GREENSBORO, November 19, 2008 – The North Carolina A&T Sports Hall of Fame will induct three new members for their accomplishments for N.C. A&T Athletics. Five more members will be inducted for their many contributions to athletics.
There will be a noon press luncheon at the Stallings Ballroom inside the Memorial Student Union on the campus of N.C. A&T on Friday to showcase the new inductees. Later in the evening, the inductees will be honored at dinner banquet at the Alumni-Foundation Event Center starting at 7. They will also be honored during halftime of the Aggies football contest against S.C. State on Saturday.
Former N.C. A&T head football coach William “Bill†Hayes, men’s basketball standout James Jackson and football and track and field participant Edward Gladden Favors will be inducted for their athletic and coaching accomplishments.
Dr. Velma Speight-Buford, John David Haynes, Melvin Swann, Gladys Shipman and Dr. Isaac Barnett will be inducted as honorary members.
Hayes, the current Florida A&M athletics director, coached football at N.C. A&T from 1988-02. He won three MEAC Championships, made two Division I FCS (then I-AA) playoff appearances and was awarded MEAC Coach of the Year honor twice. In 1999, he led the Aggies to the Black College National Championship, a school-record 11 wins and the school’s first-ever NCAA playoff victory. He finished his 15-year coaching stint with the Aggies as the school’s all-time leader in wins with 106.
Jackson played men’s basketball for the Aggies from 1961-64. He led the Aggies to the South Central Regional Tournament twice. Jackson was an honorable mention All-American as a senior and was a two-time All-CIAA member. He still shares the single-game N.C. A&T scoring record he set in1964 with 41 points St. Augustine’s College.
Favors participated in track and field and football from 1953-56. He also attended Dudley High School in Greensboro. As a football player, he was a two-way starter as a safety and running back. In 1956, Favors received the Jack Gibson Memorial Trophy as the outstanding graduating senior member of the football team.
Speight-Buford highlights the honorary inductees. She was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1998. She was elected as the Chair of the Board of Trustees on Sept. 21, 2005. She also served as director of N.C. A&T’s alumni affairs office. Speight-Buford’s Aggie Pride has led her to give significant financial and in-kind contributions to nearly every program and cause sponsored by N.C. A&T to assure students remained in school.
Haynes is a veteran and a retired revenue field auditor with the North Carolina Department of Revenue. In 1974, Haynes was a member of the planning committee, and a team captain that sold Gold Helmet, Blue Helmet and Century Club seats for the construction of Aggie Stadium. In 1978, he was a member of the steering committee that brought all local chapters of the Aggie Club under one umbrella. He also assisted in the writing of the booster club’s constitution. Later, he served as president and vice president of the Aggie Club. Haynes is also a charter member of the Victory Club and has an endowed scholarship of $1,500 through the organization.
Swann has spent more than 35 years broadcasting Aggie football games on Saturday afternoons. But he has done much more than broadcast football games for the university. Swann, a 1958 graduate of Hampton, is a member of the Greensboro chapter Aggie Club, where he has served as president and vice president. Swann has also been a contributor to Aggie Athletics and the Greensboro community. He spent more than 36 years in the public school system of Greensboro and Guilford County, including earning a position as the deputy superintendent of Guilford County Schools.
Shipman has personally financed N.C. A&T Sports Hall of Fame activities. She is the president and CEO of Shipman Family Home Care, Inc., a family operated minority home care provider, which is the largest such company in North Carolina. For more than 23 years, the company has employed several thousand people, and serves the elderly and disabled community in the state. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Civil Rights Museum, where she once worked as a cook when it was called Woolworth’s Department Store.
Barnett was instrumental in organizing the N.C. A&T Sports Hall of Fame group. Barnett is a nationally recognized pioneer in the fields of safety and driver education at N.C. A&T, where he dedicated 43 years of his life. To show his continued support for the occupational safety and heath program, he recently established a $25,000 endowed scholarship. Barnett has made sizeable financial contributions toward many of the projects and needs of the athletics programs at N.C. A&T.
*****from Brian Holloway, N.C. A&T Sports Information*****
It’s a shame Chris McNeil is not in NC A&T’s sports hall of fame.