Sports hall-of-fame inductions in Gainesville Saturday

GAINESVILLE - The Northeast Georgia History Center is finalizing plans for the induction of the first members of its sports hall of fame.

The ceremony will be held Saturday at Riverside Military Academy as part of a brunch which is to begin at 10:30.

History center officials have spent the past several months putting together a list of inductees - and 66 individuals will become the first members of the Northeast Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

They say they have commitments from 55 of them or representatives of their families to attend the ceremony. In all, more than 400 people, as of mid-morning Wednesday, had made reservations to attend.

The inductees are men and women who have achieved national recognition. The hall of fame will be a part of the Northeast Georgia History Center which opened on Academy Street earlier this year.

Inductions are planned on an annual basis and a committee, chaired by Phil Jackson, retired longtime sports editor of The Times, has been appointed to consider future nominations.

The sports represented by the first group of athletes are baseball, football,
basketball, auto racing, soccer, golf, weightlifting, and equestrian.

2004 Initial list of Inductees

*(D) - deceased

BASEBALL

Alf Anderson

Cris Carpenter

Spurgeon "Spud" Chandler (D)

Ty Cobb (D)

Jeff Cooper

Jody Davis

Warner Fusselle

Weldon Henley (D)

Bill Kennedy

Johnny Mize (D)

Cy Moore (D)

Joe Pittard (D)

Jack Roberts

Billy Wilson (D)

Ivey Wingo (D)



FOOTBALL

Terry Allen

Sidney Allred

Cy Bell (D)

D.J. Campbell

Bucky Curtis

Dee Dowis

Damon Evans

Chan Gailey

Charlie Gignilliat

Avery Hall

Corey Hulsey

Cliff Kimsey

Bobby Lamb

Billy Lothridge (D)

Billy Martin

Paul Randolph

Preston Ridlehuber

Billy Joe "Dude" Thompson (D)

Tommy West

Chester Willis

Mike Wilson

Ronnie Wilson

Steve Wilson



BASKETBALL

Sally Bell

Julius Brown

Dale Davis

Brenda Hill

Mahogeny Hudson

John "Whack" Hyder (D)

Lynn Jarrett

Martha Moss

Mike Nordholz

Brenda Paul

Kitty Rucker

Luke Rushton

Maxie Skinner

Antoine Whelchel



AUTO RACING

"Doc" Bundy

Bill Elliott

Roy Hall (D)

Bud Lunsford

Raymond Parks

Loy Seay (D)



SOCCER

Stephanie Yarem Ransom



GOLF

Tommy Aaron

Reg Murphy

Tommy Valentine

DeWitt Weaver

Madge McDonald Zorn (D)



WEIGHTLIFTING

Paul Anderson (D)

Tom Hardman



EQUESTRIAN

Fred Hooper (D)

Boyd Hudgins