NCHSAA HALL OF FAME: Class of 2018 includes Freedom’s Crump

HobbsDailyReport.com

CHAPEL HILL – The next class of Hall of Famers in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) includes a Freedom basketball coach who guided five teams to state title games and three to state championships.

Marsha Crump — who coached the Patriots from the late 1970s until retiring after the 1996-97 season — was among eight new HOF inductees announced on Tuesday when the NCHSAA revealed its next HOF class.

The Class of 2018 will include eight new members. They will be formally introduced at NCHSAA headquarters in Chapel Hill next Wednesday at 11 a.m.

The HOF induction ceremony and banquet is scheduled April 13 at the Embassy Suites in Cary, an event open to the public, and tickets ($50) go on sale in January.

Joining Crump in the next class are Jim Brett of Tarboro, Bob Lewis of Clinton, the late Charles A. McCullough Sr. of Charlotte, D. Gordon Patrick of Morehead City, Marc Payne of West Jefferson, Bobby Poss of Asheville and Colon Starrett of Thomasville.

Here are bios provided in an NCHSAA press release:

MARSHA CRUMP

CRUMP/Burke County Hall of Fame photo

She built Freedom into a perennial girls’ 4A basketball power during her tenure in Morganton.

Her teams went 522-122 and won three state 4A championships (1988-89, 1993-94 and 1994-95), and her 1988-89 and 1992-93 teams finished second in 4A.

After falling to Vance 53-38 in overtime in the 1988 final, the Patriots beat Richmond County 66-59 in overtime to win the 1989 crown.

Cary beat Freedom 61-48 to win the 1992-93 title before the Patriots grabbed back-to-back titles by beating Fayetteville Sanford 80-51 and Roxboro Person 65-55 in 1994 and 1995, respectively.

Crump was the N.C. Associated Press girls’ basketball Coach of the Year in 1995, when the Patriots finished 29-1 to go 56-2 over a two-season period.

She is a member of the Burke County Hall of Fame and also coached girls’ tennis at Freedom.

Crump retired after the 1996-97 season when the Patriots went 16-11.

Since Crump’s retirement, Freedom has continued as a state power with seven additional West Regional bids and 20 winning seasons, one .500 record, 19 postseason bids in 20 years and another state title (3A) in 2015-16.

JIM BRETT

Brett was a successful head football and track and field coach over a 38-year career at Tarboro, West Brunswick, Northern Nash and West Carteret.

He led Tarboro to the state 3A football title in 1984 and to 13 conference titles and 15 straight playoff appearances.

He also won a state football championship – in two different classifications – while coaching at West Brunswick.

Brett’s 2002 team at North Brunswick reached an Eastern N.C. title game.

In track and field, Tarboro won four state titles (1973, 1974, 1978, 1979) under Brett and captured 12 league titles and five Eastern N.C. championships.

He was head track and field coach for the Southeastern U.S. team in the Junior Olympics in 1973.

BOB LEWIS

Lewis was head football coach at five different schools from 1972 until he retired after last season.

His teams went 322-146-6, and he won five state football titles at Clinton — including the 1996 title over Bandys at UNC’s Kenan Stadium – and his 1990, 1997 and 2001 teams won state titles.

Lewis’ first state football title team was in 1973 at East Bladen.

Clinton’s 1995 and 2014 teams finished second in the state after he returned from having coached at Harrells Christian, where his team won a state title in 2005 and finished second in 2007.

A 49-year member of the North Carolina Coaches Association (NCCA), he was on its board of directors from 1981-84 and he was N.C. Shrine Bowl head coach in 1999.

McCULLOUGH/N.C. Central University photo

CHARLES A. McCULLOUGH SR.

The late McCullough served 33 seasons as head boys’ basketball coach at West Charlotte, his alma mater, and his Lions won more than 575 games, five state titles and finished second twice.

He coached at Livingstone College after his high school coaching career.

West Charlotte made 23 appearances in the West Regionals and won 20 conference titles.

He died last year.

D. GORDON PATRICK

He built West Carteret into a state wrestling power as its head coach from 1965-84, posting a dual-team record of 201-26-5.

West Carteret had 17 conference championship wrestlers and seven sectional titles under Patrick and had a seven-year run of going 77-0-3.

Five of Patrick’s wrestlers won state titles and West Carteret was in the top 16 at the state individual tournament a dozen times.

He was also head football coach at West Carteret twice for a combined seven years with his teams going 43-40-2.

Patrick later served as principal at West Carteret.

He was elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016 and West Carteret’s HOF in 2001.

MARC PAYNE

PAYNE

Payne coached for 37 years at three high schools – Beaver Creek, Watauga and Ashe County – and his boys’ basketball teams went 574-383 with 13 regular-season titles, seven conference tournament titles, five sectional crowns and four West Regional bids.

He also served as athletic director at Watauga and then, starting in 1992, at Ashe County before retiring earlier this year.

Payne is active across the state with the NCHSAA, the NCADA (North Carolina Athletic Directors Association) and the NCCA, serving on the board of directors for all three.

He helped found the N.C. Basketball Coaches Association (NCBCA) in 1998 and was that organization’s first president.

BOBBY POSS

Poss spent 28 years as a head football coach after a Hall of Fame career at Indiana State. He ran the football programs at Apex, Fayetteville 71st, South View and A.C. Reynolds.

He also was head football coach at Rockville (Ind.) and his teams had a .730 career winning percentage (241-89-1).

Poss guided three different schools to a total of five state football titles – he won titles at 71st in 1984 and 1986, another a South View in 1991, and his 1999 and 2002 teams at A.C. Reynolds were state champions.

Poss is a member of three other Hall of Fames, the Fayetteville Sports club, the Western N.C. Sports Hall of Fame and the A.C. Reynolds Hall of Fame.

He was a head coach in the 1988 East-West All-Star Game and N.C. head coach in the 1998 Shrine Bowl.

COLON STARRETT

Starrett spent 30 years as basketball official at the high school and college level and called 10 state prep championship games during his career (1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1985.

From 1988-1992, Starrett served as Supervisor of Evaluation of Officials at the high school and collegiate levels.

He was honored with the NCHSAA’s Distinguished Service Award in 1996.

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