Raleigh, North Carolina — The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame announced its 2022 class on Wednesday, adding (alphabetically) Luke Appling, Missouri Arledge, Ronnie Barnes, Henry Bibby, Dan Brooks, Torry Holt, Sam Mills, Timmy Newsome, Dave Robbins and Tom Suiter.
The newest members will be enshrined during the 58th annual induction banquet on the evening of Friday, April 22, at the Raleigh Convention Center. A news conference will occur earlier in the day at noon at the North Carolina Museum of History.
In addition to the 2022 inductees, Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues also will officially join the NCSHOF. He was elected previously but could not attend the 2021 banquet, so he will be formally inducted with the 2022 class.
“This year’s class includes a wide variety of athletic achievement, including professional, collegiate, high school, Olympic sports, and media, with some special contributions,” said Dr. Jerry McGee, president of the Hall’s Board of Directors. “This class of inductees and their outstanding accomplishments continue to build on the rich sports heritage of North Carolina. We look forward to celebrating these outstanding individuals in our state’s sports history.”
The NC Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1963. A permanent gallery, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is located on the third floor of the NC Museum of History in Raleigh and features 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.
Brief biographies of the 2022 inductees follow; deceased inductees being inducted posthumously are indicated by an asterisk:
Luke Appling* – One of seven native North Carolinians in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Appling played 20 years in the major leagues, all with the Chicago White Sox, from 1930 to 1950. Born in High Point, the shortstop was a seven-time American League all-star and twice was the AL batting champ, compiling a sizzling .388 mark in 1936. Appling hit better than .300 15 times during his MLB career. He was also a successful minor league manager and major league coach for many years after retiring as an active player.
Missouri Arledge* – A star athlete at Durham’s Hillside High, from which she graduated in 1953, Arledge tallied 31.3 points per game during her senior basketball season. She went to Philander Smith College in Arkansas, scoring 21.0 ppg as a sophomore and becoming the first African-American woman to play in an AAU tournament (1954) and the first to be named AAU All-American the following season. Arledge transferred to Tuskegee Institute and continued playing while earning two master’s degrees and working in education, including back at Hillside High School. Following college, she was invited to become the first female player to join the Harlem Globetrotters.
Ronnie Barnes – Barnes graduated from East Carolina University’s sports medicine program in 1975 and has gone on to an decorated career. He was an assistant athletic trainer and instructor at ECU, and then went to Michigan State, where he was head athletic trainer and earned his master’s. He moved on to the New York Giants in the NFL as an athletic training intern, rising to head athletic trainer in 1980 and now senior vice-president for medical services, working for the Giants for over 40 years. He is a member of the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame and twice was that organization’s National Professional Trainer of the Year.
Henry Bibby – A native of Franklinton, Bibby was the starting point guard on UCLA men’s basketball teams that won three straight NCAA championships in the early 1970’s, averaging 14.4 points per game for his career and earning first-team all-American honors. He played nine NBA seasons, winning a title with the New York Knicks. As a coach at Southern California, he led three teams to the NCAA tournament, including an Elite Eight trip in 2001. Bibby had various coaching roles in pro basketball, including head coach for star Lisa Leslie and the L.A. Sparks in the WNBA and as an assistant with Memphis and Detroit in the NBA.
Dan Brooks – The 1981 graduate of Oregon State University has put together a brilliant career of unprecedented success in almost 40 years as head women’s golf coach at Duke University. Brooks has guided his teams to seven NCAA national championships and 21 Atlantic Coast Conference titles, and his 140 team victories are the most of any women’s golf coach in NCAA Division I history. A seven-time National Coach of the Year, he is a member of the Duke University Sports Hall of Fame and the National Golf Coaches Association (NGCA) Hall.
Torry Holt – This football star had an amazing NFL career, primarily with the St. Louis Rams, winning a Super Bowl and going to seven Pro Bowls as part of the “Greatest Show on Turf.” Holt led the league in receiving yards twice and was selected to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2000s. At NC State, Holt was a standout student-athlete who set numerous school records, earned first-team All-American honors and was the ACC Player of the Year in 1998. He is currently sixth on the ACC’s career receiving yards list with 3,379. The sixth overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, Holt grew up in Gibsonville and was a star high school athlete at Eastern Guilford.
Sam Mills* – This diminutive 5-foot-9 linebacker played 12 seasons in the NFL, including his final three with the Carolina Panthers, where he became a beloved star, and his NFL career occurred after several standout seasons in the USFL. A three-time conference defensive player of the year in college at Montclair State, Mills played in five Pro Bowls and led the Panthers in tackles twice. He is a member of the Carolina Panthers Hall of Honor, had his Panthers number 51 retired by the team, and is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and two other state sports halls.
Timmy Newsome – A native of Ahoskie, this football star is Winston-Salem State’s second all-time leading rusher with 3,843 yards in four eventful seasons. Newsome went on to be selected in the sixth round of the 1980 NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys and enjoyed nine seasons in the NFL, making the Cowboys’ All-Decade Team for the 1980s. He scored 30 touchdowns as an NFL player, including 19 on the ground and 11 on receptions. He is a member of both the CIAA Hall of Fame and the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
Dave Robbins – Robbins grew up in Gastonia, where he was an standout athlete at Ashley High, and later went on to a tremendous career as a men’s basketball coach. He is best known for leading NCAA Division II power Virginia Union University to 713 victories and three NCAA national championships, as well as 14 CIAA titles. His winning percentage at Virginia Union is an excellent .786 in 30 years. Robbins is a member of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, and the CIAA Hall of Fame.
Tom Suiter – A native of Rocky Mount and a graduate of Erskine College (SC), Suiter had a remarkable career in media. The sports anchor worked for WRAL-TV in Raleigh for 45 years, from 1971 until 2016, although he retired from the newscasts in 2008. A winner of two regional Emmy awards and the 1990 N.C Sportscaster of the Year, he covered 24 NCAA Final Fours and created the revolutionary “Football Friday” coverage, featuring high school football highlights, as well the “Extra Effort Award” for student-athletes. Suiter is in several halls of fame, including the NCHSAA Hall of Fame and the N.C. Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
And from the previous class:
Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues – After a standout career at Wake Forest, the 5-foot-3 Bogues defied the odds and played 14 years in the NBA. He remains the shortest player in NBA history. A first-team All-ACC selection as a senior, he led the ACC in both assists and steals in 1985, 1986, and 1987 and was the 12th overall selection in the 1987 NBA Draft. Bogues, who became a very popular member of the Charlotte Hornets, ranks among all-time leaders in NBA history with 6,726 career assists and assists per game (7.6).