HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – Lenoir-Rhyne University’s next Sports Hall of Fame class includes former star high school athletes from Newton-Conover and Hickory.
CRANFORD
The five new members — announced Tuesday by the school — are Christi Cranford, Jackie Gebhart, the late Bill Johnson, Cory Morgan and Jody Petty.
The Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, part of LRU’s Homecoming Weekend, is scheduled Oct. 7 at 11 a.m. in P.E. Monroe Auditorium.
The class will also be honored during the Bears’ home football game that day against Newberry (2 p.m. kickoff).
Cranford was a star athlete at Newton-Conover and a three-sport standout for the Bears in college. She played women’s basketball, softball and women’s tennis and graduated in 1991.
Morgan, a 2002 LRU grad, started on the Bears’ men’s soccer team for four seasons. He still holds five school records – career goals (43) and total points (103), season goals (19) and total points (41) in 2000 and matches played (76).
MORGAN
Gebhart was All-South Atlantic Conference in women’s soccer four times and a first-team pick in 1992-94). She graduated in 1995 and is LRU’s all-time leader in assists (33) and was a Bears captain three times.
Johnson graduated from LRU in 1959 after earning four letters and starting for two years in football (1955-68). The Bears went 36-3-3 and won four straight North State Conference titles in Johnson’s career. He was a first baseman, outfielder and catch for LRU in baseball.
Petty, a 1991 LRU graduate, played men’s basketball for the school for four years (1988-91). He was the SAC’s Player of the Year in 1990-91 and a two-time All-SAC pick, leading the Bears to SAC regular-season titles and two postseason bids.
LRU will honor its latest HOF class along with the other distinguished members in a new digital touchscreen Hall of Excellence display scheduled to be installed in the lobby of Shuford Memorial Gymnasium this fall.
The Hall of Excellence display will also recognize Bears’ All-Americans, Academic All-Americans, the history of LRU athletics and other notable awards.
Reported by LRU Sports Information