TEN SELECTED TO CLASS OF 2017 FOR GUILFORD COUNTY SPORTS HALL OF FAME
GREENSBORO – Another Olympian is among the 10 new members selected for the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2017.
Caroline Lind won gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games as a member of the U.S. women’s 8s rowing team. She is the third Olympic medal winner from the county to join the Guilford County SHOF. Previous inductees were speed skater Joey Cheek and women’s soccer goalie Siri Mullinix,
Joining Lind in the 2017 class are two prominent area soccer coaches, Brien Braswell (Ragsdale) and Ray Alley (High Point College, Guilford College).
Two college basketball coaches with more than 500 victories each are also in the class. They are Tulane’s Lisa Stockton (Western Guilford, Wake Forest), and William & Mary’s Tony Shaver (High Point Central).
Rounding out the class are volleyball and basketball star Ethel White (Grimsley, High Point College) and former NFL player Stefon Adams (Southwest Guilford).
Three other selections are members of the Legends Class, created in 2010 for posthumous induction. The Legends for 2017 are football player Bert Wilder (Grimsley, NC State), track coach Neal Morris (Andrews) and official Cart Howerton.
This is the 13th class for the Hall, created in 2005, and it increases the membership to 145.
The induction will be held Monday, Sept. 18, with a reception and banquet at the Greensboro Coliseum. For ticket information, call (336) 433-7261.
Biographies of the Class of 2017 follow (in alphabetical order):
STEFON ADAMS
Stefon Adams is a High Point native who played football, basketball and track at Southwest Guilford. He played football at East Carolina, where he caught 47 passes and rushed for three touchdowns in his career. He was chosen in the third round of the 1985 draft by the Los Angeles Raiders, where he played four seasons. He also played for Cleveland and Miami. Adams played in 65 NFL games as a defensive back, punt returner, kickoff returner and special teams performer. He intercepted two passes, recorded a safety and recovered six fumbles in his career. Adams also played in the World Football League, the Arena League and Canadian Football League.
He has been a high school football assistant coach and is the co-founder of Next Level Youth Sports Camps.
RAY ALLEY
After a five-year career in sports journalism, Ray Alley decided to become more directly involved in sports. He became the men’s tennis and soccer coach at High Point and was named the NAIA national men’s tennis Coach of the Year in 1975. He moved to Guilford College, coaching the same two sports from 1975-88. His tennis teams won more than 350 matches combined at the two schools, plus numerous conference and district championships. Alley has worked in youth soccer throughout his career, coaching and running camps and tournaments and organizing workshops. He coached the Bishop McGuinness girls teams this spring. He founded, edited and published the Southern Soccer Scene, a southeast regional monthly paper, for 38 years. He also published North Carolina Tennis Today for 15 years.
BRIEN BRASWELL
Brien Braswell learned soccer on the playgrounds of Tehran, Iran, where his parents were missionaries. When they moved to the Raleigh area, he played in high school and was the goalkeeper on a state championship team at Raleigh Ravenscroft. Braswell played four seasons at Guilford College and posted seven shutouts in 25 matches. In 1989 he became the boys and girls soccer coach at Ragsdale High School, a position he still holds after 28 seasons. His teams have won seven state titles – the boys in 1991, 1993 and 1995, and the girls in 1994, 1996, 1999 and 2005. His teams twice won the boys and girls titles in the same academic year. Braswell joins one of his players, Olympic goalkeeper Siri Mullinix, in the Guilford County SHOF.
CART HOWERTON (LEGENDS CLASS)
Cart Howerton always threw himself into everything that he did. At Greensboro Senior High (now Grimsley) in the 1940s, he was on a state basketball championship team under Coach Bob Jamieson. He also played baseball and signed a pro contract with the Cardinals in 1945. Howerton played until 1958, with a career average of .302, in such places as Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Reidsville, Charlotte and High Point-Thomasville. He also managed and was a general manager in several organizations. When he began officiating, he helped write the National Federation Football Mechanics Manual. He received numerous awards for his service during a 65-year officiating career. He called 3,267 basketball games and 1,875 football games, as well as being an administrator and supervisor. He died in 2015 at age 88.
NEAL MORRIS (LEGENDS CLASS)
Neal Morris compiled an envious coaching record before his career was cut short far too soon by cancer. He played three sports at Denton High School and football at Elon College. His coaching career began at Northwest Guilford, as a football assistant and boys track coach for six years. He moved to High Point Andrews in those same capacities and later added the girls track duties. The track teams thrived under his guidance, once winning 64 straight dual meets. The boys won eight straight regional championships and two state 3-A titles. The girls won five straight regionals and two state titles. The teams swept the state crowns in 2001. A track meet is named in his honor and Andrews annually give the Neal Morris Jr. Award for an athlete who displays exceptional drive and determination. He died on his 39th birthday in 2003.
CAROLINE LIND
Greensboro native Caroline Lind played multiple sports at Page High School but was exposed to rowing when she transferred to Phillips Academy Andover in Massachusetts. She was attracted to the total team aspect of the sport and the way it pushed her mind and body to the absolute limit. Lind was recruited to Princeton and won an NCAA title in varsity 8s in her senior year. She made the U.S. national team in 2005, rowed in 8s and pairs and was part of six world championships, two Olympic gold medals (both in 8s) and 21 international medals. She was named the top female rower in the world in 2014. She had back surgery in 2015, which thwarted her efforts to make the 2016 Olympic team. Now retired from rowing, Lind works in athletics fundraising at Princeton and owns a consulting firm.
TONY SHAVER
An all-round athlete at High Point Central High School, Tony Shaver played on a state football runner-up team in 1972. He made the UNC basketball team as a walk-on under Coach Dean Smith and served as a volunteer assistant coach when he was a senior. Shaver’s coaching career began at Episcopal High School in Virginia, where he stayed for 10 years. In college, he compiled a 358-121 record in 17 seasons at Hampden-Sydney, winning eight conference titles and taking the Tigers to 11 Division III national tournaments. His team lost in the championship game by one point in double overtime in 1999. Shaver moved on to William & Mary in 2003, where he has won 192 more games in 14 seasons, bringing his total to 550 victories. During his 31-year career he has been coach of the year five times and won 20 games 16 times.
LISA STOCKTON
At Western Guilford, Lisa Stockton earned a total of 12 letters in four sports, being named a team captain six times. She concentrated on basketball at Wake Forest, setting school records in points, scoring average, field goals made, field goal percentage, assists, steals and minutes played. Stockton still holds the school record for 97 consecutive games started. She was the head coach for three years at Greensboro College, compiling a record of 63-27. She moved to Georgia Tech as an assistant for several years before being named head coach at Tulane. The Green Wave had made one post-season appearance ever before she arrived. Since then, Stockton has guided them to 11 NCAA appearances and seven WNITs. Her 26-year head coaching record is 542-269, with 479 wins coming at Tulane. Her teams have won 20 or more games 17 times.
ETHEL WHITE
Ethel White didn’t just play two sports, she was a star in volleyball and basketball in both high school and college. She was all-conference in both sports at Grimsley High School. She started and scored 12 points in the East-West All-Star basketball game in 1975. At High Point College, White was all-conference in both sports all four years, being named co-player of the year in volleyball in 1978. She was a member of High Point’s AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) Division II national championship team in 1978. She still stands third on the Panthers’ all-time list in points, seventh in rebounds and ninth in assists. White played two seasons in the Women’s Basketball League (WBL) before it disbanded. She now works in law enforcement and security at the Navy Pier in Chicago.
BERT WILDER (LEGENDS CLASS)
Bert Wilder was an outstanding all-around athlete at Greensboro Senior High School (now Grimsley) in the 1950s. He was an all-state and all-American lineman in football, won the state heavyweight wrestling championship as a junior and senior, and won the state shot put championship as a senior. He played college football under Earl Edwards at NC State, where he made All-ACC as a senior. Drafted by both the NFL and AFL, he signed with the New York Titans (later the Jets). He played four seasons with them and his best game may have come against Buffalo, when he helped the Jets to an upset win by recording a 17-yard sack, recovering a fumble and helping on a goal-line stop that prevented a touchdown. Wilder, who died in 2012, spent many years ministering to high school students with Young Life.
*****Courtesy of Bill Hass and the Guilford County Hall of Fame Selection Committee*****