When Tracy Black was in junior high and high school, people could tell what season it was by the shape of ball he held.

Black played football, basketball and baseball, though he admits basketball was “something to fill in. It wasn’t my passion.” More like something to do, to get from the end of football to the first pitch of spring.

“I was always the kid who had to be playing something,” he said.

The other two sports – especially baseball – have put Black, 52, of Lowell, in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

Black played all three sports for Mount Holly Junior High and East Gaston High School, and has a trophy for being awarded school Athlete of the Year.

He played both sides of the ball, as a free safety and tailback, on the 1978 football team that won East Gaston’s first Southwest Conference title and was state Class 3A runners-up. “Everything just came together that year,” he said. “Going into my sophomore year, we had the same group of guys that won the junior high championship at Mount Holly, so when we got to East Gaston, they weren’t doing so well in sports but when we were in 10th grade, we started to turn things around as far as winning. Everything just clicked. We weren’t one of the biggest teams, but as far as talent, ability and speed, everything fell into place. We had the right guys in the right spot, and it was just a bunch of guys who loved to play.”

(He cites fellow MHSHOF inductee Richard Dill, a member of the 1978 team, as “one of the best athletes I every placed with – a standout type of talent.”)

But when Black graduated in 1979, football was put on hold.

“Baseball won out,” he said. “When I was growing up, I loved playing baseball. Every day at home, I would hit the ball up against the wall, drive my dad nuts. I was always in the backyard, swinging a bat.”

He was recruited by several colleges – Western Carolina, Davidson, Gardner-Webb, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and Clemson. They sent letters and forms, phoned his house.

But it was North Carolina State that won the center-fielder’s signature.

“I had always been, for whatever reason, an N.C. State fan,” he said. “I’d fallen in love with the school and watching David Thompson and them play basketball, and from then on, I just wanted to go there and play. So it was a dream come true.”

During a high school playoff game, the N.C. State coach, Sam Esposito, was in the stands to watch a player from Stanley. “And it just happened that, that game, I couldn’t have played any better. So right after the game, he offered me a scholarship,” Black said.

Black red-shirted his senior year in college, then came back for a fifth season. The Pittsburgh Pirates had been watching, as had the Minnesota Twins, who had him on their radar while he was East Gaston. “They even had a mini tryout with me after practice one day. They said they’d definitely be watching through the years,” he said.

The Twins signed Black as a free agent and sent him to Class A Visalia Oaks of the California League, where he played three years. He moved from center field to right, then to first base. A collision with a runner caused a career-ending injury – a separated right shoulder – to his throwing arm. “It tore it up, and it never recuperated – not in their time frame, anyway,” he said.

But the minors were not without rewards.

Center-fielder Kirby Puckett, who played his entire 12-year career with the Twins, had left California, but set Black up with a host family – the grandparents of a bat boy. “They were a wonderful retired couple. He (Puckett) lived there right before I got there. Most other guys were living four or five to an apartment, so this was pretty good,” he said.

During spring training in Melbourne, Fla., Black injured a knee and was sent to the major league training facility in Orlando, for treatment. While there, he got to play with Puckett and first baseman Kent Hrbek.

“Kirby was the nicest, most humble, honest man,” Black said. “He was already a superstar, but he was just laid back, easy-going. He’d talk with me and give me pointers, things to do and not to do. He was just a humble, very appreciative man.”

Black retired in 1986 and returned to Mount Holly, where he went to work for a bread company as a production supervisor before joining Duke Energy as a systems operator. He left there in 2010 and works from home as a currency trader.

He is married to Damienne and has raised four boys – Aaron and Bryan, who are older, then Austin and Hayden. The boys are athletes, too: Aaron played baseball at East Gaston and shortstop for Belmont Abbey, on scholarship. Bryan played tight end for South Point, and Hayden was a linebacker there.

Black said he was surprised by the Hall of Fame nomination. “Shocked, really, but definitely humbled that they would pick me,” he said. “I loved playing, but not for any kind of accolades. (Coach) Wayne Bolick (a 2011 inductee) was one of the biggest influences on my life, and someone who helped shape my life.

“Just that they (the committee) felt me worthy is truly an honor. I’m definitely thankful.”