The biggest collection of Jefferson County’s greatest athletes in one room at one time came together Saturday night on the arena floor at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.
That is how Jeff Gross, chairman of the Jefferson County Sports Hall of Fame, termed the inaugural induction banquet, a celebration of 72 former high school, college and professional standouts with ties to Jefferson County and 10 others not native to the county who competed at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
“Sometimes in life, there’s only one and we got to be part of that one,” said Charles Washington, a University of Arkansas defensive back in the 1980s who was honored Saturday. “… God gifted us with gifts we were able to give back to you.”
The event was cause for all attendees to “Be in the moment,” emcee and KABZ-FM 103.7 personality David Bazzel urged.
With an estimated 450 in attendance, many local moments were also honored in the form of the county’s top 10 sports events of all time. Arkansas’ 65-64 win over Michael Jordan-led University of North Carolina in an NBC-televised basketball game on Feb. 12, 1984, topped that list. That game was played on the same arena floor.
The banquet was a culmination of nearly a year’s work by a four-man committee led by Jeff Gross to name the greatest athletes of the past 100 years. It was a century ago when Pine Bluff High School’s football team won its first of two national championships (the other came in 1939) and Bill Carr was turning 16 years ago, still a fresh-faced high school track star two Olympiads away from attaining worldwide acclaim for the city with two gold medals in the first Los Angeles Summer Games.
Carr is honored with the naming of a museum at the Main Library in Pine Bluff, where the inductees will be enshrined.
Six other men were named All-Time Greats, the original selections for the hall: Torii Hunter (baseball), Don Hutson (football), Rickey Henderson (baseball), Monte Coleman (football), Willie Roaf (football) and Basil Shabazz (multiple sports). The four living greats — Hunter, Coleman, Roaf and Shabazz — were in attendance.
“This is very special. This is the last hall-of-fame banquet I will go in,” said Roaf, who’s a member of countless halls of fame, many of them connected to Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri. “It’s only fitting we would have it in the city of Pine Bluff, where we have all of our homeboys and our homegirls.”
Roaf sat at the head of the table before making his remarks along with Shabazz, the newly hired athletic director of Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation, and Hunter, a five-time all-star who played with the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels and Detroit Tigers from 1997-2015. Highlights of Hunter’s defensive acrobatics were featured in a video honoring each inductee.
Hunter revealed a story of when he wrote a letter to then-President Bill Clinton to request $500 for an opportunity to play in an youth Olympic tournament in Seoul, South Korea, at age 16.
“Kids, if you’re in here, it’s all about your environment,” Hunter said. “It’s all about the people around you. If you’ve got five guys around you, go take a look and see if you need to be with. Are they speaking the same language you’re speaking?
“Myself, Willie, Carlos James, Jamie Bass and Keith Brown, we all spoke the same language. They grabbed me and said, ‘You can’t jump higher than me.’ ‘What? Boom.’ Basil said, ‘You can’t beat me running.’ I tested his butt and beat him one night but he won’t tell no one. That’s our secret.”
Watson Chapel alumnus and former Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears safety Dante Wesley was among 15 tabbed as Hall of Fame Legends. Wesley started his collegiate career at Arkansas and finished at UAPB before the Panthers drafted him in 2002.
“It’s great to have all this greatness in the room,” Wesley said. “You all looked up to us. We all looked up to each other, and it’s a tremendous thing to have everyone together.”
Other Hall of Fame Legends include: Jim Benton (football), Joe Barry Carroll (basketball), Willie Davis (football), Jackie Harris (football), Juliet Jackson (basketball and track), Mike Jeffcoat (baseball), Carl Kidd (football), Andrew Lang (basketball), Fat Lever (basketball), Cleo Miller (football), Ben Pearson (archery), U.S. Reed (basketball), Jackie Ridgle (basketball) and Freddie Scott (football).
Other inductees with Jefferson County ties include:
John Barfield (baseball), Jim Barnes (football), Gaye Bearden (track), Ken Biley (basketball), Stanley Blair (football), Danny Bradley (football), Mark Bradley (football), Stephen Browning (bass fishing), Mike Boschetti (football), Billy Burleson (baseball);
Boid Buie (basketball), James Dean (bowling), George Dunklin Sr. (tennis), Kenny Evans (high jump), Sam Glover (track), Earl Goldman (track), Charles Greene (track), David Hunter (decathlon), Darwin Ireland (football), Charles Johnson (baseball);
Johnny Johnson (tennis), Inetta Lee (track), Ronnie Lee (football), Josh Liddell (football), Dallas Long (shot put), Martell Mallett (football), George McKeown (golf), Tyrone McKnight (track), Wes McNulty (golf), Eric Mitchel (football);
Ernie Murry (basketball), Gordon Norwood (multiple sports), Rick Owens (baseball), Lee Palles (decathlon), Carl Preston (football and baseball), Jamey Price (baseball), Mykal Riley (basketball), Darrell Rhodes (basketball and baseball), John Searles (basketball and track), Bubba Smart (golf);
Pamela Smith (track), Elbert Stinson (track), Jeremy Sprinkle (football), Dennis Swilley (football), John Tate (basketball), Donnie Taylor (track), George Walker (football), Larry Wallace (baseball), Kevin Williams (Watson Chapel graduate, football) and Roscoe Word (football).
Twenty-five coaches were also inducted:
Billy Bock (baseball), Kirk Bock (baseball), Bobby Bolding (football), Ralph Brooks (football), Theodis Broughton (basketball), Andrew Butler (track), Allen Dunaway (football), Marion Glover (football), Foy Hammons (football), Lee Hardman (football);
Johnnie Harris (basketball), Leslie Henderson (basketball and track), Buck James (football), Johnny Jones (football), Marcus Kaufman (football), Guy Kochel (track), Alger Nash (basketball), Irvin Phillips, Herbert Pryor (basketball), Wayne Richardson (baseball);
Jerry Rook (basketball), George Shelton (football), Terri Smith (softball), Harold Steelman (football) and Asive Thomas (basketball).
Honored UAPB alumni include: James “Mack” Allen (basketball), Terron Armstead (football), Paulette Bell (track), Harold Blevins (basketball), Robert “Bobby” Brown (track), Wallace Francis (football), L.C. Greenwood (football), Lytonya Johnson (track), Jesse Mason (basketball) and Charles “Monk” Williams (football).
Lifetime achievement awards for contributions to local sports were presented to Albert S. Alexander, Elbert Bennett, Joy Blankenship, Ed Brown, Pat Brown, Travis Creed, Heulan Curtis, Abbott Goodwin, Jim Hill, Bud Isom, Charlie Kalkbrenner, Waple Langston, George Makris Jr., George Makris Sr., Montine McNulty, Harry Quinn, Louis Ramsey, James Reginelli, Harold Seabrook, Lester Silbernagel and Sid Simpson.
Longtime PBHS fan and team manager Greg Walker received a plaque for his contributions as well.
Disclosure: I.C. Murrell is a committee member for the Jefferson County Sports Hall of Fame, along with Jim Harris of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, Carl Whimper of the Watson Chapel School District, and Gross.
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