Class of 2019

May 20

1941 Hawks football team

In 1941, $4,075.00 could buy a new house. A new car cost $850, and gasoline was 12 cents a gallon. In Mount Holly, the Piedmont and Northern Railway passed through this small town of 2,055 on its way from Charlotte to Gastonia, rumbling by the Pepsi Cola sign painted on A.P. Rhyne’s corner office on Main Street. At Mount Holly High School, the football team was making history, game by game, unaware that for many players, the world was about to change. Coached by A.S. Holt, Jr. and L.C. Ward, the 1941 Hawks went 8-0, outscoring their opponents by a total of 167-13. Twenty-three days after their last game, a 35-0 victory over Belmont on Nov. 14, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombed Pearl Harbor, pulling the United States into World War II. Team members were faced with life choices that outweighed football strategies and a high school education. For their efforts on the field, and for what several did beyond football, the 1941 Hawks are being inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. “Many are patriots, who left school within a few months after the football season ended to volunteer for the Armed Forces,” says Hall of Fame committee member Gary Neely. “Many players from the war years joined the war effort as they came of age. Some returned to complete high school and their football careers after the war ended in 1945. It was not unusual to see 20-year-olds playing high school football in the post-war years. “They later became part of the Greatest Generation. That is another reason why we are honoring the undefeated 1941 team as part of the 2019 induction class. They earned the honor.” The team was one of three in North Carolina that year that never lost and never tied. A 1946 Mount Holly High yearbook lists the team members under the word SQUAD. Not “team,” or “players,” but SQUAD, like a gang of 27 young men on a mission. Guilford Huitt, Jr., Gene Painter and Bill Hunsuck are listed as managers. The team sponsor is written as Mr. Costner. Players were Arthur Davis, Boyd Arndt, Paul Harkey, Ross McConnell, Pete Johnson, Lee Campbell, Hugh Mullis, Jimmy Dellinger, Ralph Williams, Joe Bailes, Fred Gantt, Harry Gannt, James Cherry, Wayne Huffstetler, Marion Fletcher, Bill Stowe, Paul Springs, Gwyne Baker, Boyce Wells, Melvin Smith, C.B. Hayes, Coyte Wilson, Howard Horton, George Fincher, Billy Cashion, Craig Lawing and Billy McCorkle. They took on Taylorsville, Cramerton, Oakhurst, Maiden, Tech High, the Abbey Ramblers and Monroe before that final showing at Belmont. Only two opponents were able to score on the Hawks – in a 19-6 game with Oakhurst and13-7 game with Monroe. Their success put them on the pages of the The Gaston Daily Gazette, though not with big headlines and photos. On Saturday, October 18, they landed in a little story halfway down the fifth column of a middle page, squeezed between a theater roundup (“Badlands of Dakota” starts Wednesday!) and a story about the New York Giants, who “piled up four straight triumphs in the National Pro League but Coach Steven Owen is juggling his lineup.” The story reads: “Mount Holly rolled up a 33-0 conquest over a heavier Maiden eleven here Friday, advancing the ball for 16 first downs to Maiden’s two. The first touchdown came in the first quarter on a little plunge by Horton, who kicked the extra point. Three touchdowns were scored in the second quarter. H. Gantt plowed through center for the first of the second quarter pay dirt, with Horton’s kick scoring the extra point. Fincher’s 35-yard pass to Hayes scored the second, with Horton again kicking the extra tally. On the next score, Fincher passed another 35 yards to Arndt for a touchdown. The extra point try failed. Dellinger took a line plunge jaunt for the final touchdown. Mount Holly gained 246 yards in rushing 46 times. Maiden garnered a bare 39 out of 21 trys. H. Gantt and Cherry were outstanding Mount Holly linemen with juniors Fincher and Horton sharing the backfield spotlight. Mount Holly meets Tech High of Charlotte there next Thursday.” No first names, no photographs, no quotes from the players or coach. George Fincher and Arthur Davis were inducted into the MHSHOF in 2008, Davis for his success in boxing with Golden Gloves; Howard Horton joins them this year. According to Neely, the ’41 squad went several directions later in life. For Coach Seaton Holt, 1941 was his 15 th and final season, and he retired with a 55-28-10 record. Manager Gene Painter was a longtime pharmacist at Charlie’s Drug Store. Boyd Arndt worked at the Mount Holly Post Office for three decades, and Ross McConnell ran a local fence company. Fred Gantt and Paul Springs worked for American & Efird; James Cherry worked for Goodwill Publishers in Gastonia; and Marion Fletcher had a Mount Holly service station. Coyt Wilson became a Los Angeles policeman. Howard Horton played football for the University of North Carolina for two years, including a trip to the January 1, 1949 Sugar Bowl against Oklahoma. George Fincher played in the Shrine Bowl and worked for Duke Power. Craig Lawing is said to have remained a big fan of Mount Holly High football and baseball for years after graduation, and would return to the fields to watch games and practices as long as the school existed. Because if you were one of the best, who says you can’t go home again?

Howard Horton

The scrapbook’s paper pages are cloudy-yellow, almost brown, from age. Scotch tape secures fragile newspaper clips beside black-and-white photos of a man who pushed hard to be an athlete, hopefully a successful one, in an era struggling with deprivation, the Depression and home-felt impact of World War II. Some pages, brittle enough they might crumble, recently were preserved in photographs – pictures of the pictures – just in case. The book recounts the journey of Howard Horton, born in 1922, the youngest of 12 children. His family had a farm in Indian Trail, then in Mount Holly in the 1930s, and “that’s what kept them all alive during the Recession was having all those kids to work the farm,” says his son, Shea Horton. “Grandma never turned anyone away or let them go hungry.” Howard Horton died in 1996 at age 74. From an era of handwritten record-keeping and newsprint scripted on manual typewriters, his family has assembled a storyline of a man who loved family, lived for football and proudly served his country in the war. It’s earned him a spot in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. “I’m sending articles that say my uncle was a good player. I can’t find any stats,” his niece, DeLina Furr says, in an e-mail, following his selection. The e-mail has 13 attachments. “I assume that’s OK.” Furr has the scrapbook with Gaston Gazette and Charlotte Observer stories. She has old Mount Holly High School annuals and a gold boxing buckle engraved “1940 175 lb. Champion Novice.” Two of Mr. Horton’s sisters had kept his news articles, every letter sent home during the war, and letters from Chapel Hill, when the University of North Carolina invited him to play fullback. Mr. Horton lettered in football and baseball at Mount Holly High and was All-State Honorable Mention in football and All-Conference second team in basketball. The school didn’t fund a boxing team, Shea Horton says, so Mr. Horton and his buddies formed a Golden Gloves team. He graduated high school in 1942, they think, though his ring says ’43. “There may have been a year or so when he had to help family,” Shea says. “Just help them out because times were so hard. I wish I could have had a tape recorder and let him tell the story all the way through, but…you know… wishful thinking.” “He had a great, loving family but no money to send him to college,” Furr says. “They made sure he was in school, but they didn’t know about the ballgames or getting uniforms. He did that all by himself. He just went to school, and he loved sports. He had an older brother – they called him Dizzy, after Dizzy Dean – and he and Howard would play in the neighborhood, and when Howard got into high school he would play basketball and box, but it was the football, especially. “I know Pearl Harbor interrupted his life.” Mr. Horton joined the Army after graduation, Furr says, and saw action in Germany. “He was in Central Europe, at the last of the battles,” she says. “We didn’t really know the extent of this, but he played football overseas while he was there. They had organized teams, for recreation. He would play in Monte Carlo and other places. It was toward the end of the war, and he had a good time.” Shea says the athletic director at Carolina heard of Mr. Horton’s skills and got word to him to talk about playing football in Chapel Hill when he returned from overseas. “I think the A.D. had some contact here in Mount Holly,” Shea says, “and everybody knew Daddy was playing football. Word-of-mouth says how good he was. And they found out he was playing in the Army. The guys would come off the front lines and, to have something to do, go watch a ballgame, when the war started to wind down some. They’d fly the football players on a plane to where they’d play. He’d play in thunder and lightning. He didn’t car. He loved it.” Mr. Horton played in the UNC backfield alongside first-team All-American halfback Charlie ‘Choo-Choo’ Justice, who finished second in 1948 in voting for the Heisman Trophy. That 1948 team went 9-0-1 and was ranked No. 3 when they played in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 1949, against No. 5 Oklahoma. They lost 14-6. “I’ve got the ticket, and a picture of him boarding the plane,” Shea says. “He said when Choo- Choo would run, people couldn’t tackle him. Daddy said he was a good player.” Mr. Horton stayed two years at Carolina before coming home to take care of his mother and elderly sisters. Years later, Shea says, the school “sent a big ol’ picture of the Carolina stadium in 1948 and it had Daddy’s name on it. They wanted him to come down and they were going to honor him at a football game, but Daddy’s health wasn’t too good and he didn’t make it.” Mr. Horton had married after the war and had three sons – the youngest died at age 6, from a brain tumor. Shea’s brother, Dean, is a physician in Raleigh. The marriage faded, and Mr. Horton raised the boys as a single dad. “Yeah, it was pretty much by himself,” Shea says. “He worked and raised us, along with our two older aunts. They’d keep our clothes clean, and Daddy would work.” But, always, there was football. “He always found a way to play, for mill teams, anything he could do. And I think that’s a credit to him to do all that in that time period,” Furr says. “I was raised in Knoxville and I would come down every summer and when I graduated (from Tennessee) and I came to live here, and I got to know him as a young adult. Howard pretty much taught me the game of football. We would watch with him, and that’s how I learned.” Shea Horton says he’s glad his dad made the Hall of Fame because, even without photographs of statistics, or a wall of trophies, there was an unbreakable love for the game. “There’s been a lot of changing around here. It’s progress in motion,” Shea says of Mount Holly. “I like having him in there because he loved sports so much. I’m glad my two aunts kept his stuff. They weren’t hoarders, but they kept the important stuff. “Daddy used to take us, when we were little, to watch football games every Friday night. The Mount Holly Hawks. And we’d have a good time. My brother and I would stand on our tip-toes and watch. Sometimes, we’d try to sneak off and go slide down the hill, but Daddy would always grab us by the collar and remind us why we were there: ‘We’re here to watch football.’”

Sam brown

Sam Brown was in East Gaston’s parking lot after school, waiting for the bus and watching the track team, when coach Dick Thompson whistled him to the field. Thompson recognized the sophomore from Stanley Little League and pee-wee football and wanted to test the kid’s speed. “I had on jeans, a nice shirt and dress shoes,” Brown says, “and I went down there and defeated his best runner. When I finished, I ran up to the top of the hill and caught the school bus and went home. After that, I worked with Coach Thompson.” That partnership erupted into a track career that collected numerous state titles, all-conference selections and college championships. Brown also excelled at high school basketball, as co-captain two seasons and school record-holder for rebounds in a game (26), season (280) and career (753). He was a four-year letterman at UNC-Chapel Hill, three-year co-captain of the track team and Atlantic Coast Conference indoor 600-yard champ and record-holder. In 1979, his 600-yard time of 1:10.02 was ninth-best in the world. For his accomplishments, Brown, 61, is a 2019 inductee of the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame, an award that was unexpected. “When someone called me, I was like, ‘What?’ And I’m deeply honored that I was selected,” he says. “I think those who are in the Hall of Fame are individuals who have done things that represent the best of their community, and the best of themselves, and I am honored to be allowed to join this elite group of individuals.” Brown was co-captain of East Gaston’s track team his junior and senior years and was WNCHSAA All- Conference in 1974, 1975 and 1976. He set the WNCHSAA 440-yard record of 49.4 when he won the state championship in 1976. “Prior to that state championship, there was a young man from North Gaston who defeated me, and he went back and kinda bragged about how he beat me,” Brown says. “That was the only race I lost in two-and-a-half years. So in the state meet, I set a record and defeated him. Keep in mind that in high school, we didn’t have starting blocks. I just learned how to use them when I got to Carolina. It wasn’t around (in high school), and we didn’t have a lot back them. We practiced in the parking lot, and the old East Gaston didn’t have a track – it was just dirt. A lot of what I learned, I learned from watching other people.” To get into Carolina, Brown didn’t watch others. Instead of the usual recruiting process, he chose a different route. The summer of his sophomore year at East Gaston, Brown wrote a letter to Carolina track coach Joe Hilton. Hilton replied by sending Brown a hand-written letter with some workouts to try and some details about running to incorporate into his training. Hilton never came to any of Brown’s high school meets. He never saw him run. And Hilton never invited Brown for an official visit at the UNC campus. Since it was two decades before the onslaught of social media, there were no instant videos, no text updates on Brown’s success. Just paper, and ball point pen. “But in May of 1976, he called my house and said he and (coach) Hubert Davis were in the neighborhood, and they came down and offered me a four-year scholarship,” Brown says. “I had some other schools interested, but I always wanted to go to UNC.” Reason? Basketball coach Dean Smith, and the athletic work ethic portrayed at the university. “Growing up, I would watch Coach Smith and the tradition, and the way the athletes there take care of themselves,” he says. “When I first met Coach Hilton, it was the way he embodied teamwork. Keep in mind, we only had five team rules, and I think the fact that he was a gentleman who never saw me run but wrote me these workouts… we developed a friendship, and I considered him almost like my second dad.” Brown eventually met Dean Smith, whose son Scott ran track, and another bond was set when the two sports crossed paths during training. “I met Coach Smith at his home, and also in the fall time frame when the basketball team had to run certain times, and we made fun of them, then we tried to play basketball with them, and they beat us.” The part about work ethic showed up early when Brown joined the Chapel Hill track team. “My very first day at Carolina, we had to run 5 miles, and the day before the first workout I decided to check out the route, and I noticed there was a shortcut at the 2-and-a-half-mile mark,” he says, “so I decided to be creative and snuck behind the bushes and let some of the best runners get ahead of me, then I came in. But I made a mistake – the assistant coach was there. So I had to run the whole thing over again with Coach Hilton following me in a golf cart. At that point, I realized you had to be focused and dedicated.” Being a college athlete means seeing parts of the country you otherwise may not visit and having stories to bring home. Brown has two: “I would say running indoors at Madison Square Garden and having your name called out, and having my cousins and mom and grandma in attendance,” he says. “And my very first indoor race in Richmond, Va. I never ran indoors in my life, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in Lane 4, and you’re supposed to cut in, but I ran the whole race in Lane 4, and I was so tired. I walked off the track and hid behind some bleachers, and four hours later a security guard woke me up. I walked back to the hotel, and they were all looking for me, and I went to see Coach Hilton and… I didn’t know I got third place. “From there, I learned to run indoors. We went to Nationals and I set the ACC record and Carolina record in the 600 yard dash. It was the 9 th best time in the world, at 1:10.” Moving fast from Point A to Point B continued in Brown’s life after college. He is vice president of distribution for Windigo Logistics, a Kroger company, in Fountain, Colo., that ships to 500-plus stores in Colorado, Kansas and Texas. Prior to that, his work with a textiles company, Pepsi-Cola, Kraft Foods and Super Value took him across the country, from Texas to California, Nevada, Mississippi, Iowa, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia. Counting visits with friends in northern places, Brown can check off having spent time in 49 states. Alaska is the last frontier. Brown also takes time to work with Project Angel Heart, which donates to senior citizens in Colorado and helps children through donating candy for Halloween Trunk-or-Treat. Last year, 5,000 kids benefitted. “But if anyone were to ask me the greatest moment of my life, other than being married and having a daughter, it was when I worked for Kraft Food Service in Mississippi,” he says. The majority of employees could not read or write, so he helped create a 12-week, Saturday morning program to teach them. “The employee could invite someone in their family, and by the end of the 12 weeks, they were on the seventh- or eighth-grade level, and we had a banquet. Kraft provided the food. That was probably the highlight of my career. It was very touching.” Brown and his wife, Rhonda, have a daughter Mallory, 24. He is the son of Betty Brown of Stanley and the late Jasper Brown. “I still call all this a journey – from Stanley to where I am now,” he says. “It’s been a long process with a lot of peaks and valleys, but I’ve met some wonderful people and had some great opportunities. I think sports has allowed me to prepare myself for the responsibilities and positions I now oversee. Sports taught me to be focused, to set goals, and to strive to be the best.”

April Harte

If childhoods had soundtracks, April Sigmon Harte’s would be the thuunk, thuunk, thuunk of a basketball on a driveway, followed by the soft swiiish of rubber through a net. With her father beside her, Harte played for hours, a little kid falling deeper and deeper in love with the game. “After playing on a team for the first time at 8 years old, there was no looking back,” she says. “Except basketball season at 8 didn’t last that long, and I was hooked, so that led me to becoming obsessed with making free throws.” In the driveway, from a home-made free throw line, it went on relentlessly. Thuunk, thuunk, thuunk, swiiish… Her self-created training had one unbreakable rule: “Never end on a miss.” Rewards during Harte’s basketball career began at age 9 at Pinewood Elementary, when she became the school, district and state free-throw champion, and continued through junior high, high school and college. And into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. “It means a lot to me that people today looked back and remembered me, and felt I was worthy of this honor,” she says. “I have been reminiscing at all the old photos and articles, and it really makes me miss playing. It also makes me truly appreciate my mom for keeping and organizing all the pictures and articles, as well as running me all over town to whatever practice, game or event was going on at the time.” Harte dabbled in softball and track and field at Stanley Junior High, mostly for the camaraderie and because “off-season” wasn’t in her dictionary. She was the county Division II basketball Player of the Year at Stanley in 1994 and 1995. “I had great coaches at Stanley Junior High and whatever the season was, I played the sport. I feel like all of these coaches helped build me into a better overall athlete, and it was there that I really started to flourish as a basketball player,” she says. “I had some great teammates, and we all worked together to win. I may have stood out, but we always won together.” The summer before ninth grade, the momentum stopped. Harte tore her ACL at basketball camp. Her mom, she says, sought the best doctors and therapists, and her family and friends helped her cope. She also thought about players she admired – the Charlotte Hornets’ Dell Curry, Muggsy Bogues and Larry Johnson, and the University of North Carolina’s Jerry Stackhouse and Eric Montross – and decided that, to be her best at this game, one ripped ACL was no reason to give up. “I was determined this was not going to stop me,” she says. Harte came back to play for East Gaston, where she was All-Gazette first team in 1996-97 and 1997-98. The team won the Mega 7 Championship in 1997 and was NCHSAA 4-A Sectionals runners-up. “My favorite high school memory has to be playing with the group of girls and coaches for my junior and senior years at East Gaston. We won the conference championship both years under Coach Ernie Bridges. He was definitely one of my favorite coaches through the years,” she says. “He was intense, fair and dedicated to coaching. He truly cared about every player and gave all of us the support and encouragement we needed to be successful.” Harte averaged 20 points and eight rebounds as a senior and totaled 1,153 points at East Gaston from 1995 through 1998 while earning a 4.19 GPA. Being a Carolina fan, her dream was take her game to Chapel Hill. Academically, she was good to go, but basketball would mean hoping for a walk-on. “I had been contacted by a handful of Division II schools to play, several that were too far away, but Coach Eliane Kebbe from Belmont Abbey had reached out to me several times and convinced me to at least come visit,” she says. “Coach Kebbe did an amazing job of recruiting local talent and putting together great teams, so there were several familiar faces from the area already at the Abbey. After visiting the campus and meeting some of the players, it just felt like the right decision for me.” Harte totaled 909 points in her Abbey career, with 454 rebounds and 112 three-pointers. “My favorite college game would be when we played Pfeiffer during my senior year. In high school I played down low, so the opportunity to shoot outside wasn’t often,” she says. “By my senior year at college, I had become a shooting guard. The game against Pfeiffer that year I hit six three-point shots. It was definitely a personal best for me.” She married Abbey graduate Jimmy Harte in 2007. She earned her Master’s in Health Administration from UNC-Charlotte, worked several years with Alzheimer’s and dementia residents at a care community and now is a systems administrator with OrthoCarolina. “I have always had a desire to care for other people, and I formed bonds with the (Alzheimer’s/ dementia) residents and their families that I will always cherish,” she says. “It is, however, hard to work in that setting and lose residents who become like family to you. While working as an Alzheimer’s Dementia Care director, I chose to pursue my Master’s degree in Health Administration, and it was during that time that I shifted gears and took a different position at OrthoCarolina. I have been with OC for almost 14 years. I enjoy supporting the doctors and staff who work with patients who are overcoming injuries similar to what I experienced when I was a teenager.” Joining the Hall of Fame brings that back. “I often smile when I look back at all the memories and experiences I was given because of basketball and other sports I played,” she says. “I am excited to be able to share this one with my children.” She and Jimmy have three children: James Patrick, 10; Bella, 8; and Blaise, 3. “My husband played college baseball, and is a huge sports fan too,” she says, “so hopefully our kids will continue the tradition. It is pretty exciting to see their love for sports growing, and I love watching them play.” Now, if she hears a basketball soundtrack, it will be from inside the house while little feet scurry about the driveway. Thuunk, thuunk, thuunk….swiiish… Kids got next.

Tyler Berg

At the house on North Main Street in Mount Holly where he grew up, on the wall of his old bedroom, a mantle still holds trophies, medals and reminders of the basketball player who won them. Tyler Berg’s success at East Gaston High School, in AAU ball and at Wofford College in Spartanburg remains proudly on display. “My mom kept every newspaper article that was about me and basketball. They have a box of it at home. They have all the recruiting letters,” he says. “I have AAU championship medals, state medals, all the trophies. They’re on that wall.” Clear a spot to commemorate his induction into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. Some people play a sport. Berg, 35, lived it. He dabbled in other games as a child – soccer, baseball – but basketball hooked him, he says, as a 6- or 7-year- old at the Mount Holly gym, in recreational league. He recalls trying out for his school team in seventh grade, and being told no. By eighth-grade, he was on. His height helped coaches notice him; his skills got him court time. “Yeah, I was always the tallest kid. Always the guy under the basket,” he says. “In seventh grade, I was like 5- foot-10 or so, then in eighth grade I was 6-1. In the summer between eighth grade and high school, I grew 5 inches and started high school at 6-6.” Former East Gaston coach Ken Howell noticed Berg at freshman orientation and immediately struck up a conversation. Berg made the junior varsity. From there, his basketball career accelerated. “Midway through that year, I got moved to the varsity, but I was on the team kind of practicing with older individuals (the starting center was a 6-7 senior). My 10 th grade year, I was the starting center.” As a junior, he was Gaston Gazette Player of the Week twice, the Gazette Player of the Year and All-Area first team, the Charlotte Observer Gaston-area Player of the Year, on the Observer’s All-Piedmont team, Mega 7 All-Conference, Wilkes Central Christmas tournament All-Tournament team and defensive MVP. And was named school MVP by East Gaston coaches. Berg added summer ball after his freshman year, joining the Charlotte Royals AAU team that won the 16-under National Championship in metro Detroit, and the following year placed third at 17-under Nationals in Orlando. He also added personal training, working one-on-one on off-season Saturdays with former Miami of Ohio player Larry Garloch. As a high school senior, he was Big South Conference Player of the Year, All-Conference team, Gazette Player of the Year and All-Area first team, Observer Gaston-area Player of the Year, Observer Charlotte-area second team, on the Wilkes Central All-Tournament team, a Mr. Basketball N.C. 3A finalist and East-West State All- Start team selection. The mantle got fuller and so did the mailbox. “I got letters, hundreds of letters, from colleges. You get a bunch from different people. And then as it progressed, the offers started coming in,” he says. “I had six scholarship offers.” He took some unofficial visits to Richmond, Western Carolina, Davidson and Wofford, and had a connection to Davidson through Coach Bob McKillop’s son, who played AAU ball with Berg. But it was Wofford that got a second chance to make a good first impression. “I never really wanted to go to Wofford. As a little kid, we would always go visit my aunt in Spartanburg, so I was like, I really don’t want to go to school here,” he says. “So the coaches called, and Dad answered the phone and I was in my room, and he says, ‘Wofford’s on the phone; they want to talk to you.’ I told my dad I didn’t want to talk, and he says, ‘But they’re offering you a scholarship.’” Berg took his unofficial visit, stayed overnight, met the players and other students, and changed his mind. “It kind of felt like home,” he says. “Driving back, we got as far as the Gaffney outlets and I said, ‘That’s where I want to go to school.’” Playing as a 6-foot-9, 240-pound center, and wearing No. 31 like his favorite player, Duke’s Shane Battier, Berg made the Southern Conference All-Freshman team, started 17 games as a sophomore, and finished his Wofford career with 52 starts and 1,025 total points in 108 games. Berg graduated with a degree in finance and works in Charlotte for Foodbuy LLC, a group purchasing organization that contracts with, and distributes to, health-care facilities, long-term care communities and hotels. He and his wife, Susan, are dog-parents of a mutt hound named Brady and new Golden Retriever puppy, Basil. “Being selected to the Hall of Fame, I think it’s a great honor,” he says. “Obviously, lots of talent has come through Mount Holly, and it’s an honor to be recognized and be part of this. I think my greatest accomplishment on the court was receiving a full scholarship to play college ball. A lot of kids don’t get that opportunity, and it was a goal I set for myself and was able to achieve.” Looking back, he recalls favorite high school games with rival South Point, and having a “really good game” in college at Clemson, which recruited him. Among his non-favorite games is the after-work commute down I-85 from Charlotte on heavy traffic days. Sometimes, he rides home on I-485 instead. But if he wants to reminisce, there’s an exit toward North Main Street, to David and Ann’s house, with the mantle in the bedroom.

1978 East Gaston Football Team

The game program cost 25 cents. The front was block letters, black type:

NCHSAA 3-A Football Play-Off Statesville Greyhounds – Vs – East Gaston Warriors Senior High Stadium November 10, 1978 8 p.m.

East Gaston (9-1) coach Jerry Adams brought 21 seniors, 14 juniors and five sophomores to the Warriors’ first state playoff game in school history. The Greyhounds (9-1) brought a team that had outscored its opponents 359-120, including a 61-8 win over Mooresville the week before. “I think we’ll represent the (Southwestern) conference well, but we’ve got an awfully tough first-round opponent,” Adams told the media before the game. “We don’t have any real superstars. We just play together very well as a team.” But the Warriors did have superstars. They were the first EG team to beat rival South Point. They were the first to win a conference championship. They finished with the best record in school history (10-2), a mark that lasted until 2006. Their coach was Southwestern Coach of the Year. And with a 21-20 victory that November night over Western 3-A Piedmont Conference champs Statesville, the 1978 East Gaston High School football team got its first post-season win. For all its accomplishments, the 1978 team is inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame. “There were some exceptional athletes they had to compete against. It was not a cakewalk by any means to win the conference,” says Hall of Fame member Doug Smith, who was EG’s junior varsity coach at the time. “We came back and rallied and beat Statesville and the place went crazy. The school went crazy. The community went crazy.” Statesville led 20-0 in the first half before wingback Tracy Black and tailback Richard Dill, who finished with 179 yards rushing, scored to make it 20-13 at halftime. Dill scored again with 5:28 remaining to make it 20-19, setting up the chance to go for 2. Sophomore quarterback Derek Spears ran it in. “I had no qualms about going for the two-point conversion,” Adams told the media. “Spears had the choice of either pitching out or running in for the score. It was beautiful to see him race into the end zone for that two- point conversion. I must have jumped about 3 feet in the air.” “I slid into the end zone like I was stealing second base,” Spears says. “That was exciting. We got the option run pretty well, and Richard went like, 20, 30 yards … boom, boom, boom… and we came back at the end.” “We practiced this play,” Dill says, “and they said, ‘Don’t go the wrong way!’ But guess what, I went the wrong way, and their guy followed me, and it turned out really good.” The game would be the last win for East Gaston, which lost the following week to Brevard 42-0. Five players – end Vance Luckey, tackle Billy Joe Davis, Dill, linebacker Allen Lewis and Black – were named to the All-Gazetteland all-star team. Some played ball after high school: Dill at East Tennessee State, Black at N.C. State for baseball and Spears at Clemson for baseball. “What I remember, more than anything, is that we were a real close-knit group up guys,” Dill says. “And that year was just an amazing, special year. It was like everything was right. Coach Adams had everything going the right way, and a great deal of that was the way we practiced, the way we conducted ourselves at practice and around school. You have to give Coach Adams credit for that. With us being young men it’s so easy to get sidetracked, but he kept us focused.” In the spring, the East Gaston yearbook paid tribute to the team: “The East Gaston Warriors Football Team ended this season with the best record in the school’s seven year history. Their conference record of 8-1 gave them the conference co-title and a berth in the state playoffs for the first time in East Gaston history. In the playoffs, the Warriors defeated Statesville and then lost to Brevard in the second round. This ended their season at 10 wins and 2 losses. “The football team consisted of 21 seniors, 14 juniors, and 5 sophomores. After working hard during the summer lifting weights and running, the Warriors prepared for what was to be a prosperous season. The long hours of practicing and viewing films of opponents paid off for the Warriors. Giving up 81 total points, they scored 194 total points. “The dedication and pride exhibited by all of the team members should be a guide for future Warriors. Their total commitment to the football program has lifted the sights of any pessimistic followers. The East Gaston football team has instituted a winning spirit that shall grow in the coming years.” “That senior class was a good class,” Spears says. “And our baseball team came in second that year.” East Gaston opened its season with a 28-0 win over East Lincoln and followed with victories over Burns, R.S. Central, Shelby and North Gaston before losing 26-7 to Chase. They followed that with a 20-15 win over rival South Point and finished the regular season by beating Crest, Kings Mountain and East Rutherford. Dill, who got an invite from the Houston Oilers after college and previously was inducted in the MHSHOF as an individual, says the 1978 team earned its place in the Hall. “I look back, and look at some of the other classes that have come through there,” Dill says, “and there’s never been another team like that. I tell my friends all the time, the Lord was on us that year.” The picture in the EG yearbook doesn’t list first names under the players’ picture. It merely reads: 1 st row: S. Burrell, D. Bynum, D. Spears, C. McGee, T. Black, E. McCorkle, R. Dill, M. Robbins. 2 nd row: M. Schronce, H. Underdown, A. Lewis, J. Baker, L. Isley, R. Ferrell, K. Cornwell, J. Morris, B.J. Davis. 3 rd row: R. Patterson, K. Ottinger, D. Smith, S. Farmer, D. Duncan, R. Randolph, R. Wooten, C. Guice, D. Chriswell. 4 th row: M. Webb, C. Anderson, B. Pritchett, B. Coble, V. Luckey, B. Thrower, W. Hall, M. Pressley. Not pictured: S. Devinney. Dill mentions someone valuable to the team’s success who isn’t in that photo. “There’s somebody that was very much a part of that team, who never played. Miss (Edie) Adams,” he says. “A lot of times, people don’t realize how much time a coach spends away from their home, with other people’s children, and not a lot of time with their own children. So I really want to say thank you to Miss Adams for her willingness to stand beside and with Coach Adams through those years. He taught school; we’d be out on the field all day…and you just have to be a special wife to understand that, you know?” And understand the extended family her husband was creating through football players. “I was talking to someone a few years back,” Dill says, “about how special we were, and I have to give credit to God for that. We had a lot of special people, and everyone did their role, whether it was to get water, or pick up footballs, everybody participated. And that, in itself, is special. Everybody’s important.”

Community Spirit Award Scott Pope

In a rare moment of quiet – no ballgames in progress, no buddies needing assistance, no errands to run – Scott Pope had time, one Monday in July, to absorb the peace of merely relaxing at home, watching his 1-year-old granddaughter sleep. Earlier that day, he finished his last radiation treatment for cancer. And the scare of open- heart surgery, two years prior, was gone. For one tranquil afternoon, the world revolved around babysitting little Ansley as she napped. Pope, 64, is used to constant busyness. He grew up on a mill hill in Mount Holly, played two sports in high school, coached four sports starting at age 19, married his high school sweetheart, became a daddy to two sons, helped build local ballfields, announced play-by-play at games, joined the Optimist Club, became a church deacon, went on nine mission trips – including one to Haiti – ran fund-raisers, served as chairman of several groups at church, became a committee member of the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 and is its acting president. In 1996, he was Mount Holly Man of the Year. And before Mecklenburg County began spilling over the banks of the Catawba into his city, he says, he seemed to know somebody just about anywhere he went. “This is my hometown,” he says, “born and raised and everything. That’s a good thing.” The Hall of Fame, in recognition of all he’s done, is rewarding Pope with its Community Spirit Award for 2019. “My thoughts are, there are a lot of people who have been involved with youth sports over the years who have done the same things I’ve done,” he says. “It’s odd that I’m on the committee and they’ve asked me the last three years to accept this, and I’ve told them no. But two years ago, I had open-heart surgery, and it makes you think…should I do this, in case something comes down the line?” Pope’s footprint on Mount Holly sports started at the old Mount Holly High School, where he played baseball and football. He played baseball four years and third base for the last two, when the team won its conference. In football, as a safety and backup wing back, he scored the last touchdown in MHHS history – a short run, he recalls, in a 34-0 win over visiting Roseman High. Like any young kid, he envisioned playing beyond high school. “I wanted to go on, but I was 130 pounds when I graduated,” he says. “Every person’s dream is to play more, but it wasn’t in the cards.” So, he started giving back. At 15, Pope became a prodigy of the Mount Holly Optimist Club. “The guys took me under their wing and had me announce football games,” he says. “We used to have the Holly Bowl and bring in teams and play football games all day, and they let me do the announcing. The pay was good – all they did was feed me. But the best part was all the connections from sports there. So I got involved in coaching everything from football to basketball to baseball.” Guided and mentored by others destined for the local Hall of Fame, Pope landed his first head coaching role at 19, with youth baseball. “The team’s players were 12 years old. There was a time when the umpire asked a kid, where’s the coach?” he says. “I just blended in with them. Other than I had a mustache.” Coaching Pop Warner Midget football, he says, his youth and size helped. “We (coaches) even practiced with them a couple of time, and put on the gear. They could be up to 120 pounds themselves,” he says. “I did that a couple of times. It’s probably not advisable.” On the fields, Pope coached youth league and Babe Ruth baseball from 1973 through 1980 and from 1985 through 1996. He coached Optimist football from 1973 through 1978 and again in 1982. Add in two years of basketball (“not my best sport,” he says) and four years of City Recreation Department soccer. Off the fields, he co-chaired the 1995 Field of Dreams project, which re-did the field behind Rankin Elementary. “We had a vision of putting lights back on the field we had played on as athletes. We put lights on the field, a new concession stand, new goal posts, a new press box,” he says. “We wrote up what we needed to get a matching grant, but we needed $25,000. We started a light program where, for $100, someone could pay for a light, and have their name inscribed on a plaque displayed on the pole.” A few yard sales and one haunted house raised about $10,000. The city, county, local businesses and churches added financial support. Behind the scenes, Pope had married Sheila, who he had dated since she was a high school junior and he was a recent graduate. He was 19; she was 16. He worked 31 years for Freightliner as a trainer, manager and supervisor. For 10 of those years, he drove back and forth to Cleveland, N.C., every day. Drive, work, drive, coach, go home, eat, sleep, repeat. Sheila went to nursing school and last year was named one of the Great 100 Nurses in N.C., nominated by her peers at CaroMont Regional Medical Center. When their sons played baseball for East Gaston, Pope asked Coach Darrell Van Dyke if he needed an announcer. “I did the announcing, and my wife did the scoreboard. We did it for 20 years,” he says. Away from sports, Pope has served as chairman of deacons, chairman of the personnel and policies committee, on the audio-visual team and on the mission board at Grace Baptist Church. He’s participated in mission trips to Kentucky, New Jersey, Alaska, West Virginia, South Carolina and Haiti, where his team helped support building an orphanage after an earthquake. A Grace Baptist connection led to his church helping a pastor in Haiti attend Bible school at Fruitland Baptist Bible College in Hendersonville. Pope lists a lifelong support group of area coaches, Hall of Fame members and friends. So, what does he count as his greatest accomplishment? “I would have to say, besides being a Christian and having God guide me through my life, it’s marrying my wife, Sheila. Because you can say that God chooses your spouse, and He chose her for me,” he says. “She’s my right arm. And my left arm. Her nursing skills are why I’m still here.” His heart episode two years back was first diagnosed at home, by Sheila. “I didn’t have a heart attack,” he says. “I had the cords break from my heart valve and instead of it beating normal, it was like it was sucking air. The cords just snapped. “My other greatest accomplishment would be my two sons, Jeremy and Justin, whom I am extremely proud of. I have two fine boys who have never given me an ounce of trouble.” His transition from sports and work means more time, now, for church. And missions. Like that trip to Alaska, to build cabins for the Wounded Warrior program run by Samaritan’s Purse. Or the trip to New Jersey, with N.C. Baptist Men, to feed people after Hurricane Sandy. So many things. So much to do. He reflects on all that, sometimes. Like this Monday in July, when it’s quiet in the house, with a sleeping child. But after an hour or so, the quiet ends, and Pope is a coach, of sorts, again. Ansley is awake. And she wants to play with her ball.