NORTH CAROLINA ATHLETIC DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION NAMES 16TH HALL OF FAME CLASS

Three members have been named by the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association as the 16th class for induction in its own Hall of Fame.

Bruce Hardin, Marion Kirby and Que Tucker will become the newest members of the NCADA Hall of Fame. The three will be recognized at the annual North Carolina Athletic Directors Association state conference at the Grove Park Inn with the Hall of Fame banquet scheduled for Tuesday night, March 23.

The NCADA Hall of Fame has been established to recognize achievement and excellence for athletic administration. The inductees are honored at the NCADA’s annual state convention, and a permanent display honoring the athletic directors’ Hall of Fame is located in the offices of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association in Chapel Hill. The new class brings to 61 the number in the Hall.

This year’s inductees include:

BRUCE HARDIN

Bruce Hardin has been a very successful football coach at both the high school and collegiate level as well as an outstanding athletic director.

A graduate of Chase High School who earned his undergraduate degree at Appalachian State, Hardin’s teams earned two state football titles and three runner-up finishes in 27 years as a high school head coach. Most recently he has been the head coach at Marvin Ridge High School, but he also served as Charlotte Providence (2001-03), Kannapolis A.L. Brown (1989-2000). West Charlotte (1980-89) and Charlotte Harding (1977-80), after serving as an assistant coach at Charlotte Olympic for 10 years. He was also his school’s athletic director at several of those stops.

At the college level he served as an assistant coach at The Citadel and at the United States Military Academy, the latter from 2003-07.

Bruce was the head coach in both the North Carolina Coaches Association East-West game and the Shrine Bowl. He also was recognized by the NCHSAA with both coach of the year and athletic director of the year honors. He will be inducted into the NCHSAA Hall of Fame in April.

MARION KIRBY

A 1964 graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne College, where he played on an NAIA national championship football team, Marion Kirby established himself as one of North Carolina’s top coaches as well as an athletic administrator.

An all-state player in his hometown of Hickory, Kirby went on to graduate from L-R in 1964 after lettering four years in football. After a year as a graduate assistant at East Carolina, he went to John Holmes High School in Edenton and assumed the head coaching duties there through 1972, posting a mark of 59-14-3 and winning three conference titles.

Then Kirby went to Greensboro Page, where he established the Pirates as one of the state’s top programs for over 20 years. His teams captured NCHSAA state 4-A championships in 1980, ’83, ’84 and ’85 and were runners-up in ’82. His Page teams went to the playoffs 16 times and won 13 league crowns. In all, 25 of his teams won at least seven games, and his career coaching mark at the prep level was 278-65-8.

A member of the Lenoir-Rhyne College Sports Hall of Fame, Kirby left Page to build Greensboro College’s new football program from scratch, fielding its first team in 1997. He also served as athletic director at Guilford College.

He also has been a tireless worker for the North Carolina Coaches Association as secretary-treasurer for many years and is a member of the NCHSAA Hall of Fame..

QUE TUCKER

Que Tucker is currently the deputy executive director of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association after an outstanding career as a women’s basketball coach.

Que came to the NCHSAA in 1991 after a stint as an assistant coach for the N.C. State University women’s basketball program. Prior to entering the collegiate ranks, she had been a very successful high school coach in both volleyball and basketball at Reidsville, from 1978 to ’88.

A member of the Mars Hill College Athletic Hall of Fame, Que also served as a game official in volleyball, basketball and softball prior to her joining the NCHSAA staff.

She came to the NCHSAA to be in charge of the Association’s student services program, which includes components of alcohol and other drug education and awareness, leadership training and the like. She was elevated to the role of deputy executive director in January of 2005, where she is responsible for overseeing the NCHSAA’s 23-sport program.

She has also been very involved with the National Federation of State High School Associations as well as working closely with the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association and the N.C. Coaches Association.

Honorees in the charter class of the Hall of Fame, inducted in 1995, included NCHSAA executive director Charlie Adams, former Charlotte-Mecklenburg director of athletics Dave Harris, Russ Blunt of Durham’s Hillside High School, long-time Greenville Rose athletic director and NCADA executive secretary Richard “Bud” Phillips; former High Point athletic administrator A.J. “Tony” Simeon, and Norma Harbin of Winston-Salem, the first female athletic director at a 4-A school in North Carolina.

Last year’s inductees include Sandra Langley of Pinetops, Bob Catapano of Raleigh and Shelly Marsh of Smithfield.