Class of 2010

Mar 11

Joe Huffstetler

The Huffstetler family has been a part of the Mount Holly sports scene for almost a century, with father Carl “Cack” Huffstetler playing baseball for the textile mills in the 1920s and 30s. Carl played first base for a professional team in Greensboro but was offered more money to return to Mount Holly to play for the mill team than he was being paid to play professionally.

Joe, following in his father’s footsteps, also played first base.

“I could hit the ball---just like my dad,” says Joe. One of his best memories was playing in the summer recreation league---Joe played for the legendary coach Dick Thompson and was chosen for the state all-star team to play games at North Carolina State College. The only problem was that the team did not have uniforms that would fit his extra-large frame, so Coach Thompson borrowed a uniform for Joe from the Textile mill---the team wore grey and Joe wore white with blue pinstripes.

Joe says with a grin, “I looked like Babe Ruth in a little league uniform.”

In 1950, the Mount Holly Junior High School student was playing baseball when Jim Cross, the son of the owner of the local Chevy dealership saw him play. Nicknamed “Big Joe” by Raymond Gant in the 8th grade, Joe was six feet tall and weighed 270 pounds. His size and speed impressed Jim and he aggressively pursued Joe as a potential member of the Mount Holly High School football team.

Not a huge fan of formal education, Joe was 16 when he joined the varsity football team as an 8th grader, thanks to his size, speed, and skill on the field. He played left tackle, kicked off, and made returns.

“ I was big and strong,” says Joe. “ I tried to not hurt anyone I played against---a lot of times I’d picked them up and tell them not to struggle and I’d put them down easy.”

“I had many people tell me that my dad was the dominant force on the football field in his time,” says Joe’s son, Joel Huffstetler.

Joe played for Mount Holly High School from 1950-53. Former Hawks quarterback, Jack Hinkle, who was playing for the University of South Carolina, told his future college coach about “Big Joe”. The coach, Rex Enright invited Joe to visit the school and offered him a scholarship to play. Mount Holly attorney, Frank Rankin, took joe to the University of North Carolina (UNC) and coach Carl Snavely offered him a scholarship as well.

There was one major hurdle, though. Joe could not play his senior year. He was past the age of eligibility. So after graduation, Joe attended Gardner Webb Junior College and met the coach, Norman Harris, who told him, “If you are good enough to play at UNC then you can play for us.”

According to Joel, his father made quite an impression on the field.

“One game I was told about was between Gardner Webb and Mars Hill,” recalls Joel. “Mars Hill was on the goal line and the coach put Dad in the game. By the third dow, Mars Hill had been backed up to the 20-yard line and Dad made tackles in the backfield three straight times.”

The new recruit played five games before deciding to leave college. Joe returned to Mount Holly and went to work at Sodeyco in the warehouse and transportation as a manger.

“It was just not in my heart to go to school,” says Joe. “I always felt bad that Mr. Rankin took me around and helped me so much and I chose not to go.”

But Joe never really left sports. He began a T-ball team with his church, Ridgeview Baptist, then coached football with the Mount Holly Optimist Club and Little League with Coach Joe Spears, who calls Huffstetler, “one of the finest men I know.” He was also a deacon and a Sunday school teacher at the church.

“I tried to be a positive influence on the kids, teach them the fundamentals of sports and be a role model for them,” says Joe. “I modeled my coaching after Coach Thompson. He was a great inspiration to me.”

The highlight of Joe’s coaching career was in 1976 when the Optimist Club football team got invited to take part in the Disney Bowl.

“We held a 35 family yard sale to raise money for the trip,” says Joe. “We played a team from Deland (Florida) that had not lost all year and we beat them---they were our host team. It was a great experience for the kids. A lot of them probably never would have seen Disney otherwise.”

His son, who was part of the Disney Bowl team remembers, “We were undefeated: they were undefeated---it was like a miniature bowl game.”

Joe, who coached from 1970-1977, believed in getting all of the kids into the game, especially the younger children, but he also made sure he did not have nine-year-olds going up against 12-year-olds.

“I believed everyone deserves a chance to play,” he said. “Winning was a good thing, but letting all of the kids have a chance to play was better.”

In that spirit, Joe began what he called a “b-game”. After the main game, which lasted six innings, Joe would hold a second, three-inning game for the kids who did not play in the first game with the cooperation of the opposing coach.

“So kids on the team who might never get a chance to play otherwise got to play…(Mount Holly Mayor) Bryan Hough got his start in b-games,” says Joel.

Both of his children, Joel, and daughter Lee (who passed away in 2004) played baseball for their father. Joel also played football, was an all-star in little league and captain of the high school football team. As good as he was, Joel says his father’s athletic prowess was legendary.

“I was pretty good,” Joel says. “When I was 15 or 16 I was playing in the ‘teener league’ and I hit a ball that went 400 feet, way out at center field and a man came up to me and said, ‘That was a great hit---your daddy hit it farther---but that was a great hit.’ “

Joe’s daughter Lee also excelled in sports and he encouraged her as much as he did Joel.

“My daughter wanted to play and at first she was the only girl playing---she did not understand why she couldn’t play---she was good---she played first base,” says Joe. “She was competitive and a great ballplayer.”

The compassionate, thoughtful family man and coach drove a truck all day, Joel remembers but would be waiting, dressed and ready when the boy got home to take him to his game. Joe finally left coaching in 1977 to be available to attend his children’s games and support them, as they got older.

“He and my mom were always at our games. He was the ultimate provider for his family,” says Joel.

Joe still lives in Mount Holly with his wife, Pansy.

John Farrar

The only graduate of Mount Holly High School to ever play in the National Football League is John Farrar. His accomplishments and struggles during his years at Mount Holly High School are both a reflection of those turbulent times and a tribute to the spirit of his incomparable African-American athlete and Mount Holly High School alumni.

John Farrar was the youngest son of five and also had three sisters, John and his brothers grew up playing sandlot football.

“I had no choice but to participate, it toughened me up, “ says Farrar. “Living in the country---that was our recreation. They treated me like I was their size.”

Times got even tougher when Farrar’s parents died while he was still in school. His father, Walter, died when Farrer was 13 and three years later, his mother, Lourd, passed away. By the time his mother passed, John’s brothers were away at college and he was cared for by relatives. He began his high school career at the segregated Reid High School. He then came to Mount Holly High School during the first year of integration.

“They wanted to end even-keel, good students as leaders for the young black community, notes Farrar.

The attitudes at Mount Holly High School during the integration era were complex and Farrar dealt with a certain amount of intimidation and ridicule but he was also not without allies.

“Gary Neely was one of my dear friends, “ says Farrar. “He never did anything to do me wrong.”

When John Farrar walked onto the Mount Holly High School football field, he showed everyone he was no different. Well, maybe he was different---because John Farrar was one of the best, driven to excel. On that field, he found one of his greatest allies and a lifelong mentor whose training methods and work ethic he utilized his entire career: Coach Delmer Wiles.

“I often think of Coach Wiles, “ says Farrar. “One of the regrets I have is I only got to talk to him once or twice after school. He was the biggest inspiration and a force for anything I achieved in high school---that boot camp mentality---he did not tolerate quitting. When I was working prior to college, I maintained the regimen he taught me. I got to college and saw all of these big muscle-bound people but I had true conditioning---I cannot ever remember being tired after a game. I never got to thank him for that---I kept that regimen all through college.”

The atmosphere of the era made life somewhat difficult for Mount Holly High School’s first black athletes, says Farrar. But he credits his coaches with handling the situation gracefully.

“Coach Wiles and Coach Spears---they knew the climate and the plight of the black players, “ he said. “They handled the situation beautifully.”

In high school Farrar played offensive guard and defensive tackle in 1966 and 1967, playing as part of the 1967 MHHS 2A state championship team. He did not play his senior year, having been held back in 10th grade at Mount Holly High School.

“Education was always a theme in my home---My Aunt Leontine Moore was a principal at Fuller Normal in Greenville, South Carolina, “ says Farrar. “I was truly hurt and that was why I could not play my senior year. I had passed the age restriction.”

He had to be strong that year and had two guardian angels in Coach Wiles and Coach Spears, who made it their mission to keep the youngster in school. The pair kept Farrar involved in athletics. Coach Spears made him the manager of the boy’s basketball team. Coach Wiles let him practice even though he could not play.

“I never knew how dedicated he was to me---he let me practice and gave me access to the trainers even though it may have been against the rules...it would have been easy to just quit and get a job,” said Farrar. “He and Coach Spears told me never to give up on yourself---it really made a difference in my life.”

As an academic, he was a middle of the road student, but Coach Wiles spoke to schools on his behalf. Farrar wanted to go to Tennessee but his aunt had reservations. Fourteen other schools were interested in his football skills and halfway as an act of rebellion, Farrar put slips of paper in a hat and chose his school from that.

“Livingstone---I had no idea what it was, “ he says with a laugh. “But the reason they offered me a full-ride really quick was that Coach Wiles had told the coach there that even though I was not on the team, I was better than the other players. I can never, never repay him for what he did for me.”

His coach was not exaggerating. During practice, Farrar routinely had to have two to three other players to block him. During his college career, he was placed at defensive wing. Farrar weighed 210 pounds. The bigger players simply could not keep up. He ended up as a linebacker for three years during college, always stepping up to the challenge. Farrar remained a linebacker when he entered the NFL.

Talking to scouts from the Dallas Cowboys was an awesome thing for the young kid from Mount Holly, who had attracted a lot of attention with his drive and heart on the field. But tragedy struck when, on his birthday, July 4, Farrar and his fiancee were hit by a drunk driver in Mount Holly. His fiancee was killed and Farrar, though not physically injured, felt the emotional scars for several years. Later the Cowboys dropped him from draft consideration, based on their evaluations. But during the second round of the draft, the Houston Oilers made an offer and Farrar was faced with the astounding thought that someone was actually going to pay him to play football.

“We had a preseason game and I got on the bus and rode to the Astrodome,” he says. “ I had never been in it---and here I am on a bus with ta football team who are all paid to play a game I learned in the sandlots of Mount Holly. Then there was a space with my name on it in the locker room---it blew me away. Then I walked through the tunnel into the stadium. My dream had come true.”

Farrar played two years with the Houston Oilers and three years with the San Francisco 49ers. He got hurt in Houston and was on the injured reserve his second year. Then he was sent to San Francisco and walked away after two years.

“Football was not my life---I really wanted to go to law school---I lost the motivation to play anymore and quit after the second year with San Francisco,” he said. “I got invited to apply to Georgetown law school---but decided to pursue my professional work career.”

Farrar, who now resides in Tennessee, went into sales and marketing and is now retired. He has one daughter, Cicely and three grandchildren. He spends his time with his wife of 27 years, Bernetta and working with underprivileged and special needs boys, talking about his experiences and telling his story.

“ I say that if I can make it to the NFL---anybody can do it. You have to have a dream. The last gift my mom gave me was a football and my dream was sealed. I had the desire to live that dream---making the sacrifices to make it come true---the determination to use the skills God gave me---discipline and focus.”

Joe Spears

Playing sports at the early age of ten, honoree Joe Spears grew up on the basketball diamond, football field, and basketball courts of his hometown of Clover, South Carolina.

“All there was to do was play all, “ says Spears. “Sports kept you out of trouble.”

Spears attended Erskine College as a math major, but his college career was interrupted by his commitment to the Naval Reserve. He was called into active duty from 1951-53 during the Korean War. After his service was completed, he returned to Erskine to complete his education, graduating in 1956 with a BA in math and later received his MA from Appalachian State University in 1962. He also resumed playing baseball and basketball in ‘56 with the local mills. His skills as an outfielder in baseball and his accomplishments on the basketball court as a forward earned him a salaried spot with the basketball and baseball mill teams of Gluck Anderson and Calhoun Falls.

“I was always playing sports---it’s just what you did,” says Spears.

After college, he returned to Clover where he taught and coached for a year. Spears then took a teaching job in Ranlo. He also played softball and baseball for Rex Mill in Ranlo, for three years. Playing for the mills was how he earned extra income. It is also where he got his early lessons in coaching.

“I learned a lot about coaching there from J. V. McGinnis of Rex Mill and Benny Cunningham of Groves Mill,” says Spears.

In 1959, Spears married Marie Dowd and the newlyweds moved to Mount Holly, where he taught and coached. At the time, football was the dominant sport in Mount Holly.

“On Friday nights, everyone was at the football game,” he says.

In 1960, Coach Delmer Wiles came to Mount Holly, taking over the football program and Spears served as his line coach. That same year, Spears was asked to coach the girl’s basketball team and led the team to five conference championships. After Coach Don Killian left Mount Holly High School in 1965, Spears took over the boys’ basketball team and won the conference championship two times and went to the state championship tournament. Spears coached both basketball teams through 1972 amassing an overall record of 229-162.

“It was hard to get the town into basketball, but they came around,” says Spears. “One year I had both the boys and girls team at 10-0 at Christmas break - they both went on that year to win their conferences.”

Spears said one of the keys to his success was treating both teams equally.

“I told both the boys and girls teams: you are not boys or girls, you are basketball players,” he says. “The girls team played especially hard - they were tough- and I ran them all hard (boys and girls).”

One of his former basketball players, Mimi Guin, remembers how hard her coach pushed her.

“I was a forward and played the post,” says Guin. “He meant business, he told us our purpose was to win. We would do springs up and down the court, run up and down the bleachers, and do drills. He taught us screens and other plays - all of it made a difference. We all wanted to play well for Coach Spears, to win for him and for our school.”

Coach Wiles’ philosophy of strict fundamentals influenced Spears’ coaching style.

“One of the things I learned from him is ‘skill is skill, it’s conditioning that is key,’” he says, adding that in basketball, like football, the intense conditioning often made the difference in close games.

Guin agrees, saying that in close games it was often the training that gave Mount Holly the edge to win. She also credits Coach Spears’ positive attitude.

“He was always positive, he was always telling us we could do it,” she says. “He taught us the plays, knew we could execute, and he encouraged us.”

Spears also founded the golf and tennis teams at Mount Holly High School with the help of Jack Henkle and Frank Love, the president of the American & Efird Mill.

The influence Spears had as a coach on his players was profound, says Guin.

“He taught us to have a goal, something to accomplish, to develop the skills we needed to accomplish those goals, to have a plan and then complete the picture - we did that playing basketball and tennis,” she says. “And it is a philosophy that has carried me through my life.”

Spears coached through 1972. In 1973, East Gaston High School opened and he served as the athletic director for one year before deciding to become a guidance counselor, a position he held until he retired in 1993.

But he did not leave sports altogether. Through the 1970s and 80s, Spears served as the commissioner of the Optimist Basketball program and ran the group’s Saturday morning league. He worked with fellow inductee Joe Hufstetler, as well as with Barry Jesson and Bob Smith and officiated his daughter Suzie and son Derek in little league baseball. Both of his children were natural athletes and both received college athletic scholarships. Derek played baseball at Clemson University and Suzie played volleyball at Converse College in Spartanburg.

The rewards of coaching were memorable for the coach. “I enjoyed the competition when I was younger - I loved it when we won the close games. It was a reflection of the team’s skill and determination and how reacted to direction from me as their coach.”

Spears, who is retired, and his wife Marie still reside in Mount Holly.

Johnny Wike

A man for all seasons, Johnny Wike excelled in a variety of sports during his tenure as a competitive athlete. He is best known in Mount Holly for his accomplishments on the football field, playing for Mount Holly High School and later, Wingate University - where he was an All-American - and finally East Carolina. Wike was also an outstanding baseball player, boxed in the Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament in his teens and was a consummate golfer.

His competitive drive continued into his professional life as a teacher, football, and golf coach at Western Carolina University.

Johnny Wike, a Mount Holly native, spent his formative years in Mountain Island where his father Shuford worked as a switchboard operator at Duke Power’s Mountain Island Plant. Johnny’s interest in sports began in the local little league when he was nine years old. Wike entered the football arena in 8th grade.

“Dick Thompson was the coach,” says Wike. “He recruited me to play football. I started as a lineman. We ran the single wing and then we got a new coach (Max Beam) and formation and made me a running back - I made the All-County team in my senior year.”

During his time at Mount Holly High School, Wike also got deeply involved in another sport that would enrich his life. His future father-in-law, Bill Alligood - the personnel manager for American and Efird, got his son-in-law a job working at A & E at the company golf course when Wike was in 11th grade. His father-in-law was athletic and felt that the golf experience would put Wike in with different people and be beneficial in his prospective son-in-law’s career.

“Curley Evans ran the course,” says Wike. “He gave me an old set of clubs and I started hacking around and learned to play.”

Upon graduation in 1953, Wike had an option to play college football at Auburn - he was invited as a walk-on - but did not get a scholarship. Wike entered the Marine Corps, then headed to Wingate University in 1956, where he was a starter and graduated in two years.

“I played running back the first year and then I moved to line and played guard,” says Wike, who was a National Junior College Football All-American lineman in 1957, a member of the 1957 Pine Bowl team, team co-captain, all-conference, and all-region.

He also managed to work golf into the equation.

“When I got to Wingate, I still had my clubs and I challenged the football coach, George Tucker, to start a golf team - and he recruited me to play on [the] team.”

His game improved at the college level and Wike became skilled enough to play in a junior college golf tournament in Asheville.

After two years at Wingate, Wike received a scholarship to East Carolina. He played guard and linebacker for two years at ECU, a two-way starter on the team’s offensive and defensive lines. He lettered at both Wingate and East Carolina and is a member of the Wingate Sports Hall of Fame. Wike was also recruited the moment he got to East Carolina to play on the college’s golf team.

After graduation from East Carolina, Wike was hired by George Tucker to help him coach at Elon College. While there, Wike worked as a line coach for four years, during which the team won a conference championship.

A call from the head football coach of Western Carolina University in 1964, Dan Robinson, brought Wike to the college where he would stay, coaching and mentoring young athletes for 35 years. He was the first assistant coach at Western to actually be paid for his efforts. From the beginning, Wike strove for excellence, helping the team to rise from a 2-6-1 record in 1963 to a 5-4 year in 1964. The team continued to thrive, posting a 7-2 season in 1965 and a 9-1 in 1969, the first year that Wike worked with Bob Waters0n, the new head coach who replaced Robinson.

“I was the recruiting coordinator - I had several players went on to play in the NFL - All-Americans - I was very lucky.”

Wike’s recruits included All-Americans Don Dalton, Steve Williams, Mark Ferguson, Jerry Gaines, And Wayne Tolleson who was also named Southern Conference Athlete of the Year. Wike recruited Keith Elliot, the first African American to play football at a primarily white southern university.

Waters arrival also signaled the reboot of the golf program at Western, when he asked Wike to take on the coaching responsibilities of the new program, populated with student players. Wike continued in the golf and football programs for three years, until he left in 1974 to work as the head football coach at Carson-Newman. In 1977, he returned to Western North Carolina, to become the head coach at Cullowhee High School. In 1984 he returned to his roots, becoming the defensive coordinator for Western Carolina, where he recruited Willie Williams, Tony Jones, and David Patten - players who went on to play on the professional level and compete in Super Bowls.

In 1991, he also returned to coaching golf as well and began a woman’s golf program in 1995.

“It was a privilege to go play golf with the team every day,” says Wike. “It did not hurt me as far as my football coaching - spring practice was the only time I had to balance it out. The biggest problem I had in football was if a kid was out of line I could chastise him to get him fired up and do what had to be done - in golf, you can’t use that same style - there are two completely different attitudes. I had to find ways to teach golfers how to handle tough situations - but that is why you have sports in schools.”

The university’s golf program flourished, with the majority of the school’s all-time low scorers playing under Wike’s guidance.

Wike, who retired from Western Carolina University’s football program in 1995 and then in 204 retired from coaching golf, was inducted into the Western Carolina University Hall of Fame in November 2009.

Wike resides in Cullowhee, North Carolina with his wife, Carolyn. The couple has two sons, Eric and Matt, and four grandchildren.

And he still plays golf five days a week.

1990 East Gaston Wrestling team

The East Gaston High School’s Wrestling Team was *the* team to beat in 1990. Under the guidance of Coach Doug Smith, that year the wrestler amassed a string of victories that culminated in the state championship - a first for the school in any sport. The team continued its domination, winning the championship again in 1991 and 1992.

Coach Doug Smith, an East Gaston Alumni credits East Gaston’s first wrestling coach, Steve Williams, with laying the groundwork for the program. Williams coached from 1973-1977.

“Steve was the one who started the wrestling program,” says Smith. “It was good under him. He was the coach when East Gaston won their first conference championship.”

“The 1990 team was a solid brick house team,” says Brent Moore, a senior on the 1990 team, with a personal record that year of 31-1-1. He is now an Air Force Master Sergeant living in South Carolina. “I still talk to people who are awed about me being a part of that team, they still remember us. Every person on that team was a champion. We had so much confidence and we all believed in each other.”

While football was Smith’s first love, he agreed to take over the wrestling program in 198 and coached from 1978-1991.

Football did, however, have a profound impact on how Smith coached, however, due to his greatest influence: Coach Delmer Wiles, who Smith played football for in his last years at Mount Holly High School.

Smith says, “I took the things I learned playing under him and applied them to the team. I told him what he taught me was what I put into the program. He was a tremendous influence on me. He taught me to teach my team to look at and [to] understand its weaknesses as a team and as individual wrestlers so we could work to get around those weaknesses.”

The state began holding dual meets in 1990 - making the contest a team effort rather than a competition of individual wrestlers.

“The championship was held in the Greensboro Coliseum - I remember the first person I hugged when we won was Steve Williams who was standing right behind me,” says Smith. “We were 15-1 - we lost to Ashbrook during the season. I knew we had a solid team across the board, they knew their roles with the team. It was not always about pinning your opponent, sometimes it was about avoiding being pinned. The point system in wrestling allowed us to strategize.”

The team believed in what they were doing and practiced hard. Both Moore and Moore’s fellow team member, Jason Stone, now a Gastonia resident and also a senior that fateful year, agree. Both remember the dedication, athleticism and sheer determination it took to be a team member.

“We have a tough training regimen, and there were more drills than mat work,” says Stone. “In those six minutes in a match, you used every muscle of your body. You had to be in top shape.”

Moore says, “The workouts were painful - we would run drills on stairwells until we were soaking wet. And when you had absolutely nothing left, then we started conditioning.”

Some nights a few members of the team practiced in the cotton steaming room of the American and Efird Mill in Belmont until 9 PM to sweat off the weight and make their weight class, provided access by a teammate’s father who happened to be a supervisor at the mill.

“He (Smith) believed if he drove us and we didn’t quit - we would excel,” says Moore. “There were those who could not do it and it was nothing to be embarrassed about. Training for Coach Smith was not an easy thing to do.”

Smith was a master at matching the team up properly, making each member of the squad wrestle every other member, even if they were not in the same weight class. The reasoning, says Moore, was to team the boys to recognize the difference in methods and techniques and apply this to unknowns on the mat.

The team had a dedicated fan following, with parents, friends, and family members attending every match no matter the distance.

Moore says, “We would go out of town and have more people in the stands than the home team.”

And they had each other as well.

“There was David Sampson, he was the team’s heavyweight,” says Moore. “He gave up 40 pounds to most matches and could wrestle at 220 against 260 and just wear them out. He could really move for such a big guy. And there was Jason Stone - he was a quiet giant, he was so strong in his belief in what he could do and what we could do together.”

Stone himself remembers Moore’s wrestling expertise, stamina, and ability to mimic the then-popular Saturday Night Live skit, “Hanz and Franz,” which the pair would act out to the amusement of the other members of the team.

“We will pump you up!” says Stone with a laugh. “And two members of the team who I also respected were Shad Ellis and Tim Hawkins. They were both very humble and quiet but when they got on the mat - they were something to deal with.”

Stone’s fondest memory of the team is the moment before each match when the team would gather in the middle of the mat and kneel to say the Lord’s Prayer together. “All of the guys were something special, we were very close - the whole team has a very special place in my heart.”

At the actual championship, says Smith, the team got behind in the finals. But the younger members of the team labored to keep the score close so when the top wrestlers went in…

“They just blew everyone out of the water! Those kids knew their roles on the team and what they had to do so the team could win. It was about helping the team.”

“He would tell us ‘Reach down in your gut,’” says Moore.

And reach the team did, all the way to a championship and memories that will last a lifetime of their brotherhood of athletic excellence.

Dwight Fradey

2010 Community spirit award

The Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame has recognized some of our city’s legendary leaders, coaches, and athletes since the organization was founded in 2007. In the aftermath of a recent committee meeting, our committee members reminisced about some of the great unsung heroes of Mount Holly’s sports landscape. The men and women who volunteered time, donated money and promoted both athletics and the athletes of this community. The question inevitably came up: how to properly honor them?

The answer was the Mount Holly Community Spirit Award. There was little debate about who would be the first recipient. The unanimous consensus was local sports journalism legend, Dwight Frady.

During his more than 50 years in newspapers, first at the Gaston gazette and later with the Belmont Banner and the Mount Holly News, Frady captured the spirit of sports in Mount Holly like none other. He turned high school athletes into stars and professional athletes into legends. He covered everything, and according to those he wrote about, never missed a game.

“ We could not wait to see what Mr. Frady wrote, “ said Eddie Wilson, who played football at Mount Holly High School. “ we would race down to Charlie’s (Drug) to get the paper first thing.”

Dwight Frady was a gifted writer and received dozens of accolades over the years:

Awarded the Quill and Scroll Award and the Lineberger Creative Writing Award as a high school student.
Began writing for The Gaston Gazette at the age of 18 covering the championship year of the Gaston Post 23 baseball team.
At age 27 he became the youngest writer in North Carolina to win the Lee Kirby-Pete Dimizeo Award for excellence in sports writing.
Was awarded the highest writing award for evening newspapers covering the NCAA Baseball Tournament at Sims Park.
The first writer to win two awards in the same year from The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) for best feature story and best continuous coverage of softball.
In 1988 he won the top award for best column in a weekly paper for his eulogy of a local high school student killed in an automobile accident.
Was awarded more than 31 state and national press awards.
The first person to win The State Media Award for coverage of American Legion events locally and statewide.
In 1979 received the Auten-Stowe Legion Post 144 Community Service Award.
That same year he was honored by Gov. Jim Hunt for his outstanding service to the community with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
In 1990 he was inducted into the Belmont Sports Hall of Fame.
In 1991 he was chosen as Region 6 media person for contributions to the betterment of sports in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
Was named Belmont’s Citizen of the Year.

As the inaugural recipient of the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame Community Spirit Award, Dwight Frady’s talent as a journalist and his selfless dedication to the athletes of Mount Holly sets a standard of excellence for his award. He may have not actually been a Mount Holly athlete, but Dwight Frady is the definition of a sports legend and it is an honor for the committee and American and Efird to honor this man.