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Paris-Henry   County
Sports  Hall  of  Fame

 

The Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame
2008 Induction  Banquet

May 16, 2008

 

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Joe  Dean, Jr.

Guest speaker Joe Dean Jr. makes a point during Friday night’s Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet at the Paris Convention Center on East Wood Street. Dean, athletic director at Birmingham Southern University and television commentator for SEC basketball, spoke about his mother, religion, coaching and athletics. “I believe athletics is a window into a person’s soul,” Dean said.
Staff photo by Dave Phillips

Five inducted into local sports hall of fame

By DAVE PHILLIPS, P-I Staff Writer

Humility was a common theme at the induction banquet for the Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame Friday night at the Paris Convention Center on East Wood Street.

In a ceremony featuring Joe Dean Jr. as guest speaker, Dorothy Bruce Bourne, Tony Foster, Rhea Hart, Charles Scholes and Robert “Bobby” Williams were inducted into the hall, with Jim Adams receiving the Distinguished Service Award.

Several student-athletes were honored at the banquet as well.

Kayla Porter and Lamar Theus of Henry County High School; Tianna Porter and Hunter Frey, Grove School; Ilyaia McClain and Andrew Jelks of Inman Middle School; Brooke Rose and Buck Gore, Harrelson School; Olivia Looney and Matthew Mullins, Henry School; and Julia Reimold and Robert Gaylord, Lakewood School, were elected to the Students Sports Hall of Fame.

The students were selected based on leadership in the classroom, devotion to the school and excellence in sports.

Dean, Birmingham Southern University athletic director and television commentator for SEC basketball, spoke of contributions during the banquet.

He told a story about Bill Bradley, the basketball star turned U.S. senator, and how he recruited a staff member for one of his campaigns.

He said Bradley and Kevin Rigby, a former basketball player himself, were having a discussion along the New Jersey shore when they spotted a pickup basketball game.

They joined the game, and “Bradley realized Rigby was selfless,” Dean said.

“He passed the ball, he blocked out, he dove on the concrete after loose balls and he wanted to win. He wasn’t very talented but he had a big heart.”

“When they walked off the court, Bradley said ‘you’re hired.’”

“Bradley thought that basketball was a window into a person’s soul. I believe athletics is a window into a person’s soul.”

“It gives you an opportunity to experience things you would never experience elsewhere in life. You experience lessons of life that will be with you until the day you die. It’s very special, there’s nothing like it.”

Dean also related a story about coaching at a basketball camp and the determination one player had to start in his senior year of high school.

Before recounting the story, Dean described a lane slide drill, a very intense drill in which a player must shuffle his feet in a defensive stance.

“I said ‘Do those lane slide drills every day until practice starts, seven days a week,’” Dean said.

“Push yourself. Get the maximum out of your ability. God has given us the greatness to do something.”

“He said, ‘Yes sir, I will.’”

Dean said he challenged the young player, telling him he won’t do it every day because he’ll be tired one day or he’ll make other plans.

The player called Dean before the first game that season and asked him to attend. He was in the starting lineup that night.

“He made the All District team averaging just five points per game,” Dean said.

“You don’t have to be a star to make a contribution to a team.”

That same person ran into Dean at a banquet recently. He’s now the vice president of a large company and has a wife and children.

“I asked him if he still does those lane drills and he looked me right in the eye, as serious as could be, and said ‘Yes sir coach, every day.’”

Bourne was AAU standout

Bourne was a basketball standout at Grove High School, making the All-County and All-District teams in 1943 and 1944 before playing for AAU teams in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

She was chosen as an AAU All-American three times.

Rusty Bourne accepted the award for his late mother.

“Three All-American certificates says a lot,” an emotional Bourne said.

“People who knew her would tell you that she was an all-American person, a truly wonderful human being.”

Foster played football and baseball at Henry County High School, leading a football squad that had been 1-9 in its previous two campaigns to an 8-3 record as a senior.

Foster also was named MVP of the baseball team as a senior in 1976 and excelled in academics before accepting an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was named the Most Valuable Intramural Athlete in his sophomore year.

He earned several awards throughout his military career, serving in active duty from 1980 until 1992.

“I can’t begin to tell you what a sense of gratitude and humility (this is),” Foster said.

“I think I have the distinction for being the least athletic person ever inducted into this hall of fame.”

“What I lacked in talent I somehow made up for in desire to play,” Foster said. “I love to win and I hate to lose.”

He told a story about a baseball game that was rained out while he was 8 years old, while the older kids were still allowed to play.

“I was incensed,” he said. “I lived for those games. I looked forward to them the way most kids only do Christmas Eve.”

Cottage Grove represented

Rhea Hart became the first person from Cottage Grove High School to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

“To be the first one from Cottage Grove High School gets to me a little bit,” Hart said.

“I know there are some more deserving than me.”

Hart was a basketball and baseball star at Cottage Grove, captain of the basketball team as a senior and led the team in scoring in his final two seasons.

He earned a master’s degree in education from Mississippi State University in 1972 before moving to Lake City, Fla., where he taught at the middle school level for 40 years, coaching different sports for 25 years.

“If it hadn’t been for athletics in high school, I never would have been able to advance my education in college,” Hart said.

Scholes is one of three Henry County natives who have played scholarship football at the University of Tennessee.

A knee injury limited Scholes to just the 1954 season at Tennessee, but he was later the starting center at Memphis State University before his knees forced him to give up football.

He was captain of the Grove High School football team in his senior year.

Scholes’ son, Patrick, accepted the award on his behalf. Scholes died in 1991.

“My dad was a risk-taker,” Patrick Scholes said.

He said his father was hard working and tenacious, and was a likable guy who was quite the entrepreneur.

“He could make you think his idea was your idea like that,” Scholes said.

“He was not a real high profile guy, not a guy who wants the limelight.”

Williams could not be in attendance because of an illness, so Bill Williams, editor emeritus of The Post Intelligencer, accepted the award on his behalf.

When Bill Williams asked Bobby Williams if a player stood out during his career coaching linebackers at Grove High School, he gave an interesting answer — it was Scholes, a center.

Bobby Williams, who stood on the field while coaching in practice, told Bill Williams that Scholes would always land on his feet at practice.

Bobby Williams was a longtime coach at Grove, serving as an assistant in the 1950s and 1960s, and was also a challenging chemistry teacher.

“He taught me in physics,” Bill Williams said, “and I’m happy to say that my electric motor ran.”

Bill Williams said that Bobby Williams expressed regret that he could not be in attendance, as he is recovering from a serious bout with pneumonia.

“He told me he did not know why he was elected to the Hall of Fame,” Bill Williams said of the extremely humble Bobby Williams.

“He’s eighty-eight years old and still as sharp as a tack,” Bill Williams said.

Adams appreciates honor

Adams received the Distinguished Service Award for his work as a promoter of youth athletics and a supporter for youth-related programs throughout Henry County.

The local grocer was a member of the 4-H Honor Club while attending Osage School and has sponsored several youth baseball, softball and soccer teams through the years.

“I almost didn’t make it — I had a bad hair day this afternoon,” Adams joked. “I hadn’t worn it in a long time and I thought I’d never get it on.”

A very appreciative Adams thanked his wife and three daughters.

“I learned early on that it takes teamwork,” he said. “If you surround yourself with people smarter than you, they’ll make you look good.

“Sports can draw the community together and build self-esteem and confidence, and also teach teamwork.”

During Friday’s induction banquet, that was made more than evident.

 

NAVIGATIONAL  BAR:
2008  Index   2008 Press Release   2008  Inductees   2008  Student  Inductees   2008  Induction  Banquet

 

Reprinted  from
THE  PARIS  POST-INTELLIGENCER
Paris, Tennessee
Used by permission

 

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