Event Program
Opening Remarks ................................... Aaron Suttenfield
Presentation of Colors ............................ Rankin Safety Patrol
Pledge of Allegiance ............................... Rankin Safety Patrol
Singing of our National Anthem ........... Leslie Crist
Invocation .............................................. Rev. James Ford
Dinner
Welcome ................................................. Mayor Bryan Hough
Recognition of Special Guests ............... Eddie Wilson
Past Inductees
Corporate Sponsors
City and County Officials
Committee Members
Special Thanks
Scholarship Ceremony
Induction Ceremony
Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame Community Spirit Award
Sponsored by American and Efird .............. Aaron Suttenfield, Ron Ensley
Presented to Barry Jessen
Zeb McDowell ........................................ Eddie Wilson
Max Sherrill ........................................... Aaron Suttenfield
Phil Roberts ............................................ James Ford
Laura Randall Woodhead ....................... Doug Smith
1954-55 Hawks Baseball ......................... Gary Neely
1967-68 & 1968-69 Hawks Basketball ... Gary Neely
Closing Remarks .................................... Aaron Suttenfield
MHHS Song ........................................... led by Eddie Wilson
EGHS Songs ........................................... led by James Ford
Hall of Fame Committee
President - Aaron Suttenfield
Treasurer - Gary Neely
Secretary - Eddie Wilson
Committee Members - Scott Pope, James Ford, Doug Smith, and Ray Campbell
Scholarship Ceremony
Introducing the MHSHOF Scholarship
Bob and Marguerite Randall Scholarship for 2015-16
Sponsored by Laura Randall Woodhead
Inaugural Winners from EGHS
Raven Brooks
Austin Wood
Longterm Planning of the Scholarship Individual Endowment Opportunities
Guidelines for Applications
The MHSHOF scholarship is awarded on the basis of a competitive process that considers academic achievement, extracurricular and community involvement and financial need.
Four five hundred dollar scholarships will be paid directly to the recipient’s school, where the student must be enrolled and in good standing.
To be considered for this scholarship, applicants must meet the following criteria:
• A high school senior.
• Maintain a GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
• Applied to a credited college or university.
• Must not be a dependent of a member of the board of the MHSHOF or of the guidance department.
• Must not be a recipient of a major scholarship of $3000 or more from another source.
Purpose and Process
The purpose of the MHSHOF Scholarship is to provide college funds to deserving students with financial need. The scholarship is paid directly to the recipient’s school for tuition. The recipient supplies the information needed to submit the payment.
Application Process
Applications must be submitted on or by April 1 to the Guidance Department at East Gaston High School and Stuart Cramer High School.
Past Inductees
2007
Coach Delmer Wiles
Robert Black
2008
Arthur Davis
Bearl Davis
Max Davis
Wilbern Davis
Bertha Dunn
George Fincher
Neb Hollis
2009
Coach Dick Thompson
Vivian Laye Broome
Tommy Wilson
Don Killian
Ray Campbell
1963 MHHS Football Team
2010
Joe Huffstetler
John Farrar
Coach Joe Spears
Johnny Wike
1990 East Gaston Wrestling Team
Community Spirit Award Winner
Dwight Frady
2011
Bruce Bolick
Wayne Bolick
Frank Love
Perry Toomey
Scott Stewart
T.L. McManus
Jim McManus
Samuel “Dink” McManus
Community Spirit Award Winner
John Lewis
2012
Larry Hartsell
Freddy Whitt
Dawn Moose
Ronnie Harrison, Sr.
William Outen
1967 MHHS Football Team
Community Spirit Award Winner
Bobby John Rhyne
2013
J.B. Thompson
Charlie “Poss” Drumm
Doug Smith
Shane Trull
1940’s MHHS Hawkettes Basketball
1960’s MHHS Hawkettes Basketball
Community Spirit Award Winner
Sarah Nixon
2014
Lois Herring Parker
A.C. Hollar
Larry Lawing
Eddie Wilson
Tracy Black
Richard Dill
Community Spirit Award Winner
Buddie Hodges
School Songs
2015 Community Spirit Award
Barry Jessen
Barry Jessen has four folding chairs in his grey Chevy Trailblazer, a cooler for bottled water, and a schedule dictating when to go fuss at annoying Little League umpires who can’t distinguish the obvious difference between a ball and strike.
“For all the years they used to fuss at me for refereeing, now I get to call the umpires out for a bad pitch,” said Jessen, 72, who is not one bit bitter, and laughs when he discusses outings to watch his twin grandsons play in a 10-year-old baseball league, or his granddaughter cheer for the Hawks at Mount Holly’s middle school. Jessen has reached that chapter when he can sit on the sidelines in street clothes, but he hasn’t
forgotten what it’s like to be the ref. “It’s a thankless job. You can’t please everybody,” he said. “I found out about that real fast, but it didn’t bother me.”
Jessen’s involvement in Mount Holly sports, which has earned him the Community Spirit award in the city’s 2015 Sports Hall of Fame class, stretches from being a three-sport athlete at Mount Holly High School from 1957 to 1961, to 23 years of Saturdays in stripes, refereeing Optimist Club basketball at the Mount Holly gym for five, six hours straight. For free.
“As I recall, there wasn’t a recreation department in the city. So, having been involved in sports and athletics all my life, I wanted to help and do something,” he said of his stint from the 1970s into the 1990s. “The basketball was my passion. The pay was that we got the satisfaction of helping, and I enjoyed every minute of it. You have to contribute somehow, and that’s the way I wanted to do it.”
“He truly loved the game and the opportunity to help kids develop good basketball skills and better knowledge of the game,” Jessen’s wife of 49 years, Camille, said of her husband’s Saturday ritual. “He took special interest in watching the youth that he had coached progress. As these young ballplayers advanced to the high school level, he spent many Friday nights at East Gaston football and basketball games watching many of the Optimist players play their games on a higher level.”
Barry Jessen and his three brothers grew up within walking distance of Mount Holly’s schools. He played baseball and basketball at Mount Holly High, and also put in time on the football field. He spent four summers playing outfield for the Mount Holly-Paw Creek American Legion team. “Back in those days, it wasn’t like this day and time. We didn’t have the electronic games like kids do now. Sports is what we did,” Jessen said. “My daddy worked in textiles, and we didn’t have a whole lot like they do nowadays. I enjoyed it, and I still have a lot of memories of the fun and fellowship.”
Jessen graduated from King’s College in Charlotte with a business degree, then spent three years enlisted in the Army, which included a year in Vietnam.
He married Camille, who is one year younger, in 1965. They met when she was still in eighth grade, and he asked her to a square dance at his church. “His brother had to come pick us up, because he wasn’t old enough to drive,” she said.
Jessen’s decades at the Optimist Club are just one fragment of his contributions to Mount Holly. His two sons, now 43 and 41, were East Gaston athletes – one tennis, one
golf. “So, I still wanted to help. I was in the Booster Club. I mean, if your sons are participating, you should help,” he said. For nine years, he was in charge of the school’s concession stand on football Friday nights. “They needed someone to go to the wholesale company and get the stuff. It was a long day, and a small concession stand, but they needed somebody,” he said. “After the boys graduated, I stepped aside.”
There’s a difference, however, between stepping aside and being on the sidelines. “Even in his retirement years, he’s still helping the community,” Camille said. “You will find him every Wednesday morning at the CRO (Community Relief Organization) giving his time. He has always enjoyed helping serve his church, Good Shepherd Lutheran – sing in the church choir, visit shut-ins, be a chauffeur for doctor appointments, cook pancakes for breakfast, wash dishes, cut grass, deliver meals, work with the youth, replace light bulbs, paint a fellowship hall and always support many of the church young people at their sports events.”
Jessen worked for 35 years with the Ferry-Morse Seed Company, as a company representative in the Carolinas and Virginia. He retired at age 65. Which gives him plenty of time to use those folding chairs in the Trailblazer.
So, how much of his life has been spent playing, officiating or watching sports?
“Oh my goodness, it’s impossible to know. Four years of high school, three years of Legion ball, I don’t know,” said Jessen, who still enjoys taking the family to Atlanta for a weekend, to watch the Braves. “But time wasn’t important. You would be there because you wanted to do it. I worked very hard at it, but I enjoyed it.
“I had a blast.” ■
— By Kathy Blake
Career Highlights
• Was a 3-sport star at Mt Holly High School 1957-1961
• Officiated Optimist Club basketball as a volunteer for 23 years
• Coached tball and little league teams for 8 years
• Supports Mt Holly athletes by attending games as a fan for 6 decades
• Ran concessions for 9 years as an EGHS Booster
• Volunteers weekly for the Mt Holly Community Relief Organization
ZeB McDowell
In an era when statisticians didn’t exist, and boys played sports purely for the love of the game, Zeb McDowell excelled at everything he attempted, until loss and destiny made him walk away.
It was in the days of segregation, when McDowell, 83, attended Reid High School in Belmont; and he laughs sometimes at the joy of it all, when he sees the memories on the pages of the 1952 yearbook.
“They didn’t keep records then like they keep them now, you know. They didn’t take a whole bunch of pictures, either,” he said. “I was looking, trying to find a group picture. You wouldn’t think about it, back then….keeping records, or anything like that.”
McDowell was born in 1932 and grew up in Mountain Island, out by the dam, in a home with three brothers and four sisters, on land that his family farmed and where sports became not so much something that required skill, but something that took up the time.
“Well, there wasn’t nothing much else to do but play sports and go to school. That was our relaxation, playing sports,” he said, then laughs. “Well, I enjoyed playing sports because always, most of the time, the girls would like you more. So I had quite a few girlfriends. But I was a nervoustype person, so I had to do something all the time. Just like I am now – I can’t sit around.”
In springtime during high school, McDowell played baseball, where he had a natural edge in being left-handed and, when he wasn’t covering centerfield, he got to pitch. “Matter of fact, I was the only left-hander on that team. That was to my advantage, because my left-handed curve ball was different than the rest of them,” he said. “My curve ball, and my under-handed pitch.”
Under-handed?
“Yes, ma’am, I’d sling it under-handed instead of coming over the top.”
He said his team finished second one year, in the state tournament.
Come fall, McDowell got to play left tackle and do what he enjoyed most. “My favorite sport was football, because I loved to hit somebody,” he said, laughing again. “We went from county to county, and we had to ride the bus. We played all the schools in Gaston County and Mecklenburg County.”
In winter, McDowell was the basketball team’s 6-foot center. And again, his being left-handed was the secret weapon. “My favorite memory was that I was the big boy in basketball, and I had a pretty good left hook. A lot of people would be on my right side, then they found out I was lefthanded,” he said.
Throughout high school, McDowell played season after season, doing his best and devouring every moment, like a kid at a parking-lot carnival, before the big trucks pack it up and move it along. He did well enough that colleges found out about him, and North Carolina A&T offered a scholarship.
But that’s when destiny stepped in.
Sports had been his pastime, his joy, but it would not be the job that paid for McDowell’s college education. The athlete had to step back, and let the young man he’d become step forward.
“My father died. There were four kids still at home so I
had to help Momma with four kids,” he said. “I knew I had a scholarship, but the most important thing was I told my father on his death bed I would take care of Momma and the family…. There was a blood clot… He said, ‘Take care of Maw for me,’ and that’s what I did.”
Wardell McDowell Sr. died at age 48.
Zeb McDowell found work with Duke Power and stayed with the company, he said, about 35 years, including a segment at the McGuire Nuclear Station. “Scary? Yes, ma’am, that sure was. You had to keep your eyes open the whole time,” he said. “But I worked my way through the whole system. Every Duke Power plant, I worked at it.”
His decision to follow his father ’s wishes has guided his life in a positive way.
“Ever since then, I’ve been blessed. Really been blessed.
I have my health and my life and my strength, and I’ve never really been sick,” he said. “I had a job, and I was able to take care of my momma and my brothers and sisters, so I know the Lord blessed me from there.”
His mother, Rosie, born in 1906, lived to be 101.
McDowell still lives in Mount Holly. His first wife died, and he married Stella about 18 years ago, he said, and she brought three more children to the family. He runs a concrete business with the boys because, like he said, he just can’t sit still. Makes him nervous.
“We pour concrete just about every day. Driveways, sidewalks, at buildings, we don’t back off anything,” he said. He likes to follow the Carolina Panthers, used to watch the Washington Redskins, and keeps up with Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Hornets, but he gets fidgety if they aren’t winning. The Hall of Fame induction, he said, surprised him. “But quite naturally, I’m going to be happy,” he said. “My grandkids and my great-grandkids, they can see where I’ve come from.”
— By Kathy Blake
Career Highlights
• Played 3 sports at Reid High School until graduating 1952
• Turned down scholarship offers in football and basketball to support family
• Worked for Duke Power for 36 years
• Still active in his concrete business and growing his garden
• Is a fan of the Panthers and Hornets
Max sherrill
On a 1940s summer day, two young boys emerged simultaneously from their company-built homes in the steam plant neighborhood where the Catawba River carves a horseshoe plateau, and stepped tentatively into the gravel street to form a friendship from which they would never back away.
“I walked out my back door into my backyard, which faced his front yard, and we looked at one another, and slowly moved toward one another as 6-year-olds would do, and when I got to my side of the road, I wouldn’t cross. And when he got to his side, he wouldn’t cross,” said Don Killian, who can vividly recall the moment of 72 years ago. “We looked at each other, and later we’d argue about how long we just stared at each other. Then one of us said, ‘How old are you?’ and the other said, ‘Well, how old are you?’ and that started it right there. “We continued to talk, and moved toward the center of the road, sizing one another up. Before that morning was over, we set over in his yard and talked and talked… We just hit it off. He was so friendly.”
The other child was Max Sherrill, and he was a bit bigger, and for some reason Killian decided to call him ‘Goot.’ Mr. Sherrill called Killian ‘Little’un.’ And like the friendship, the nicknames also never went away.
Mr. Sherrill would grow up to know success in baseball – in
high school, in college, and in the late nights and long bus rides that defined the minor leagues. Killian became an educator in the subjects of cognitive psychology and sociology. But before they grew up to become men, they had the time of their lives.
“Our personalities complemented each other. We were just joined at the hip, I guess you could say. He was always kidding around, and I was more serious about things,” Killian said. “I always wished I could be as jolly as him. He’d say, ‘Little’un, you’re too serious about your stuff.’”
The boys’ daddies worked in Duke Power’s Riverbend machine shop – together – and the children passed time with games. “We’d play too much and didn’t work enough. We played every sport you could mention, and we’d create our own seasons,” Killian said. “We’d have baseball season, then tag football season, then marbles season – they’d all last about a month – then rubber gun season.”
A rubber gun was built from a square board, a clothespin and rubber band. Baseball season got more creative. “We’d hit rocks with a broom handle. We’d cut the broomsticks the length of the bat, and pick up a rock to hit the size of a pecan. You’d be amazed what that does for your eyesight,” Killian said.
Early thrills produced older skills.
Baseball remained the constant, and Mr. Sherrill pitched while Killian played short stop in junior high and high school, then on American Legion teams. They played for Mount Holly High, where Mr. Sherrill helped lead the team to the 1954 and 1955 Little Ten Conference titles, with a 29-4 record those two years. That ’54 team, Killian recalled, was Class A state runners-up. The Sherrill family moved to Stanley his senior year, which put the best friends in different jerseys for the first time.
“Max was torn. But when we played baseball against each other, he’d say before the game, ‘Now, I’m gonna bring you some heat from time to time, but you and I both know you’ll get it right,’” Killian said. “I could tell when I was gonna get his fastball. I knew what was coming.” Killian went on to play four
years at Davidson, while Mr. Sherrill joined Pfeiffer for one year before the call came from the Chicago Cubs.
His senior year in Stanley, Mr. Sherrill had met a girl, Linda Thompson, daughter of well-known coach Dick Thompson, whose household had strict rules about boys. “I always knew who he was. We met when he was a senior, and I couldn’t date till I was 16, but Max was not scared (of Mr. Thompson),” Linda Sherrill said. “So, on September 25, 1955, when Mount Holly was playing Cherryville, Daddy told me, ‘Well, I guess I’ll let you go with him this time. Nothing will become of it.’ And look what happened.”
They were married for 22 years, and had three children, Anne, Matthew and Mike, who died in 2012 from cancer.
When the Cubs called, the couple went to Pulaski, Virginia, where Mr. Sherrill, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound right-hander, went 2-10 with a 5.95 ERA in 62 inning. The following year, in Paris, Illinois, with the Class D Paris Lakers of the Midwest League he went 10-12 with a .420 ERA and 164 strike-outs.
After three seasons in the Cubs organization, the Sherrills moved on to Class B ball with the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox clubs in Raleigh and Wilson, N.C.
“Our days and nights were mixed up, so we’d sleep during the day and then after the games, we’d go out and get pizza,” Mrs. Sherrill said. “We had a wonderful time. We’d go on road trips to Morehead City and the beach, and I have such good memories of that time.”
Mr. Sherrill played six seasons in the minors, ending in 1962. He had an overall winning record his three seasons in B ball, at 17-12, with 20 starts in the 71 games he took the mound.
When faced with the choice of relocating to Bismark, North
Dakota, for Class A, Mr. Sherrill said no. Too cold, too far. He came home to Mount Holly.
“He worked for Eastern Airlines. One day on a whim, he rode over there and they hired him on the spot,” Linda Sherrill said. “He did ramp service. He held the wands to show the planes how to get in and out, and he survived all the layoffs. He’d bring home these little models for the boys, like real planes.”
Mr. Sherrill died in 1998 after a battle with diabetes. The couple had divorced in 1984.
The Mount Holly Hall of Fame induction, Linda Sherrill said, would have pleased him.
“I was tickled to death, when I heard,” she said. “I thought that one year in Stanley would have made a difference, but his whole life was in Mount Holly. That’s where his best playing days were.”
“He was a cut-up but he was competitive. He encouraged you, he pumped you up,” Killian said. “He’d say, ‘Little’un, you can hit this clown!’ He kept us loose. Looking back … I could not have asked for a better teammate.” ■
— By Kathy Blake
Career Highlights
• Led the Hawks to post season success with 12-2 record in ’54 and 8-2 in ‘55
• Batted cleanup, and played right field when not pitching for the Hawks
• Played minor league baseball for 6 seasons
• Later worked for Eastern Airlines
• Was an avid golfer until his death in 1998
Phil roBerts
PPhil Roberts’ life of perpetual motion had two beginnings: a telephone call to Mount Holly Elementary School that sent the first-grader running home in a race to beat the school bus, and a yellow legal pad from his dad on which his tiny hands logged numbers in neatly columned rows.
The phone call, from Roberts’ mother to the school office, came on February 2, 1970. Roberts’ family lived on West Catawba Avenue, just beyond the cemetery and about a mile from the school – two houses away from where the county drew the line for bus transportation. His baby sister, Penny, was sick, so would someone please get word to the boy to
walk home?
“I took off down the road and was trying to beat the bus home. It was something fun to do. I didn’t get to be bussed, so I figured I’d show them, and beat it home,” Roberts said. “I enjoyed it so much that my first nine grades I ran to school and ran home.”
About that time, Roberts’ father gave him some legal pads from work, and the child logged his distance each day – from the house, through the property by the middle school, past the gymnasium, down to his school and home again.
“It started out as rows of numbers. So the first day was a mile, and I wrote a ‘1.’ Then I’d put a ‘2.’ Then I’d add up the total,” he said. “My original log was pages and pages of columns and numbers. I also would write the weather: ‘It is cold.’ Or ‘It’s hot.’ Or ‘It’s 30 degrees.’ It kind of evolved.”
As of mid-June this year, that ‘1’ had become 160,200 miles – each distance carefully recorded – enough for Roberts, 52, to have run from Mount Holly Elementary to San Diego, Calif., and back 34 times. His milestones along the way –high school records and college records that still stand – have earned him a spot in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
“I’m very honored. I’ve been a runner for a long time, in high school and college, but it’s an honor for the town to recognize it,” Roberts said from him home in Greenville, Tenn., where he’s dominating the State of Franklin Track Club’s 50-54 age group.
On June 13, he won a 5K race on a rolling, hilly course by 3 minutes. In May, he was first among 321 competitors in 13 age groups and won by 35 seconds. The second-place guy was a teenager.
Roberts’ scampering to and from Mount Holly Elementary gave him a chance to notice details of his neighborhood.
“As I got older, like third grade, I would run more on weekends. I would see trails off of roads where people would go with their motorcycles or 4-wheelers and I’d run them,” he said. “In sixth grade, I had to run through the junior high to get to the elementary school, and one day someone asked me if I was going to run track.
“I didn’t know what it was, so I looked it up in the encyclopedia. I went out in seventh grade and found out I was good at running, and I’ve been running all along. I got better and faster and stronger at it. It led to a junior high championship in the half-mile and mile.”
Roberts said he ran a competitive 4:30 mile as a high school sophomore, but his best time was 4:26.
Word got to college scouts, and he said 72 colleges sought his attendance. “It was the way I ran,” he said. “Over the years, my thing was to be a front-runner, pushing the pace.
And I would do that against people who had way better times and accolades, but it didn’t matter. I made them prove it. College coaches looked at me as a catalyst for their team … someone who’s going to make others push, too.”
Because it was close to home and family, Roberts chose High Point College (now High Point University), but he switched to Western Carolina after one year. After his redshirt season, he ran everything from the half-mile to 10,000 meters. His legal-pad log book was showing about 105 miles per week.
Western Carolina still lists him as the record holder for 1,500 meters (1986, 3:55.10); 3,000 meters (1985, 8:19.59); 2 miles (1985, 8:59); 3 miles (1986, 13:50.80); and 200-meter Steeple (1985, 5:55.70).
He graduated in 1986 with a degree in physical education, then stayed for graduated courses and worked as an assistant track coach for five years.
He met his wife, Kris, at Western in 1988 and they married in 1989. She earned a Master’s in psychology, and her job
took them to their current home in Tennessee in 1991, where she is the director of the crisis consultation team for the Department of Intellectual Disability Services for the state.
The Roberts have four children – three boys and a girl –born two years apart. The oldest is 22 now and pursuing an MBA, one is a student at East Tennessee State, one is a recent high school graduate and the fourth will be a high school junior.
Phil Roberts, when he isn’t competing or training, spends his time passing his knowledge along, to share his joy of running. “I coach runners. I have a few runners that I’ve personally coached, and I’ve coached at the high school where my sons went and my daughter goes,” he said. “I coach cross country, and we just got track this past year. I’m the only nonfaculty coach there.”
He said he still runs 50 to 70 miles per week. Not only for the workout and the physical benefits, but because in addition to all the awards and records in his career, he still has a goal.
“I would like to be a national champion among my peers. I’d like to win a national championship for (USA Track & Field) Masters runners,” he said. “I would like to become dominant in my age group.” ■
— By Kathy Blake
Career Highlights
• Starting running to and from school in 1st grade and continued for 9 years
• Has recorded over 160,000 miles in his personal running log
• Was a champion miler and half-miler in junior high and high school
• Ran a 4:26 mile in high school
• Recruited by 72 colleges
• Still holds 8 distance records at WCU
laura ranDall wooDheaD
During high school, when social privacy is non-existent and cliques are formed for the sake of companionship, only a few close friends knew that Laura Randall was living two separate identities, and that one of them was leading her to greatness.
Randall, now Laura Woodhead, was a swimmer, and when she arrived at East Gaston High School in 1982 after years of competing for private clubs, swimming was not one of the school’s sports, and her training sessions and state championships were unknown to her classmates.
“I enjoyed swimming in Charlotte (at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Club pool at Sharonview Country Club, now SwimMAC Carolina) and having a separate life outside of school that only my closest school friends really knew about. I was able to focus on school during the day and my swimming the rest of the time,” said Woodhead, who would leave home at 4:20 a.m. six days a week, practice before school, then drive back to MAC in the afternoons. Sometimes, she said, her mom would drive her through the morning darkness, then wait, asleep in the car. “Years later,” she said, “I would thank her. I was very fortunate to have incredibly supportive parents.”
Woodhead’s persistence led to multiple USA Swimming North Carolina state championships, before she took control of
changing her athletic anonymity and got East Gaston a swim team – a team consisting of one person. “I wanted to be able to represent East Gaston at the state high school swim meet, so during my freshman year, I petitioned to swim solo,” she said. “Two years later, there were several other club swimmers at East Gaston who also wanted to swim, so we worked together to start a team.”
She convinced her German teacher, Mardi Lambert, to act as coach/sponsor. During her four years at EG, she finished in the top 8 in all her events at the NCHSAA 3A State Championships, winning sectional titles in 1985-86 and was runner-up at states in the 100-breaststroke in 1986.
College letters came, and suddenly the girl who first jumped a pool at age 5 at the Mount Holly Swim & Racket Club was reading recruiting prose from the University of North Carolina, Duke, Columbia, UCLA and Stanford, among others. “I visited Stanford during the summer before my senior year, and I fell in love with the school and the coach, George Haines, so it was always a front-runner,” she said. “I just had to convince my parents to let me go so far from home.”
Woodhead was a seven-time NCHSAA state championship finalist and East Gaston’s female Athlete of the Year in 1986. At Stanford, where she focused on breaststroke and individual medley, she was part of two PAC 10 championship teams, in 1987 and 1988, and helped lead The Cardinal to second place at NCAAs in 1987. All that has led her to be inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
Her junior year at Stanford, Woodhead had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and torn labrum in her right shoulder, and she made the decision to retire.
It had been a long career: Six seasons at Mount Holly’s pool, with a pile of county championships and records (including a 14.4 in the 8-under 25-yard freestyle, that may still stand). Winning her first state championship at age 11 in the 200 IM in 1977, with the Gaston YMCA Gators and later swimming for the Johnston Memorial YMCA. Qualifying for the U.S. Nationals at age 15. Winning several USA Swimming and zone all-star titles in freestyle, breaststroke and IM, and being ranked in the top 16 nationally.
But it was time to move on and, after graduating from college in 1990 with a political science degree, Woodhead returned to Mount Holly to begin her quest to be a lawyer, and worked alongside Charlotte lawyer George Daly. She also coached age-group swimmers at MAC. But there was something about California….
In Spring 1991, she returned to the West Coast for law school, and graduated in 1995 from the University of California-Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. For
the last 13 years, she’s worked as a corporate attorney in the pharmaceutical industry, including the last seven with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.
But like a lot of athletes who retire, who move on with their lives away from sport, Woodhead found out in 1993 that permanently walking away is only permanent until you walk back.
She was recruited that year to join the master’s swim team at The Olympic Club in San Francisco, where she proceeded to finish in the top 16 at nationals in breaststroke and IM and win a national title in 1996 at the U.S. Short Course Nationals in the 200 mixed relay. She returned to Stanford’s campus in 2006 for the FINA World Master’s Swimming Championships to swim the breaststroke leg of the Olympic Club’s silver medal winning 200 Medley Relay.
She married Jeff Woodhead – who rowed crew at UCBerkeley – in 1997 in San Francisco, and they have three children – Dylan (a rising high school senior), Quinn (high school sophomore) and Ella (born in 2004). The family lives
about 11 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Our children have grown up in and around the water. It has been so rewarding for Jeff and I to watch our children participate in sports,” she said. Dylan recently was named to the USA Water Polo Youth National Team, Quinn plays on an under-14 water polo team and Ella swims, and plays water polo and basketball. For 25 years, the Woodheads have belonged to the South End Rowing Club on Aquatic Park in San Francisco.
And while California has their heart, Mount Holly still has the ability to tug her back to the place called home.
“I’m truly honored to be recognized by the Hall of Fame in my hometown. I’m so thankful to have grown up here with the support of my parents and family and many friends, neighbors, classmates, teachers and coaches,” she said. “This community had such a positive impact on my life, and I’m forever grateful.” ■
— By Kathy Blake,
Career Highlights
• Is credited with starting the swim team at EGHS as a freshman and was the only member
• 7-time NCHSAA state finalist at East Gaston
• Named female Athlete of the Year at EGHS in 1986
• Was a member of 2 PAC 10 championship teams at Stanford
• Competed into her 40’s in the Masters Division at the Olympic Club where she was the first female member to join the club
1954-55 hawks BaseBall
The Boys of Summer, they weren’t; at least not in the post-season.
For the Mount Holly High baseball team of 1954, the North Carolina Class A state runners-up, the script for the playoffs somehow forgot the part about lazy, sunny afternoons with nine innings of fastballs, the crack of the bat, dirt-cloud slides and screaming umpires. In fact, the path to the state championship game, when the Hawks lost to Hertford, sometimes meant not even taking the field.
These were the boys of the rainy spring, the boys of the unusual circumstance, who could advance with the flip of a coin, and win despite an opposing pitcher’s no-hitter.
Archives show a line-up of Benny Carpenter (1B),
Tommy Crawford (2B), Don Killian (SS), Tommy McIntosh (3B), Don Lee (C), Dicky Kirby (LF), Dean Sherrin (CF), Tommy Lee (RF) and pitchers Max Sherrill, Tommy Wilson and Forest McIntosh. Other teammates were Laney Funderburke, Barry Black, Bob Black and Ted Hager. Seth Kirby was the manager, and Ken Bost coached them.
The Hawks’ intriguing post-season began with the Little Ten Conference tournament, when they were tied 1-1 in a best-of-3 series with Dallas. The rains came, heavy rains, enough that league officials said the deciding game could not be played and the team that advanced would be the team that guessed heads or tails.
The Hawks advanced.
The first and second round of the playoffs also were can -
celled by rain.
Again, up went the coins, and onward went Mount Holly After winning a third-round game over Allen Jay High School from High Point, the Hawks faced Kernersville for the Western North Carolina 1A title, and this time, they got to play baseball.
In the first game, the Kernersville pitcher threw a no-hitter, but that didn’t matter to the Hawks, who used several errors, four stolen bases and a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth to win 3-1 and give Max Sherrill his 12 th consecutive win of the season. Sherrill gave up four hits and struck out 12.
Kernersville won the second game 7-6.
Then, on May 29, 1954, Sherrill threw a four-hitter and the Hawks got 10 hits to win 9-0 and advance to the state championship – the farthest any baseball team from Mount Holly had ever gone. The team finished 13-4, and along with the team of 1955, has gained entry into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.
The 1955 team was Western N.C. 1A runner-up to Colfax, marking two consecutive years the Mount Holly team had postseason victories – which hadn’t happened since 1930. ■
— By Kathy Blake
Career Highlights
• Won Western 1A championship in ‘54
• Lost out to Hertford in state finals in ‘54
• 8-0 conference mark; 13-4 overall in ‘54
• Runnerup to Colfax in Western 1A in ‘55
• 8-0 conference mark; 14-4 overall in ‘55
1967-68 & 1968-69
hawks BasketBall
Football and baseball were the premium sports at Mount Holly High School in the 1960s, until the hiring personnel took on a man named Joe Spears, who formed a bunch of tall teenagers into winning athletes and gave that school something it had never seen.
“Joe was offered the coaching job by the district principal, who said it was only fair that someone else win in basketball since Mt Holly wins more than its share in football and baseball. Joe accepted the offer, but not the premise that winning in basketball was not important,” said Gary Neely, who was a 6-foot-3 guard on the teams of 1967-68 and 1968-69 and is friendly enough with his former coach to be on a first-name basis. “It took him awhile, but he got the boys and girls teams to levels they had never known before.”
The boys were all between 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-5, and they took over the gym later in the afternoons, after the girls finished running the bleachers. When it was time for away games, the whole crew would pile into the same bus, driven by a man named Leroy, who Neely said was their good-luck charm.
The 1967-68 boys team went 21-4, which got people’s attention, since the previous year’s gang was 12-9. “It sort of all came together. We had height and skill in shooting the basketball. He (Spears) was doing well with the talent he had, and he was building winning teams,” said Neely, who was a sophomore in ’67-68.
Neely and freshman Freddie Whitt (6-3) were the guards, Chick Moore (6-5) played center, and Richard Jessen (6-4) and Dan Hope (6-1) were forwards. W.G. Clayton, Keith Hopper and Robbie
McCorkle rotated in.
The team started the season with a 10-game winning streak, with a win at Tryon on a play that wasn’t executed the way it was called, and the girls started 10-0 also, and the people of the town took notice. “The very first game, we had less than a week to practice, because some of the guys played football, which had just won the state championship,” Neely said. “It was tied 54-54, and Coach Spears called time with 11 seconds to go, and we had the ball. He devised a play to get the ball to Richard with the final shot with 5 seconds to go, which would give us time if he missed. It was all perfect, except the ball came to me, with 5 seconds to go, and I took it and I made it. They (Tryon) had the ball inbounds with 4 seconds to go and took a desperation shot, but we won 56-54 and that started the 10-game streak, which was unheard of in Mount Holly.”
The boys lost three games the remainder of the season, but regrouped to win the conference tournament. “After that, we went on to win our first two games of the district tournament and were actually winning the final game at the end of three quarters, but a very good Hibriten team in Lenoir sprung a full-court trapping press on us and won going away,” Neely said.
Moore and Hope were seniors, and the following year Hopper and McCorkle became starters, and the crew was ready to prove that their success was legitimate. “We had outstanding players, and we were expecting great things for ourselves, but we sort of under-performed,” Neely said. The team started 7-7, but since that was not the standard they’d set for themselves, the boys went on another 10-game win streak, like the year before. “Only this time, it was at the right time of the year,” Neely said. “We won our last three regular-season games, then won three tournament games to win the conference tournament for the second year in a row, then proceeded to win the district tournament, including winning three more games in a row and beating Dallas in the finals. It was the fourth time that year we played Dallas, beating them 3 out of 4.”
That put the Hawks in the Class 2A state tournament in Winston-Salem, seeded eighth at 17-7, and facing a firstround game with the No. 1 seed, 26-0 Vaiden Whitley High from Wendell, N.C. in Wake County. Maybe it was talent, maybe it was a reputation to uphold, maybe it was a combination of everything the Hawks wanted to be, that led them to defeat Whitley by 19 points that Wednesday and advance to the semifinals. But since they were sitting in Winston-Salem without hotel reservations, the celebration occurred on the 85-mile bus ride home.
“We made the bus trip back to Winston-Salem on Friday, then lost the semifinals game to Hendersonville, then lost the consolation game to Bertie High School from down East,” Neely said, “so we finished No. 4 in the state for Class 2A at 18-9. But more importantly, we’d advanced farther than any basketball team from Mount Holly, girls or boys.”
With both teams being inducted into Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame, that success will forever be marked in history. “Those were good times,” Neely said. “It was good for Mount Holly and good for everyone connected with the team. Joe got us to levels that we’d never seen. Kudos to him, for being outstanding.” ■
— By Kathy Blake
Career Highlights
• Won 10 straight games to open season in ’67-‘68
• All 5 starters averaged double figures: Jessen 14; Hope 12; Moore 11; Whitt and Neely 10
• Regular season record 17-3; overall record 21-4
• Won 10 games in a row near the end of season, including 1st round of state tournament in ‘69
• Beat Dallas 3 out of 4 games, including finals of conference and district tournaments
• Upset unbeaten and top-seeded Vaiden Whitley team 85-66 in state quarterfinals in ‘69
DaviD vs. goliath
It stood before us like Goliath, a menacing growl upon its clean-shaven face. My team was a collection of Davids; looking up at RJ. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, we knew what lied ahead. It was the first day of the 1968-69 Class 2A Men’s State Basketball Tournament, and we were the team coming in with the worst record. We had about a .500 record (the same amount of wins as losses in the regular season), and the team we were playing, Vaiden Whitley (now renamed East Wake High School), was undefeated at 25-0. I looked at my boys, whose terrified expressions gave me little confidence in their upcoming performance.
I led the team into the enormous gymnasium, whose shining wooden floors and tall pine bleachers were ready to witness battle. From the ceiling hung championship banners and retired jerseys. Reporters and photographers clustered the walls plastered with posters of local sponsors. We walked in, with our mismatched red and white basketball uniforms. Even I wasn’t dressed in my Sunday best. Mount Holly High School was too poor to provide the basketball teams with new uniforms, so we had to make the best use of what we had.
Across the gym, Vaiden Whitley had arrived. Led by their coaching staff, the team from Wendell, North Carolina was dressed in navy blue double breasted suits, with shining black patent shoes, silky navy ties, and leather belts. The crowd, packed on the Vaiden side of the bleachers, cheered loudly with roaring applause. What are they feeding those boys, I thought to myself, staring across the gym at the Philistines who appeared to be seven-feet tall.
I turned around to look at my team, whose pallid appearances made me uneasy. They can do it, I assured myself; our starting five is just as good as theirs. I looked at my starters, which consisted of Robbie McCorkle, Gary Neely, Freddie Whitt, Richard Jessen, and Keith Hopper. The guard trio of Neely, Whitt, and Jessen were unstoppable if they caught on fire. They could shoot outside jump shots with their eyes closed. McCorkle and Hopper will have a tough time with those two Goliaths from Vaiden Whitley, I thought. They will need to et them in early foul trouble. I continued this stream of consciousness thinking until I heard someone yell my name.
“Coach Spears! Coach Spears! It’s time to go to the locker room!” John Smith shouted. Good ol’ John, I thought; the most reliable sixth man a coach could ask for. What I’ll do is put him in when their big boys get into foul trouble. John Smith was a David, small and quick enough to dribble through the legs of those sevenfoot Philistines. He’ll come through when I need him, I thought to myself, reassuringly.
We entered the dank locker room, and the boys began to change into their uniforms. We got into our usual pre-game huddle and I gave them a strong pep talk, because the looks on their faces said they needed all the support and confidence I could muster.
“Now listen up, boys, this gym ain’t any different from our gym. It’s just bigger, nicer, and cleaner.” I started. The boys laughed nervously. “This team may be bigger than us, but we are quicker. Neely, Whitt, and Jessen, I want y’all to light ‘em up from the outside. Those big boys can’t move as quick as we can, and if they play zone, the we should have at least one man open every time on the outside perimeter. Hopper, McCorkle, if y’all get slammed inside, kick it out to one of the three guards. The defense won’t be able to collapse on them in time. Whitt, you have the point, and you call the plays as you see fit. Remember to press until I call it off, and boys, you’re gonna do great! This is just like the battle between David and Goliath, and David overcame those intimidating Philistines! If he can do it, so can we! We’ve worked so hard this season to get to this point. Have fun, and remember, if you get down, do what you gotta do to get back up!”
My confident façade hid the wreck I was inside. If you ask any coach of any sport they will admit to you that they are always more nervous than their players before a game. Coaches have just been trained to hide it really well. Through the warm-up the boys got their nerves out, and by the end of the 15-minute time period they looked like their normal selves.
Vaiden Whitley won the jump ball, and the game was underway. The first quarter went surprisingly well, because as I had predicted, Vaiden played a zone defense, and we immediately got their two seven-foot Golaiths into foul trouble. They must not have scouted us, I thought to myself; otherwise they wouldn’t play a zone with our three good outside shooters.
The Vaiden defense caught on to our strategy and moved into a man-to-man.
Their big boys were on the bench because of foul trouble, and it was the time to call on John Smith. I put him in at the beginning of the second to give a big man a breather, and Smith lit the fire underneath the rest of the boys on the court. Smith had a real quick first step and could get around any boy; especially a team of lumbering Philistines.
Vaiden attempted to regain their momentum by putting their two Goliaths back into the game midway through the third, but by the fourth quarter the seven-footers fouled out. We beat the fire out of them in the final minutes and blew the game wide open. Victory was ours! David pulled through once again! You should have seen those Vaiden boys’ faces after the game! It just proved to the boys and I that appearances didn’t matter; it’s the heart of the team that really counts. It’s like the old saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.”
As time goes on, David defeats Goliath in each meeting. It is truly remarkable what a small group of people can achieve when their heart and soul is fixed on one seemingly impossible goal: victory. ■
— by Coach Joe Spears, first appeared in 2003 special edition of the Gazette
The Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame is a 501(c)3 organization that celebrates Mount Holly’s rich sports history and supports future athletes through its work with local organizations. Classified as a public charity, we welcome your tax deductible gifts. In addition to our practice of supporting local charities, we are developing plans to fund college scholarships for deserving local students.
The mailing address for your gift is, 212 Dogwood Dr., Mount Holly, NC 28120.
Mount Holly SportS
The Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame
Would Like To Thank
For its continued support.
Mount Holly SportS
Congratulations to the Class of 2015
In
2015
The Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame Supports these non-profits.
Mt. Holly Community Relief Organization
Mt. Holly Middle School Football
Ida Rankin Elementary Safety Patrol
Mt. Holly Athletes Association
Mission Statement of the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame:
e Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame was established to honor our community’s rich sports history and to recognize the outstanding individuals and teams who have excelled over the last century on behalf of our city. Our ultimate goal is to educate the community about the outstanding accomplishments of these individuals and teams, instill civic pride in our citizens and promote Mount Holly. Our emphasis on education will be developed by creating a scholarship program through our local high school. In addition to education, the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame supports charitable contributions for youth groups and local civic organizations by committing to pay out 10% of its year end balance of funds to non-pro ts. Its plans include working forward to the establishment of a permanent display of inductee sports memorabilia.
The Mount Holly
Sports
Hall of
Fame
Solutes the following Athletes of the Year.
Laura
Mount Holly SportS
