The Mount Olive College Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2010 was
inducted Saturday during ceremonies at the Lois K. Murphy Regional
Center on the Mount Olive campus. Wells Gulledge (men’s
basketball), Steve Hudson (baseball) and the late Brad Mitchell
(coach/administrator) comprised the fifth Hall of Fame class. The
induction ceremony was part of the Pickle Classic festivities.
“The Trojans have a very, very rich history of
athletics,” noted Mount Olive College President Dr. Philip P.
Kerstetter, “and what I particularly am impressed with is the
balance. When I look at the people who are on the playing fields or
on the court, running or whatever the case is, they are neat people
because they keep their lives balanced. They know what it means to
excel in their athletics, but they also know what it means to excel
in the classroom. And keeping that balance is going to prepare them
for life.”
Several of the honorees and their chosen presenters agreed as
they looked back on their Mount Olive College experiences.
Former Mount Olive men’s basketball coach Bill Clingan,
who joined George Whitfield in inducting Wells Gulledge, noted that
Gulledge had definitely learned the lesson of preparing those he
coaches for life.
“As you look at any coach, they are always governed by the
number of victories they have,” Clingan said.
“…But in reality, coaches should be governed by the
players they worked with, and the true judgment should come in the
players you have mentored and their successes in life. If you look
at Coach Gulledge, he not only does he have to be the coach of the
year, but also the person of the year, because he works 24/7 on
improving the quality of life of his players. And these are really
the true victories for Wells Gulledge.”
Gulledge (1994-97) transformed his career as a student-athlete
and later as an assistant coach into a highly successful career as
the head boys’ basketball coach at Kinston High School.
Gulledge enters his 10th year at Kinston, where he has compiled a
224-45 record for an .833 winning percentage. He was named the
2007-08 Associated Press North Carolina High School Boys’
Basketball Coach of the Year for all classifications after leading
Kinston to the North Carolina 3A State Championship. Last year,
Gulledge guided Kinston HS to the North Carolina 2A State
Championship.
“Wells is the right person for Kinston, and he does it the
right way,” said Whitfield. “You watch his teams play,
he has a great demeanor with his kids. They play hard and lay it
all on the line. He doesn’t rant and rave. He’s a
player’s coach.”
Gulledge fondly recalled his days as a player at Mount Olive,
and shared a humorous episode in which he was falsely blamed by
Coach Clingan for having a lit cigar in the room on a road trip
that had actually been left by Clingan’s son and assistant
coach Steve.
“Coach walked in and looked at me and said, ‘son, I
just want you to know that’s not part of this program.’
And I didn’t have anything to say other than “yes,
sir.’ But I just want you to know coach, it wasn’t me.
That is just one of the many fond memories I have of my time
here.”
Gulledge said that the most special part of the Hall of Fame
induction was the opportunity to be presented the plaque by a
former player, Dory Hines, now a freshman at Mount Olive who played
his first game a few days ago.
“To have Dory come up here and present this means the
world to me, more than you know,” Gulledge said.
“I’m so proud of you. Your first game your line was 10
(points), five (rebounds) and five (assists), very, very steady. I
don’t think you played as well as you wanted, but in the
second half you led the team, so when things aren’t going
well, you’ve always been a great leader. I look forward to
following you here.”
Gulledge was followed in the induction ceremony by Steve Hudson
(1987-91), who was the 1991 NAIA District 6 Baseball Player of the
Year and the Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (now
Conference Carolinas) Player of the Year. A two-time All-CIAC
selection, Hudson helped lead Mount Olive to the conference
championship in 1991. Hudson compiled a .334 career batting average
and held school records for batting average, hits, doubles, at-bats
and sacrifices. He helped build a foundation for a Trojan team that
would advance to the NAIA World Series the following year.
Hudson was presented his plaque by Mount Olive baseball
student-athlete Joseph Westbrook, and was inducted by Mount Olive
head coach Carl Lancaster.
Lancaster noted that when he came to Mount Olive, then a junior
college, he was left with a largely empty roster and won just 12
games his first season. The next year, with Hudson on board, the
Trojans finished fourth in the district and made the playoffs.
“By Steve’s senior year, we were able to win my
first conference championship,” Lancaster said. “Not
only was he a part of that, but he was the very first recruit I
ever had here …Steve was a tremendous worker on the field,
but I’m even more fond of his work off the field. I think he
graduated with a 3.86 (GPA) in business. He’s a fine
Christian boy from a fine Christian family. He set the foundation
for what we have here today.”
Hudson noted that Mount Olive, in turn, set the foundation for
his life.
“The day Coach Lancaster came and talked to me (about
signing) was one of the best days of my life,” Hudson said.
“That’s when he gave me the opportunity to play
baseball and get the education that has helped me succeed in my
working environment …It was a small campus, family oriented,
and everyone made you feel like you were part of the family. You
weren’t just a number who no one knew. I really felt
appreciated here.”
Hudson shared a couple of the stories of his playing days, and
also expressed his appreciation for the fact that lights had not
yet been installed at the baseball field when he was here.
“Back then, we had to go into downtown to get to the
cafeteria,” he said. “But the cafeteria closed at six,
and coach liked to run us for some reason. There were many days
when coach had to send someone down there and tell them to stay
open. I told him later, ‘it’s a good thing we
didn’t have lights. We would have never gotten to
eat.’”
The final Hall of Fame selection, the late Brad Mitchell, was
inducted by Larry Dean, who was a coach and instructor at the same
time as Mitchell. The Hall of Fame plaque was presented by Kyle
Simpson, a current member of the Mount Olive golf team, to
Mitchell’s family, which included Marjorie Mitchell Conner,
Doug Mitchell and Joe Mitchell.
Brad Mitchell (1977-82) served as director of athletics,
health/physical education instructor, head men’s basketball
coach and head men’s golf coach during his tenure at Mount
Olive while the school was still a two-year college. Under
Mitchell, the Trojan basketball team posted a record of 76-53 (.589
winning percentage), including a then-record 17-8 mark in 1981-82.
Mitchell took a page out of the University of North Carolina
playbook to notch a win over current UNC head coach Roy Williams,
using the “four corners” offense to lead the Trojans
past a Williams-coached UNC JV team. The Trojan golf team won four
consecutive Eastern Tarheel Conference titles under Mitchell. Mount
Olive was ranked No. 1 in NJCAA Region X in 1978 and was ranked in
the top four in the region every year. As athletics director,
Mitchell was largely responsible for the development of Kornegay
Arena (formerly College Hall), which was completed in 1984.
Mitchell died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 62.
Dean pointed out that Mitchell led the Trojans to their
record-setting basketball performance in 1981-82 “without a
gym on campus. He had to recruit athletes to Mount Olive without a
gym. He practiced at North Duplin (High School) most of the time.
What made Brad so successful was a combination of dedication, hard
work and time spent recruiting. There were times when we were able
to go out recruiting together, and I learned so much from Brad. We
enjoyed each other’s company.”
Marjorie Mitchell Conner said that that her late husband
“would have been gratified to know that his contributions
were appreciated by so many of his former players and co-workers
who are here today to remember him after 30 years. He was proud of
all of you.
“He was ambitious, and he would have been so proud of the
athletic department today with its facilities, which he helped to
design, the variety of sports that you now have, the conference and
the national championships and the post-season play that has been
the standard here for several years now. Brad would have approved
of the emphasis that your department places on the fact your
participants are not just athletes, but are student-athletes, whose
academic accomplishments are recognized as well.”
In closing, Mount Olive College Director of Athletics Jeff Eisen
said that on behalf of the current athletics program, “we
appreciate the foundation that our inductees today have laid for
us. The success that we experience now really comes from the
history of those who have come before us. Our inductees span the
history of the college athletics program, going from the junior
college days to the NAIA days to the NCAA Division II days. And
it’s this history that makes us so pleased to recognize those
who have come before us and achieved such greatness. We appreciate
what these three inductees have meant to Mount Olive College
athletics.”
This year’s inductees bring the total number of honorees
up to 19.
Class of 2006 (Inaugural Class)
Kenney Moore (Baseball)
Larry Nance (Director of Athletics/Coach)
Clarence Rose (Men’s Golf)
Ray Scarborough (Friend of the College/Baseball)
Russell Stephens (Men’s Basketball)
Class of 2007
Jimmy Adams (Director of Athletics/Coach)
Charles Davis (Baseball)
Larry Dean (Director of Athletics/Coach)
Sarah Leonard Richardson (Women’s Basketball)
Class of 2008
Darwin Carr (Men’s Basketball)
Bill Clingan (Coach)
Candy Tefertiller (Women’s Basketball/Women’s
Volleyball/Women’s Tennis)
Class of 2009
Heather Parker Collier (Softball)
Matt Dudley (Men’s Soccer)
Billy Lee (Men’s Soccer)
Patrick Riley (Baseball)
