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NC Sports Hall of Fame

RALEIGH, N.C.—The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors is honored to announce its 2024 induction class. The new members, listed alphabetically are Randolph Childress, Sheila Ford Duncan, Caroline Lind, Bob McKillop, Jim Nantz, Pettis Norman, Shea Ralph, Don Skakle, Steve Smith Sr., Marilyn “Que” Tucker and Ron Wellman.

The group of 11 will be enshrined during the 60th annual Induction Celebration Friday, May 10, at the Charlotte Convention Center, starting at 5 p.m. Their induction will bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 411.

“This year’s class joining the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is dynamic in many ways,” said Dr. Jerry McGee, president of the hall’s Board of Directors. “Not only are they part of a milestone group, given that this is the sixtieth Induction Celebration, they are representative of the reach throughout the Charlotte community, the state of North Carolina, the United States, and beyond.”

A brief biography of each 2024 inductee follows. Skakle is being inducted posthumously.

Randolph Childress: Childress, a Washington D.C. native starred at Wake Forest from 1991-1995. He was the ACC’s Male Athlete of the Year in 1995 after earning ACC Tournament MVP honors with a 40- point game against Duke and a 37-point performance against UNC. Childress ranks second in career scoring at Wake with 2,208 points (18.4 average) and is tied for fourth in 30-point games (7). He’s a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame and was selected as an ACC Tournament Legend in 2012. Selected 19th overall in the 1995 NBA draft by Detroit, he played 16 seasons professionally, including two with the Pistons and one with the Portland Trailblazers.

Sheila Ford Duncan: Duncan grew up in the Bladen County town of Clarkton and was named the 1984 NAIA National Player of the Year as she led UNC Asheville to the NAIA national championship. She scored 41 points and had 19 rebounds in the semifinals and then followed with 26 points and 21 rebounds in the championship game to earn MVP honors. Duncan was the first player in women’s collegiate history to score over 2,000 points (2,442) and grab more than 2,000 rebounds (2,200). She holds 18 UNCA records and earned first-team All-America honors as a senior. The Clarkton, N.C., native played professionally in Spain and was inducted into the UNCA Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003.

Caroline Lind: Lind is from Greensboro and rowed in the 7 seat and won gold medals in the women’s eight in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The victory in Beijing was the first for the Americans since 1984 and Lind and her teammates were inducted into the U.S. Rowing Hall of Fame in 2014. The same year, Lind was ranked the No. 1 ranked female rower by the International Rowing Federation and named the Athlete of the Year by the New York Athletic Club. The Greensboro, N.C., native, who was a Princeton standout, was also a part of six world championships golds and 21 international medals.

Bob McKillop: McKillop, a Queens N.Y. native, led Davidson College to 23 conference championships (15 regular season and 8 tournament titles), 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and 634 wins, During the 2021-22 campaign, McKillop led the Wildcats to their second-most wins in a single season, going 27-7 overall, which included a program-best 15-3 mark in the Atlantic 10. McKillop’s Wildcats reached post-season play 19 times. McKillop’s Wildcats also played in eight NIT Tournaments and the 2011 College Basketball Invitational. The 2007- 08 NABC National Coach of the Year led Davidson to the 2008 NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game with victories over three nationally-ranked opponents.

Jim Nantz: The Charlotte native and CBS broadcaster is a three-time Emmy Award winner and five-time National Sportscaster of the Year. Nantz anchors the golf telecasts on CBS and is the lead play-by-play announcer for the network’s NFL broadcasts. He also spent 32 years as the lead play-by-play announcer for NCAA basketball coverage on CBS. Nantz received the 2011 Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award and the 2002 Curt Gowdy Media Award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He also partnered with Houston Methodist Hospital at the Texas Medical Center to create the Nantz National Alzheimer Center.

Pettis Norman: Norman, who grew up in Charlotte, played for the Dallas Cowboys from 1962-1970 and the San Diego Chargers from 1971-73. He was regarded as one of the league’s top blocking tight ends, starting 122 of his 162 career games and finishing with 183 receptions for 2,492 yards and 15 touchdowns. He was the Chargers co-captain in 1972 and runner-up for the NFL’s Man of the Year. Norman started four seasons at Johnson C. Smith University, earning Al-CIAA and Currier All-American honors as a senior. The top male and female student athletes at his alma mater now receive the Pettis Norman Award.

Shea Ralph: A standout basketball player at Fayetteville’s Terry Sanford High School, Ralph averaged 39.1 points per game as a junior in 1995 and held 17 state records when she graduated in 1996. She played collegiately at UConn where she led the Huskies to the NCAA Women’s Championship in 2000 and was named the Final Four MVP. In 2000, she was the Big East Player of the Year, won the Honda Award and was named Sports Illustrated’s National Player of the Year. Now the head coach at Vanderbilt, she finished her career with 1,678 points despite overcoming five ACL injuries and a struggle against anorexia nervosa.

Don Skakle: In 22 years under Skakle, the UNC men’s tennis teams won 16 ACC championships outright and tied for two others. His teams posted a 418-55 overall record and had a 132-14 mark in league play. His 1970 and 1971 teams won five of the ACC’s six singles titles and all three doubles crowns. Skakle also played at UNC and had an individual record of 60-1. Skakle unexpectedly died in his sleep on the eve prior to the 1980 ACC Tennis Championships in Winston-Salem. He is a member of the North Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame as well as the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame.

Steve Smith Sr.: The Los Angeles native was selected in the third round of the 2001 NFL draft, Smith played 13 seasons with the Carolina Panthers and is the team’s all-time leader in touchdowns (67), receptions (836) and receiving yards (12,197). Smith also played three years with the Baltimore Ravens. A five-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time All-Pro, he led the league in catches, receiving yards and touchdowns in 2005. He is one of just 54 players in NFL history to have garnered over 10,000 receiving yards and he had more than 1,000 all- purpose yards 11 times in his 16 NFL seasons. He was inducted into the Panthers Hall of Honor in 2019.

Marilyn “Que” Tucker: As commissioner of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, Tucker has overseen tremendous growth in participation for female athletes, as well as increased recognition for female and minority coaches and administrators, and additional competitive opportunities for its 436 association members. She was a standout at Stoneville HS in Rockingham County and is a charter member of the Mars Hill College Athletic Hall of Fame after leading the Mountain Lions in scoring for two seasons. She earned a master’s degree from UNC Greensboro in 1977 and coached at the high school level for a decade before joining Kay Yow’s staff at N.C. State. She joined the NCHSAA in 1991 and became its first female and African American commissioner in 2015.

Ron Wellman: Wellman, an Ohio native, served as the athletic director at Wake Forest for 28 years (1992-2019). During his tenure, Wake won 22 ACC championships along with five team and seven individual national titles. In his 28 years in Winston-Salem, Wake Forest raised more than $400 million in philanthropic support for athletics. In 2008, Wellman was recognized as the Collegiate Athletic Director of the Year by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal. Wellman was the chairman of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship committee in 2013-14. He is a former president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors’ Association.

About the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame

The N.C. Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1962. A permanent exhibit, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is located on the third floor of the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh and features over 200 significant objects and memorabilia donated by inductees. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.