James “Rabbit” Fulghum, Snow Hill
Ed Peeler, Shelby
Ned Sampson, Pembroke
Dave Smith, Washington
Kathy Stefanou, Raleigh
Carroll Wright, Clyde
Class of 2005
Tim Brayboy, Cary
Jim Burch, Cary
Dick Knox, Chapel Hill
Tom McQuaid, Beaufort*
Mike Raybon, Jamestown
Class of 2006
Al Black, Spring Lake
Pat Gainey, Taylorsville
Charlie Gregory, Randleman
Tommy Hunt, Durham
Joan Riggs, Swansboro
Don Saine, Gastonia
Class of 2007
Stuart Allen, Charlotte
Daryl Barnes, Lexington
Bob Brooks, Elizabeth City
Bill Carver, Fayetteville
Elton Hawley, Charlotte
Fred Lanford, Hudson
Bill Rucker, Black Mountain
Ronald Scott, Bear Creek
Class of 2008
Charlie Adams, Chapel Hill
Bill Bost. Catawba*
Ken Browning, Durham
Richard Hicks, Durham
Mac Morris, Greensboro
Jan Stanley, Hendersonville
Tim Stevens, Raleigh
Billy Widgeon, Morehead City
Class of 2009
Brad Faircloth, Greensboro
Gilbert Ferrell, WIlson
Bruce Hardin, Charlotte
Jim Maxwell, Durham
Vicki Peoples, Raleigh
Pete Stout, Salisbury
Carolyn Shannonhouse, Cary
Class of 2010
Harvey Brooks, Trenton
Tunney Brooks, Lumberton
Tom Brown, Maiden
Bob Catapano, Raleigh
Joe Hunt, Hendersonville *
Carolyn Rogers, Hertford
Que Tucker, Morrisville
Class of 2011
Rosalie Bardin, Wilson
Sheila Boles, Wilmington
Jimmy Fleming, Creedmoor
John Frye, Vass
Jerry Johnson, Goldsboro
Mike Matheson, Newton*
John Morris, High Point*
Tom Suiter, Raleigh
• posthumous induction