South Mecklenburg to honor athletic, academic greats Friday at Hall of Fame induction
South Mecklenburg High School will induct some of its greatest athletes of all time into its first Hall of fame class.
The athletes, along with former boys basketball coach Dave Price, will be honored at halftime of Friday’s football game with Ardrey Kell.
The athletes are:
▪ Ricky Berens (2007 graduate), who was a state champion in swimming. Berens went on to become a two-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion. After graduating high school, he swam at Texas where he became an All-American.
▪ Walter Davis (1972 graduate) was a member of South Mecklenburg’s basketball team for three years. After a stellar career at North Carolina, Davis played 15 years in the NBA, mainly with the Phoenix Suns, who retired his No. 6 jersey. In high school at South Meck, Davis was a part of three state championship teams that lost a combined four games.
▪ John Fitch (1978 graduate) coached the Sabres’ basketball team for 16 years, including 11 as the head coach. As a high school player at South Meck, he played on the Sabres’ 1976 state championship team before playing for Bobby Cremins at Appalachian State.
▪ Bobby Jones (1970 graduate) is considered one of the best athletes in N.C. history. He twice won the N.C. high jump championship, finishing second in his junior year to Bob McAdoo. As a senior, he broke the state record, jumping 6 feet, 8 inches. He was named Charlotte basketball player of the year as a junior, and he led South Meck to a state title as a senior. After a stellar career at North Carolina, Jones played in the ABA and NBA, where he won an NBA championship with the 76ers in 1983. Jones, who made eight straight NBA all-defense first teams, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.
▪ Dave Price passed away in 2015 at age 85. He started teaching at South Meck in 1959 and became the varsity basketball coach five years later. He led South Mecklenburg to four state championships in the 1970s and later won two more at Providence Day. Price’s career record was 535-285.
▪ Fred Boger, who passed away last year at age 94, was athletic director at South Mecklenburg for 22 years. The football stadium is named after him.
Also being inducted are Diane Taliaferro, John Hoogenakker and Dave Sanderson.
▪ Taliaferro, known as Ms. T, was an EC teacher in the science department and was Dean of Students in her eight years at South Meck.
▪ Hoogenakker, a 1995 graduate, was in the school’s ROTC program and was a two-time state and district debate champion. He later graduated from DePaul with a degree in theater and has appeared in plays throughout Chicago and New York, where he received acclaimed reviews for his portrayal of Willie Oban in “The Iceman Cometh.” Hoogenakker has also appeared in movies and commercials and has an upcoming role in the Hulu show “Dopestick.”
▪ Sanderson’s four children attended South Meck and he donated more than $10,000 over the years to purchase a new scoreboard in the gym as well as buy new uniforms for the basketball teams. For 10 years, he attended every home and away game as the official statistician. In January 2009, he was a passenger of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River, known as the Miracle on the Hudson. He was the last passenger off the plane and helped many others to safety.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
