Angela Hill left us with inspirational words on this evening of celebration in recognition of her athletic achievements at E.E. Smith High School more than 36 years ago and later in the early 1990s at North Carolina A&T University.
Her words were the personification of humility.
“Being inducted into the Fayetteville Sports Club Hall of Fame isn’t just a celebration of what has already happened,” Hill, 53, told the audience Tuesday in her acceptance as the 115th inductee into the club’s 24th class of Cumberland County athletes at the Tony Rand Student Center on the Fayetteville Technical Community College campus. “It’s a reminder of the responsibility we all carry to lift up the next generation.”
Truth be told, fellow inductees David Culbreth, Buddy Martin, Bernie Poole and Jim Semple Jr., who represented his late father, said this hall of fame evening was as much about those who helped them along life’s way as it was about them.
The Winds Beneath Their Wings
“All of life’s gifts come from God,” said Culbreth, 56, who won the 1987 N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A state wrestling title with a 31-0 record at Seventy-First High School and then returned to coach the school to two state dual crowns from 1996-2000.
“And one person I want to recognize is my former principal Gerald Patterson. He’s been in my corner all of my life. And Sarah Whitaker. I followed her into (Cumberland County Schools) administration. This award is shared with all of my friends. I’m just blessed because of all of you. But my real heroes are sitting here at that table—my parents and my brother,” he said.
Hill said her success and athletic achievements on the E.E. Smith basketball and volleyball courts and softball and track fields, and later as the 1993 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference basketball Player of the Year at N.C. A&T State University, was something to share with others.
“It isn’t the wins, the records and the highlights,” said Hill, who works as a mortgage underwriter for First Citizens Bank in Raleigh. “It’s the people. Mentors who would not let me accept anything but my best. I’m proud to have grown up in this city. To my family and friends, you made all of this possible, and I will continue to represent this community with pride.”
Martin said there would have been no Sox and Martin drag racing championships without the driving skills of the late Ronnie Sox.
“Ronnie Sox could shift those gears,” the 89-year-old Martin said in an emotional acceptance. Or people to include Herb McCandless, Roy Hill and others. “It was Sox and Martin on the car, but some 30 people were on the car, and I want to give them a lot of credit. And I give credit to my wife of 55 years. She passed away six years ago,” he said through his tears. “Racing was just great fun going to Canada and England and going to the White House to meet the president.”
Poole said he could not have coached 400 boys’ and girls’ basketball victories at Seventy-First High School from 1984-2006 if not for coaches like Bobby Poss, the late Pete House, and former principal Gerald Patterson.
“He took a chance on me at Anne Chestnut Junior High and at Seventy-First,” Poole said about Patterson. “And I was blessed with so many great players. It was great to teach them on the court and about life. And I was blessed with a great group of parents. They supported me as I worked with their children.”
He recognized Earl Vaughan Jr., the longtime high school sports reporter who chronicled Cumberland County athletes and the games they played in his more than 45 years with The Fayetteville Observer.
“Earl Vaughan’s articles and pictures,” he said, “have been valuable keepsakes.”
It was an emotional evening for Jim Semple Jr., too, who accepted the posthumous award on behalf of his father, who died at age 74 in 1999.
“Dad, I know you are looking down,” he said about Jim “Sarge” Semple, the youth director throughout the 1960s’ at the nearby YMCA of the Sandhills. “He was my best friend. I’m tickled so many are here tonight who remembered my dad. My father loved kids. He taught me diversity before it was a word. When Greg Parks told me he was being inducted, I broke down.”
Epilogue
Hill left us with resonating words that her success was not about yesterday, but something more.
“Being inducted into the Fayetteville Sports Club Hall of Fame isn’t just a celebration of what has already happened,” Hill said. “It’s a reminder of the responsibility we all carry to lift up the next generation. If my journey can inspire even one young athlete to chase their dreams, stay committed and trust the process, then every step was worth it.”
When the evening was done, Parks said it well.
“What a class!” the sports club president said. “What a class!”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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