Two football players 30 years apart, two tennis players from the 1980s and the 1996 Southern Conference wrestler of the year are the newest members chosen for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletics Hall of Fame.
David Barden, Susan Bednar Kirby, Stewart Lawwill, Mike Makins and the late Porter Henderson will be honored at a banquet on Feb. 19 at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club, and Jacob Huesman, Alex Emerson, David Atkins and Lynn Trent will receive special awards. The banquet is open to the public at $35 a person, but seating is limited and reservations are required. Anyone interested may call the UTC Office of Alumni Affairs at 425-4785 or email Jayne-Holder@utc.edu.
Henderson (1953-56) started four years for legendary football coach A.C. “Scrappy” Moore, was part of the 44-6 win over Johnny Unitas’ Louisville team in 1953 and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers. Makins (1983-86) was a two-time All-America defensive lineman in the Buddy Nix coaching era. Bednar (1983-86) was on three UTC Division II national championship tennis teams and won SoCon singles titles at No. 6 and No. 3 and a No. 1 doubles championship. Lawwill (1980-83) was a key member of four SoCon championship teams and won three SoCon singles titles at Nos. 4 and 5 and two in doubles. Barden (1993-96) was a four-time NCAA wrestling qualifier, a three-time SoCon champ at 118 and 126 pounds and voted the most outstanding wrestler at the 1995 league tournament.
Huesman, who just concluded his Mocs football career as a three-time SoCon offensive player of the year and two-time All-American, is getting the Scrappy Moore Award as the current UTC athlete who best personifies the athletic department’s mission of “equipping for success.” Emerson is being presented the Gordon Davenport Award for longtime support of UTC athletics, and former football Moc Atkins (1967-70), executive vice president of Westrock Coffee, is receiving the Joe Morrison Award for notable accomplishments. Trent, who just completed his 50th season as the school’s official football scorekeeper and also has been the Mocs’ longtime basketball timekeeper, is the Harold Wilkes Award honoree.
Baseball
* Mississippi State junior pitcher Dakota Hudson from Sequatchie County High School is a preseason baseball All-American and ranked in the top 20 of several lists about prospects for this June’s major league draft. According to a Wednesday story in The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss., Division I Baseball ranks Hudson the “ninth best pro prospect in college baseball,” Baseball America lists him as the 20th best prospect overall for the draft and Perfect Game has him as the 13th best player available.
“He has a big arm. We’ve seen him up to 97 mph,” an unnamed pro scout told The Clarion-Ledger. “He’s got one of the best sliders in the draft. It’s up to 92. He’s been very competitive in the fall and he’s coming off the Cape (Cod League season) where his stuff finally started getting people out like we all thought it could.”
Hudson was fifth in the Cape league in 2015 with a 1.69 earned run average and struck out 41 batters in 42 2/3 innings, and he told the Jackson newspaper that he has been helped by the arrival of Wes Hudson as MSU’s pitching coach this past fall, particularly in making his arm slot consistent. Hudson, now 21, had ERAs of 4.67 and 4.32 in 17 1/3 and 16 2/3 innings his first two Bulldogs seasons.
Basketball
* Two of the best women’s basketball teams in the Gulf South Conference went two overtimes to determine a winner Thursday night in Pensacola, Fla. Lee erased a 15-point deficit in the third quarter but lost 89-85 to West Florida (12-6, 10-4), which got 20 points, 12 assists and eight steals from Alex Coyne and double-doubles in points and rebounds from three players. Christina Johnson and Erin Walsh each scored 17 points for Lee (13-6, 10-4), Johnson with 13 rebounds, while Haris Price had 13 points and Anna Woodford and Carrie Cheeks added 12 each.
The Lee men (6-13, 4-10) then won 98-80 with Keevin Tyus scoring 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting off the bench, Chase Cullen contributing 16 points and eight rebounds and Levi Woods, Bryce Copeland and Stephan Burrows scoring 14, 13 and 11 points. Rashaan Benson led five Argonauts in double-figure scoring with 14 points.
* Dalton State ended its four-game Southern States Athletic Conference basketball losing streak with a 65-61 home win Thursday night against Coastal Georgia. Jalen Robinson had 16 points and nine rebounds and Jordan Bowling and Rudy Winters scored 15 and 11 points for the Roadrunners (13-7, 5-5). Coastal’s Dominic Early had 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Staff Reports