CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The most nationally known new member of the Cleveland State Cougar Athletics Hall of Fame, former major league baseball player Bubba Trammell, was unable to attend the induction brunch Saturday at Cleveland Country Club, but the other seven all were present and very enthusiastic in talking about what the school meant in their lives.
For one there was Brian Hartsell, the point guard on the 1988-89 team that made the school’s only appearance in the NJCAA men’s basketball national tournament. That team was coached by Roby Phillips, another of the honorees in the ceremony presented by SouthEast Bank and emceed by former Cleveland State president L. Quentin Lane.
“In June 1987 I was sitting at home wondering about my future,” said Hartsell, who had just finished high school but lived in a poor part of Knoxville.
Now he’s the supervisor of enrollment for Knox County Schools, after moving on from Cleveland State to a bachelor’s degree at Carson-Newman and a master’s at Lincoln Memorial.
That all followed a call from the Rev. Bethel Hendricks Sr., informing Hartsell that the coach who had just landed star forward Bethel Hendricks Jr. after a chance conversation with Hendricks Sr. at a summer tournament in Chattanooga wanted Hartsell also.