If there were a teammate the guys wanted on their side, it was John Logan.

A big guy – 6-foot and 270 pounds – he was the tackling machine on East Gaston football’s defensive line, the heavyweight wrestler who won the majority of his matches with quick pins, the track team standout who could hurl a 12-pound shot put 58 feet, easily, and sail a discus into oblivion.

“I threw discus one year, but the guy who always won it was John Logan,” says former East Gaston teammate Jeff Lee. “Big John threw it about 170 feet.”

Logan, who took his talents to Johnson C. Smith University and graduated in 1987 with a bachelor’s in Business Administration, joins the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame for his list of accomplishments at both schools. He casually recalls some of the details, when asked, but his attention now is focused on family and his job at Federal Express, where he’s worked for 24 years.

“Everybody said, ‘You ought to play football,’ and I had a lot of speed for my size, but once I started I really enjoyed it, I had a passion for it,” Logan says. “I wasn’t all that great. I had my moments, but I really loved the game and I think more than anything, I loved the team concept. I enjoyed being around those guys and made a lot of friends.”

Logan, who turns 54 in August, started for East Gaston’s football as a junior and senior and was voted All-Gazetteland as a senior in 1982, an award given by the Gaston Gazette. “I think I averaged something like eight tackles a game and five sacks a year,” he says. “My senior year we played against Kings Mountain, and I made 11 tackles that game.”

He was the Southwest 3A Conference heavyweight wrestling champion in 1981-82 and broke a record to receive an award for fastest pin in the Albemarle Invitational. “I think I was Most Valuable in wrestling that year. Most of my wins were by pins,” he says. “I pretty much dominated the conference, but once you go beyond that and go to the State level, the competition gets a lot tougher. But I made State, and made All-State in wrestling at the 1982 tournament at Parkland High School in Winston-Salem.” 

During track and field season, Logan was the Warriors’ shot put and discus power, winning the Southwest 3A shot title in 1980, ’81 and ’82 and setting a school record of 58 feet. He also owned the Gaston County record.

Logan was recruited by J.C. Smith, Western Carolina and Southern University, in Louisiana, but wanted to stay close to home. Like in high school, Logan was a multi-sport athlete for the Golden Bulls.

He played football all four years and started every game. “There were a few games I shouldn’t have started because I was injured, but I played anyway,” he says.

He was the CIAA conference Defensive Player of the Year in 1983 and All-CIAA in 1983 and ’84 in football, and was CIAA conference champion three years – 1984, ’85 and ’86 – in shot put, indoor and outdoor. And, as in high school, he broke the school record. In college, the shot weighs 16 pounds. Logan launched it 54 feet. The old record had stood for a decade.

But for all his winnings and titles, Logan says a scenario he remembers most is about not finishing first. It’s that never-give-up mindset that great athletes have.

“I think the best thing that happened to me as an athlete is this guy that I wrestled who went to Hunter Huss, I think it was in the ninth grade, he beat me. And we met again my senior year, and he beat me again. And we met again in Charlotte in the semifinals of the Sectionals, and I beat him 9-1, and that was the best moment,” he says. “The whole time, ninth grade all the way through high school, I had him on my mind, that he was better than me, and I was able to beat him.”

He says his Hall of Fame induction was somewhat of a surprise. “I’m just thankful someone thought enough of me to nominate me and put me in,” he says. “I had my moments, but I never felt like I was on that level. But I’m thankful someone thought that much of me.”