College Athletics News – Guilford Alumni Carr and Whiteley Earn Special Recognition

Guilford Alums Earn Hall of Fame Recognition

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College alumni A.J. Carr Jr. ’65 and Tom Whiteley ’62 recently received special recognition for post-Guilford achievements. Carr is one of nine individuals that comprise the newest class inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. Whitely is one of two new members of the Francis Marion University Athletic Hall of Fame.

One of North Carolina’s most accomplished and respected sportswriters, Carr began writing with the Wallace Enterprise as a high school student. He came to Guilford in 1961 after a successful three-sport athletic career at Wallace-Rose Hill High School where he was an All-State 2-A Tournament basketball player. Although he never played a varsity sport in college, Carr served as Guilford’s sports publicist and wrote for the Greensboro Daily News sports department.

AJ Carr 1965

A year after graduating from Guilford, Carr left Greensboro for The News & Observer in Raleigh where served as the Duke University football and basketball beat writer. In 42 years with the News & Observer, he earned an impressive list of honors, including the North Carolina Sportswriter of the Year Award in 1978 and 2008. He won the North Carolina Tennis Writer of the Year prize and has been recognized by the North Carolina Press Association, the Raleigh Hot Stove League and the Triangle Chapter of the National College Football Hall of Fame Foundation. A 1999 inductee into Guilford’s Athletics Hall of Fame, Carr lives in Raleigh where he is an active member of the Millbrook United Methodist Church and a nine-time champion in basketball shooting at the N.C. Senior Games.

Carr will be formally enshrined as part of the 51st annual induction banquet May 9 at the Raleigh Convention Center. He joins M.L. Carr ’73, Rick Ferrell ’28, Bob Jamieson ’33, Dave Odom ’65 and Tom Zachary ’18 and as Guilford alumni among the Hall’s 289 members. Others honorees with Guilford ties include former coaches Jack Jensen and Jerry Steele, as well as former athletic directors Herb Appenzeller and Marion Kirby.

Whiteley served in many capacities at Francis Marion in Florence, S.C., from 1977-2001, most notably as the Patriots’ cross country and track and field coach. In 24 seasons, the Greensboro native coached two performance and 19 academic All-Americans. Francis Marion captured 10 NAIA District 6 men’s track and field titles and eight men’s cross country championships on Whiteley’s watch. He garnered one NAIA Area 7 Coach of the Year honor in both men’s cross country and men’s track, plus 17 district coaching awards (combined).

Tom Whiteley 1962.pg

Whiteley’s success continued when the Patriots moved to NCAA Division II and joined the Peach Belt Conference in 1992. He created the school’s women’s cross country and track and field teams that year and was named the Peach Belt’s Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1996 and 1998.
In addition to coaching, Whiteley served as Francis Marion’s Dean of Students from 1981-97 and spent 20 years as an assistant professor of physical education. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Guilford in physical education and played four years on the Quakers’ basketball and baseball teams. Whiteley received his master’s degree from East Carolina University and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Now a Francis Marion faculty emeritus, he remains active with Guilford as a member of the Quaker Club Board of Directors.

Whiteley will be recognized during Francis Marion’s Homecoming Weekend Feb. 21-22.