Charlotte-area legends dominate latest North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame class

The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame Class for 2024 has a distinct Charlotte flavor.

The Hall of Fame Board of Directors announced its 11-person 2024 induction class Tuesday and they include four with Charlotte ties. The latest class will be inducted May 10 at the Charlotte Convention Center. Once inducted, the Hall of Fame will include 411 members.

Here are the inductees with local ties:

▪ Former Davidson coach Bob McKillop, who led the Wildcats to 23 conference championships, 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and 634 wins. McKillop was the 2007-08 National Association of Basketball Coaches coach of the year after leading Davidson to the Elite Eight.

▪ CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz, a Charlotte native, is a three-time Emmy Award winner and five-time National Sportscaster of the Year. He spent 32 years a the lead play-by-play announcer for CBS’ NCAA Tournament coverage and he currently anchors the network’s golf and NFL broadcasts.

▪ Charlotte-native Pettis Norman, who played for Johnson C. Smith and later the Cowboys and Chargers, started 122 of his 162 career games in the NFL. He finished with 183 catches for 2,492 yards and 15 touchdowns. JC Smith’s annual award to its top male and female athletes is named for him.

▪ Panthers’ legend Steve Smith, a third-round NFL draft pick, is Carolina’s all-time leader in touchdowns (67), receptions (836) and receiving yards (12,197). Smith, who played 13 years in Charlotte and three in Baltimore, is a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time All-Pro. He’s under consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2024.

Other inductees

Also being inducted are the following:

▪ Former Wake Forest men’s basketball star Randolph Childress, who was the 1995 ACC Male Athlete of the Year. That year, he was ACC Tournament MVP after a 40-point performance against Duke and a 37-point game against UNC. He ranks second all-time in scoring at Wake forest with 2,208 point. A first-round NBA draft pick in 1995, Childress played 16 seasons professionally, including two with the Pistons and two with the Trail Blazers.

▪ Sheila Ford Duncan was the 1984 NAIA national player of the year in basketball. She led UNC-Asheville to the national championship and was named MVP of the finals. She scored 41 points and had 19 rebounds in the semifinals and had 26 points and 21 rebounds in the championship game. She was the first women’s collegiate player to sore more than 2,000 points and grab more than 2,000 rebounds.

▪ Former U.S. Olympian Caroline Lind won gold medals in rowing in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. She was inducted into the U.S. Rowing Hall of Fame in 2014, the same year she was ranked the No. 1 female rower in the world by the International Rowing Federation and was named Athlete of the Year by the New York Athletic Club.

▪ Former Fayetteville Terry Sanford High School and UConn basketball star Shea Ralph held 17 state high school records when she graduated in 1996. She led the Huskies to the 2000 national championship and was named Sports Illustrated national player of the year. She’s now head coach at Vanderbilt.

▪ The late Don Skakle coached UNC men’s tennis for 22 years, and his teams won 16 outright ACC championships and tied for two more. His career record was 418-55 and 132-14 in conference play. As a player for the Tar Heels, Skakle was 60-1.

▪ Current N.C. High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker became the first female and black statewide commissioner in 2015. She’s a member of the Mars Hill College athletic Hall of Fame after leading the team in scoring for two seasons. She coached high school for a decade and later was an assistant with the N.C. State women’s basketball team before joining the NCHSAA in 1991.

▪ Ron Wellman was athletic director at Wake Forest from 1992-2019, a period where the Demon Deacons won 22 ACC championships along with five team and seven individual national titles across all sports. In his 28 years in Winston-Salem, Wake Forest raised more than $400 million in philanthropic support for athletics.

Want to go?

Tickets for the induction ceremony are on sale at ncshof.org.

▪ The NC Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1962 and is located on the third floor of the NC Museum of History in Raleigh.

This story was originally published December 19, 2023 at 8:05 AM.

Langston Wertz Jr.

The Charlotte Observer

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Langston Wertz Jr. is an award-winning sports journalist who has worked at the Observer since 1988. He’s covered everything from Final Fours and NFL to video games and Britney Spears. Wertz -- a West Charlotte High and UNC grad -- is the rare person who can answer “Charlotte,” when you ask, “What city are you from.” Support my work with a digital subscription