NCHSAA Press Release

CHAPEL HILL – Eight more outstanding names in the annals of state prep athletics have been selected for induction into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

The late Bill Bost of Catawba, along with Ken Browning of Durham, Richard Hicks of Durham, Mac Morris of Greensboro, Jan Stanley of Hendersonville, Tim Stevens of Raleigh, Billy Widgeon of Morehead City and Charlie Adams of Chapel Hill have been named as the 22nd group of inductees to join the prestigious hall. That brings to 118 the number enshrined.

The new inductees will be honored during special halftime ceremonies at a football game at Kenan Stadium on Saturday, October 25, when

North Carolina takes on Boston College. The University of North Carolina has designated the day as the 24th annual NCHSAA Day.

The new class will officially be inducted at the special Hall of Fame banquet next spring at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center at the University of North Carolina.

The NCHSAA Hall of Fame is supported by a special grant from GlaxoSmithKline.

&uot;These individuals joining the Association Hall of Fame this year have definitely had a tremendous impact on high school athletics across North Carolina,&uot; says NCHSAA associate executive director Rick Strunk, who coordinates the Hall for the Association. &uot;Their records are certainly impressive, but the character they exemplified and the lives they touched are really representative of what the NCHSAA stands for. Their selection maintains the high standards of excellence established by previous inductees, and we are proud to honor these deserving individuals.&uot;

Charlie Adams

Charlie Adams has served as executive director of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association since 1984 and has been on the NCHSAA staff since 1967.

A star athlete at Cary High School and then at East Carolina University, Adams has created a number of innovations during his NCHSAA career, including implementing a corporate sponsorship program, starting the NCHSAA Endowment fund, greatly expanding the state awards program, developing more classified state championships and helping start the innovative Student Services program.

He served as president of the National Federation of State High School Associations Board of Directors in 1997-98, the only North Carolinian to serve in that role. He is a member of the National High School Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, the East Carolina University Sports Hall of Fame and the Cary High School Hall of Fame.

Bill Bost

The late Bill Bost was one of the state’s outstanding basketball coaches and had the unique distinction of coaching men’s and women’s teams simultaneously to great success.

Bost coached at the old Hiddenite High School from 1960 to ‘69 and then forged a great record at Bandys in Catawba County from 1970 through ‘88.

During an eight-year period, he coached both the men's and women's varsities.

His teams overall, both men and women, won 654 games and lost 214 during his career, including 341-143 as the Bandys men’s coach and

181-35 with the Bandys women.

His 1977 Bandys women won the state 3-A title and his men finished second twice and captured the ‘82 crown.

He also served on the Catawba County Board of Education for several years after his retirement from coaching. The Bandys gymnasium bears his name.

Ken Browning

Ken Browning has emerged as one of the top football coaches in North Carolina at both the high school and collegiate level.

Since 1993, he has served as an assistant coach on the football staff at the University of North Carolina in several different capacities and under several head coaches. Prior to that, he forged an outstanding record as a head coach from 1970 to ‘75 at Ledford and then from 1976 through ‘93 at Northern Durham, including 10 straight league crowns at Northern. He compiled a brilliant 214-54-6 mark as a head coach.

His Knight teams went 43-2 during his last three years and earned the NCHSAA state 4-A crown in 1993. A number of his former players and assistant coaches went on to be high school head coaches.

Browning was head coach of the North Carolina Shrine Bowl team in 1993 and is a member of the Guilford College Sports Hall of Fame.

Richard Hicks

Richard Hicks has made significant contributions to high school athletics as a coach and administrator.

A graduate of Rocky Mount's Booker T. Washington High and North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central), Hicks was an outstanding coach before moving into administration. He coached football, baseball and basketball at Booker T. Washington and then later was the Rocky Mount Senior High basketball coach.

He was at Rocky Mount from 1968 through ‘75, where he coached the legendary Phil Ford and coached in the East-West all-star game.

He was principal at junior high schools in Rocky Mount and in Orange County before serving as the principal at Hillside High in Durham.

Hicks was president of the NCHSAA Board of Directors in 1994-95 and has earned a number of recognitions from the Association and he is a member of the North Carolina Central Hall of Fame.

Mac Morris

Mac Morris has made his mark not just as an outstanding high school basketball coach but also as the co-executive director of the successful North Carolina Coaches Association and its annual clinic.

A graduate of Roxboro High and Davidson College, Morris served at Greensboro’s Page High School from 1968 through ‘96, including a 25-year run as head basketball coach. His Pirate teams had an outstanding record of 446-141 during his tenure, including winning the state 4-A title in ‘79, ‘84 and 1990. He also head men's tennis coach at Page and won a state title in that sport in 1971.

Morris has served on the NCCA staff since 1987 and is a member of the North Carolina Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame and the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame.

The Page gymnasium is named in his honor.

Jan Stanley

Jan Stanley has produced unbelievable records as a volleyball coach, but was also highly successful in women's basketball.

A graduate of Hendersonville High and Baptist (SC) College (now Charleston Southern), where she was a three-year basketball starter, Jan established West Henderson as a volleyball power. She is second all-time in state prep history in volleyball victories with an amazing 645-114 record in 33 years of coaching, all at West, and her teams won both the 2003 and ‘04 state 2-A championships.

Her basketball team also won a state title in 1991 and she won over 250 games in that sport, guiding

the West all-star team in 1995. She also served four years as a member of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Board of Directors.

Tim Stevens

Tim Stevens has been had a stellar career as one of the outstanding high school sports writers in the state.

A graduate of Garner High School and North Carolina Wesleyan, Stevens has written either for the Raleigh Times and then the Raleigh News and Observer since 1973 and has won a number of awards for his coverage. He has been the driving force behind such outstanding events as the Holiday Invitational basketball tournament in Raleigh and the Triangle Pigskin Preview. He has served as a member of the McDonald’s All-American basketball selection committee and was co-author of the original North Carolina High School Record Book.

One of only four North Carolinians in the National High School Sports Hall of Fame, he has held membership on a number of NCHSAA committees during his career.

Bill Widgeon

Billy Widgeon has enjoyed tremendous success as a high school athlete, collegiate athlete and outstanding coach in several sports.

He played on the 1953 NCHSAA state 1-A basketball championship team at Newport High and then was a two-sport standout at Atlantic Christian (now Barton) College, where he is in that school’s hall of fame.

Widgeon was a teacher and coach at Bailey High from 1957 through '64, where he coached three sports but his women's basketball team won an amazing 107 games in a row. From 1964 through '91 he served at West Carteret, winning 342 games in 23 years as head basketball coach and also coaching men's golf for 27 seasons, winning eight regular-season championships in that sport.

He was athletic director 10 years at West and is a charter member of the West Carteret Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame plaques are on permanent display in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Hall of Fame room, located in the Simon F. Terrell Building in Chapel Hill that houses the Association offices.