LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame has released the names of its 2013 inductees, an eight-man class that is as diverse as it is distinguished.
Basketball, football, golf, track and field and sports management are all represented in the Class of 2013, and two of the inductees, Stacy Lewis and Sonja Tate, represent the first time the Hall has inducted more than one woman in a class.
“We’re top heavy with baseball, basketball and football people, like every Hall of Fame,” Executive Director Ray Tucker said. “One thing we do is we ask our people to be open-minded.”
Arkansas Hall of Fame members must be listening.
This year’s inductees include two with golf backgrounds, Lewis and Wyn Norwood; a former track star, Frank O’Mara; two former basketball players, Marcus Brown and Tate; a basketball coach who worked at nearly every level of the game, Don Nixon; a football coach who won more than 300 games at the high school level, John Outlaw; and crossing over to the business side of sports, there is Jeremy Jacobs, owner of Southland Greyhound Park, who also owns the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League.
“The guidelines used to be you had to be 40, or you had to be retired for six or eight years,” Tucker said. “One of the things we struggle with is, sometimes, the older they get, the less well-known they are.”
Lewis, the reigning LPGA Player of the Year, certainly breaks the oldie-but goodie mold of past classes.
Lewis, 27, a former Arkansas Razorbacks golfer, is preparing for her fifth LPGA season and will begin 2013 ranked No. 3 in the world after a breakthrough season that saw her win four tournaments, $1.87 million in prize money as well as becoming the first American since 1994 to take player of the year honors.
A second inductee with a golf club in hand is Wynn Norwood, the longtime UALR men’s and women’s golf coach who has been one of the state’s top amateur players since his days as an all-conference performer at Arkansas Tech. Norwood won three state amateur titles and participated in 14 national amateur championships. Norwood, a mover and shaker in the golf world, also was instrumental in bringing the Southern Amateur to Chenal Country Club last summer. The Southern Amateur is oneof the most prestigious amateur golf tournaments.
From the world of basketball, there are two former players - Brown and Tate - as well as Nixon, who coached the boys team at Little Rock Central High School from 1968-1972 and the men’s team at UCA from 1972-1979. Nixon’s Central Tigers won the Class AAAA state championship in 1970 and 1972 and won the state’s first overall championship in 1972.
Brown, who led West Memphis to the 1991 Class AAAA state championship and overall championship, went on to become Murray State University’s third all-time leading scorer with 2,236 points. Brown didn’t make it long in the NBA, but he played professionally for 13 seasons in Europe, finishing as the Euroleague’s all-time leading scorer and winning five Mo s t Va l u - able Player awards.
Tate, who played at ASU from 1989-1993, remains the career scoring leader at ASU with 2,312 points. She is the only ASU women’s player to have scored 40 or more points in a game, a feat she accomplished five times.
Frank O’Mara, now a Little Rock telecommunications executive, was one of former Arkansas Coach John McDonnell’s first and most notable track and field runners imported from Ireland. O’Mara, from Limerick, Ireland, represented his country in three Olympic Games and was an All-American and Southwest Conference champion his sophomore and junior years and then became McDonnell’s first outdoor NCAA champion in 1983 when he won the 1,500-meter run at Houston.
Jacobs, known nationally as the owner of the Boston Bruins, is owner of Southland Greyhound Park at West Memphis, which opened in 1956 and remains the state’s only greyhound track. Delaware North Corp., owned by the Jacobs family, was the original concession operator when the track opened. The family later bought the facility. Jacobs became the chairman and CEO of Delaware North in 1968.
Outlaw , a 300-game winning football coach in Arkansas and Texas, will be inducted posthumously. Outlaw, an Ozark native who graduated from Central Arkansas, died of a heart attack in December 2011. Outlaw went 84-20-1 in nine seasons at Arkadelphia, winning state titles in 1979 and 1987. His undefeated 1987 team was the first Arkansas school to be ranked in the USA Today Super 25. Outlaw’s Texas teams went 57-21-1 at Sherman and 162-46-1 at Lufkin, giving him a 303-87-3 record.
At a glance
WHAT 55th Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet
WHEN 6 p.m. March 8 WHERE Verizon Arena, North Little Rock
INDUCTEES
MARCUS BROWN Former basketball star at West Memphis High School
JEREMY JACOBS Owner of Southland Park at West Memphis
STACY LEWIS Former Arkansas golf star, 2012 LPGA Player of the Year
FRANK O’MARA Former Arkansas track and cross country runner
DON NIXON High school and college basketball coach
WYN NORWOOD Noted amateur golfer and college coach
JOHN OUTLAW 300-game winning high school football coach in Arkansas and Texas
SONJA TATE All-time leading scorer for Arkansas State women’s basketball 2,312 points.
Sports, Pages 27 on 01/06/2013