Keith Brown sounds off on Tripp Welborne omission

Tripp Welborne Denied Again for Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame, Who are the Numb Nuts on the Selection Committee?

Keith Brown from the TriadWatch Blog has spoken and Keith is looking for some answers and you might find a few at his site CLICK HERE or you might spot something when you study the highlights/lowlights below……

from Greensborosports.com:
Rich Brenner has been called out and maybe since Rich is not a native Guilford County resident he doesn’t know the background/landscape of our area all that well…..He is the man in charge of the Selection Committee and he has his hands full and the question I have is, “Can Rich handle the pitch”…..Is he a starter of should he be coming out of the pen?????? He didn’t start out in our area, but he has been given the responsibility of charting part of the course of our “Sports History”…..We must continue to examine the inner workings of this committee and see if there is a direct need for a recall in the selection process…

Brenner is a good man, but is he the right man for this job?????

from the TriadWatch Blogspot:

For the second year in a row the selection committee for the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame have denied one of the greatest athletes to ever lace up their shoes in the triad area be nominated in 2 time football All American Tripp Welborne.

It was with great honor that Keith Brown a Grimsley Alumni Class of 1987 had nominated Sullivan Anthony Welborne III otherwise known as Tripp Welborne Page Alumni Class of 1987 to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame.

It is time that people really know about one of the greatest all around athletes in Guilford County get the recognition he deserves. This will be a short bio of his high school days but will show you just how impressive he was as an athlete.

During his 3 years at Page High School the football team in 85 and 86 won the state football championship, and Tripp Welborne had a combined record in 3 years of football at 41-1-1 . He was selected to be a east west all star athlete in both football and basketball his senior year in 1987. He chose to play in the basketball all star game because it would be his last hurrah at playing the sport on a competitive level.He also was nominated to play in the North-South All Star football game between North Carolina and South Carolina which was a huge honor back in the 80’s.

Now on to the big leagues of Tripp Welborne’s football career. His college choice was the Michigan Wolverines where during his time in college he was awarded 2-time All American in 1989 and 1990. Sports Illustrated had a cover called “Greatest Wolverines of All Time”, and guess who was one of the defensive backs picked as one of the greatest in wolverine’s storied football history none other than Tripp Welborne.

Even going back to his high school days Tripp Welborne was a great punt returner as well. How do I know that it is because I was the one on the other side of ball punting to Tripp Welborne going back to our days at junior high school at Aycock and Kiser then on to our days of playing against each other at one of the best high school rivalries in the state of North Carolina in Grimsley Whirlies and Page Pirates.

Here is a quick bio of college days at Michigan from the Bentley Historical Library on Michigan Athletics, and here is the bio:

Hard-hitting defensive back who also handled punt returns for the Wolverines. The Greensboro, NC., native was a two-time consensus All-American selection. Welborne recorded 238 tackles in his three years in the defensive secondary and returned 67 punts for 773 yards. During his senior year (1990), Welborne set a single-season record for punt return yardage with 455. Welborne moved from wide receiver to defensive back after his freshman year and intercepted nine passes during his career. Played on three Big Ten championship teams. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings.

Now that the nomination is turned in to the Greensboro Sports Commission we will see what happens next but this nomination should get a resounding 100% yes vote because I will go on record as saying that Tripp Welborne was probably one of the greatest all around athletes to ever play sports in Guilford County History.

Now we are on to year 2 in the nomination process and we can see that the 2010 nomination class has been done and you can go over to greensborosports.com to see who is headed to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame. You can see that they left off Tripp Welborne for the second year in a row.

Who is actually on this nomination committee? Rich Brenner is head of nomination committee
What is the criteria to be nominated?
Please explain why you would leave off Tripp Welborne?

These are just a few questions that need to be answered and if this committee wants to be taken seriously in the future, then they need to take a very hard look a why they are looking over a 2 time All American in Tripp Welborne because this makes no sense leaving him off.

Amazing.

Again, from Greensborosports.com….We are asking questions and looking for answers……….

5 thoughts on “Keith Brown sounds off on Tripp Welborne omission

  1. thanks for the post and i think it will be a on going discussion. I left a link on rich brenner’s facebook page . Let’s see if we get any response. DId talk with demp bradford at greensboro sports commission and told him how i felt but hey the committee has their own criteria which to me boggles my mind leaving off tripp welborne.

  2. You have a better chance of getting in if you coached or were an administrator. Why would they want to put an athlete in the sports hall of fame?

  3. the HOF is not complete without Tripp Welborne. He is one of the most dominating football players I’ve ever seen.

  4. here is a response i got from rich brenner who is on the selection committee for the guilford county sports hall of fame.

    Keith, trust me, Tripp Welborn was well-considered this year, and there’s no doubting he’ll be in the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame very soon. We’re playing a lot of “catch up” with the Hall because of the long history of standout people from all over the sports spectrum in our area who have contributed greatly to our heritage. Tripp’s … See Morestill a very young man, and very well-deserving as well. While great athletes are considered, so are the many people who make sports what they are in our area, and it’s important these folks are recognized as well as the great players. Trust me when I say that not having Tripp in yet is in no way a snub at one of the great players and standout citizens to ever represent our area. I appreciate your passion in advocating Tripp, who in all of our opinions represents the best of athletics and being an outstanding citizen. It’s not easy making these calls about who gets in this year, and who has to wait, and everybody on our selection commitee and in the public has very worthwhile opinions which they can back up with facts and great memories. Trust me when I say Tripp Welborn won’t have to wait long for his deserving honor, and as with many in our Hall, it will be overdue. Just remember, Keith, every sports fan out there has strong opinions (which to me has always been one of the neat things about sports) and if you asked them, we’d get hundreds of names, which we have, every one deserving and backed up by stats (although many not as impressive as Tripp’s).

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