From Mack Brown to Muggsy Bogues, 2020 NCSHOF class of 12 runs the gamut
Mack Brown was born in Tennessee and won his national title at Texas, but no state is more closely connected with the football coach than this one. He may not be a native, but the once-and-again UNC coach headlines the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame’s 2020 induction class, announced Wednesday.
Brown is joined by former UNC track coach Dennis Craddock and former UNC and Carolina Panthers star Julius Peppers in the class, while N.C. State contributes former women’s basketball star and current basketball analyst Debbie Antonelli and fundraiser Bobby Purcell. Muggsy Bogues played at Wake Forest and for the Charlotte Hornets, while Judy Rose was a trailblazer as the athletic director at UNC Charlotte.
The other inductees are Burlington doctor Charles Kernodle, Greensboro basketball coach Mac Morris, Wilmington’s Trot Nixon and Fayetteville’s Donnell Woolford. The induction ceremony is May 1 at the Raleigh Convention Center.
Debbie Antonelli
A Cary native who played for Kay Yow at N.C. State, Antonelli has had a distinguished career as a analyst for both men’s and women’s basketball. The foremost broadcast authority on the women’s game, in 2017 Antonelli became the first woman in 22 years to work as an analyst during the NCAA men’s tournament.
Tyrone ‘Muggsy’ Bogues
Selected by the Charlotte Hornets in the expansion draft, Bogues was a fixture during the franchise’s first decade. Still the shortest player in NBA history at 5-foot-3, Bogues led the ACC in assists and steals for three seasons at Wake Forest and is 23rd in NBA history in career assists.
Mack Brown
Currently attempting to rebuild a North Carolina program he already built once in his second stint at the school, winning a national title at Texas in 2005 in the interim, Brown was a 2018 inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame. His 244 career victories are the most among active coaches and 10th all-time.
Dennis Craddock
Craddock was a 31-time ACC coach of the year in men’s and women’s cross-country and track and field at North Carolina, the most of any coach in league history. His athletes won 38 NCAA titles and five Olympic gold medals. Craddock retired in 2012 and passed away in August.
Charles Kernoodle
Kernoodle, 102, has been the team doctor for Burlington Williams football for more than 60 years. The field was named after him on his 90th birthday in 2007.
Mac Morris
Morris won three state titles in 25 years as the basketball coach at Greensboro Page, including undefeated teams in 1983 and 1990. A member of the NCHSAA Hall of Fame, his teams went 456-151.
Trot Nixon
The NC player of the year in both football and baseball as a senior at New Hanover in Wilmington, Nixon turned down a football scholarship at N.C. State to sign with the Boston Red Sox and helped them win the World Series in 2004.
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Julius Peppers
One of the great pass-rushers in football history, Peppers was a dominant force both at North Carolina and in a 17-year NFL career with the Panthers, Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. A native of Bailey who went to Southern Nash High, Peppers also played basketball and went to the Final Four with the Tar Heels.
Bobby Purcell
In three decades at N.C. State starting as an assistant football coach, Purcell rose to become executive director of the Wolfpack Club. A native of Clinton, Purcell led the campaigns to renovate Carter-Finley Stadium and build the Murphy Center and indoor practice facility for the football team.
Judy Rose
While athletic director at UNC Charlotte, Rose became the first woman to serve on the Division I Mens’ Basketball Committee. Rose was just the third woman to become a D-I AD in 1990 and spent the next 28 years in the role, moving the 49ers up through the conference ranks and adding a football program.
Tim Stevens
In almost five decades at the Raleigh Times and News & Observer, Stevens set the standard for the coverage of high school sports not only in the state but nationally. A member of the National High School and NCHSAA halls of fame, the NCHSAA’s annual media award is named after the Garner native.
Donnell Woolford
Woolford, from Fayetteville, was a two-time all-ACC and all-American cornerback at Clemson and a first-round draft pick of the Bears in 1989, where he made the Pro Bowl in 1993.
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 9:58 AM with the headline "From Mack Brown to Muggsy Bogues, 2020 NCSHOF class of 12 runs the gamut."
