‘Dream come true’: First Valdese Sports HOF class inducted

Thirteen legendary sports figures from the former Valdese High School on Monday night at Old Rock School each received a fitting new title: Valdese Sports Hall of Famers.

The inaugural class included Joe Brown, Dave Bumgarner, Bill Cline, Sammy Decker, Judy Keever, Connie Mull, and Jerry Murray Sr., as well as posthumous inductees Ed Abee, Burton Barger, Doug Cline, Wayne Owens, Joe Temple Sr., and Danny Williams.

Former East Burke and Draughn high school coach and athletic director Jerry Murray Jr. served as the evening’s emcee, and sponsors for Monday’s banquet and induction ceremony included The Venue at Turkey Ridge, Mears Insurance, Brinkley Insurance, and Heritage Funeral Services.

After the evening’s meal, festivities moved upstairs into the main auditorium of the school.

There, town mayor Charlie Watts gave the welcome.

“The establishment of the Valdese Sports Hall of Fame marks a new chapter in our town’s proud sporting tradition,” Watts said. “It is a place where future athletes will look for inspiration, and it is a place where legends will be forever remembered. … The inductees have represented Valdese with honor.”

Murray Jr. mentioned that the inaugural HOF group included nine inductees who are in other sports halls of fame (both Clines, Bumgarner, Barger, Williams, Owens, Brown, Keever, and Murray Sr.), a coach who coached five of the evening’s inductees (Barger), four VHS graduates who returned to coach Valdese athletes (Murray Sr., Keever, Abee, Williams), three individuals who have local sports facilities named in their honor (Williams, Temple, Owens), three former professional football players (both Clines and Bumgarner), two sets of siblings (Bumgarner and Mull plus the Clines), and one basketball player who appeared in three Final Fours (Brown).

“To me, it’s the impact and influence they’ve had on so many people during their lives (that makes them Hall of Famers),” he later said.

Murray Jr. also served as a Hall of Fame presenter and introduced the evening’s other presenters: Brown, David Brinkley, David Andersen, and Rexanna Lowman, who are all members of the Valdese Sports HOF executive committee. His father, Murray Sr., later presented the evening’s final candidate, Mull, who starred in basketball for Murray Sr. and the Lady Tigers as Connie Bumgarner, her maiden name.

Andersen began the evening by introducing Owens, affectionately referred to as the “grandfather” of the Valdese Recreation Department from his work at the Valdese Community Center from its inception in 1939 until his death in 1973.

Owens was inducted into the Burke County Sports HOF in 2023, the same year that the basketball court at the Valdese Community Center was named in his memory.

Brown — who along with Brinkley, started the ball moving toward a Valdese Sports HOF nearly three years ago — presented inductees Bumgarner, who he called his hero, plus Doug Cline and Brown’s own former VHS basketball coach, Abee.

Bumgarner won 11 varsity letters over four sports at Valdese and went on to star in football at East Carolina, where he set the program’s single-game and single-season records for receptions and receiving yardage. He later coached Greenville Rose to the 1975 NCHSAA 4A state championship.

Doug Cline starred in football as after his time in Valdese, he was named All-ACC at Clemson and played seven years in the American Football League (AFL) prior to its merger with the NFL. Cline was elected to the Clemson University Sports HOF in 1991.

Abee both played on and coached VHS teams who won conference basketball championships, playing the sport at Lees-McRae College in the interim. He led the Tigers to the 1966 WNCHSAA title game as he won county coach of the year honors, and he also coached JV football.

“(Abee) had the sweetest set jump shot you could ever see. When I played for him, he could still shoot better than anybody we had,” said Brown, who then read part of the inscription from his former coach’s plaque.

It reads: “Whether he was teaching the principles of science or the fundamentals of shooting a basketball, for those who had the pleasure of becoming a product of his guiding influence, Coach Abee became a trusted friend.”

Lowman presented Temple, whom she called a “close family friend,” and she noted his status as a Burke County legend as named by The News Herald in 2006.

Temple led the state with 26 rushing touchdowns as a senior after having outscored Valdese’s opponents by himself the year before when he recorded 21 TDs on the ground. He was named a prep honorable mention All-American at Valdese and also starred in baseball, later playing both sports collegiately at North Carolina.

Murray Jr. presented his father Murray Sr., in addition to his one-time EBHS contemporaries Williams and Keever.

Murray Jr. noted that he played in the final football game that Williams coached with the Cavaliers in 1983, a Fat Friday rivalry win over Freedom, and years later, “had the honor” to take over Keever’s EBHS girls basketball program.

“Her players were always fundamentally sound, with good character, and they were good students,” Murray Jr. said.

Murray Sr. starred in three sports with the Tigers, started the first swim team at the Valdese Community Center, started the wrestling program at VHS, and coached six sports — football, girls basketball, baseball, track, wrestling, and golf — spanning his time at Valdese and East Burke.

Keever, a 1958 VHS grad, was East Burke’s first girls hoops coach and held that title for 20 years until 1996. She guided the Lady Cavs to the NCHSAA 4A West Regional final in 1978 and also coached softball and tennis.

Williams was EBHS’ first football coach, and his teams finished 65-39-2 in his 10 seasons, after he starred in football for very successful VHS and Lenoir-Rhyne teams. He later was head football coach at L-R and principal at EBHS, and was named NAIA national track coach of the year once at L-R. The Cavs’ football field was named in his honor in 2003

Brinkley presented inductees Barger, Bill Cline, Brown, and Decker.

Barger, who compiled a 80-16-4 record as the Tigers coach on the gridiron from 1947-1958, is a Davie County native and the only non-Valdese native in the first HOF class. His VHS football teams enjoyed undefeated conference runs in 1952 (NCHSAA Highland Conference) and 1955 (WNCHSAA Western Conference) with a league title in 1954 in between those seasons. At one point he had 12 former athletes playing college football, and Barger later led North Rowan to six straight track league titles before winning five more at Davie County.

Brinkley told a story about Barger not liking the tempo the Valdese football team was playing with in his early days as coach, so Barger dressed out for a practice and set his own tempo.

Bill Cline was a VHS football star who was named all-state before twice earning All-American honors at East Carolina, where his 3,383 rushing yards stood as a program record for a quarter-century. He then played professionally in the Canadian Football League for four seasons.

Brinkley mentioned that Cline once told him he retired from pro football because there was no fair catch rule on punts in the CFL, “and when they put you at punt returner, it’s time to retire.”

Brinkley, a former VHS quarterback, also told how Cline once spent the better part of a week tending to Brinkley’s ankle after an injury so he could return to the field the following week.

Brown was a prep honorable mention All-American in hoops at VHS who went on to become the ACC’s top sixth man at UNC, where his teams under legendary coach Dean Smith from 1966-69 were the first and remain the only teams to win the ACC regular-season and tournament title as well as win the NCAA East Regional to reach the Final Four in three successive years. Brown’s Tar Heel college roommate Dick Grubar attended the induction.

“When Joe played on TV at UNC, I think everybody in Valdese rushed home to turn their TVs on,” Brinkley said. “Joe undoubtedly was the greatest basketball player in Valdese history, and in my opinion, in Burke County history.”

Decker won three state track and field gold medals with the Tigers, setting a new WNCHSAA record in the 880-yard run, before playing football at Wake Forest University. He was also an all-county and all-conference football and basketball player with the Tigers.

Murray Sr. ended the inductions by presenting Mull, who was a four-time all-conference and all-conference tournament hoops player at VHS and who sank the winning basket in overtime as Valdese snapped rival Taylorsville’s 140-game win streak that spanned over seven seasons. The Tigers won the school’s first league title in the sport that season.

Murray Sr. noted that girls hoops rules changed before Mull’s junior season as she became VHS’ first rover, playing both offense and defense with the ability to cross halfcourt.

“This is kind of unusual. I guess I’m the only coach (to be inducted) who’s coached one of these athletes,” said Murray Sr. “But coaching Connie was an honor equal to the one I received tonight.”

Brown thanked Brinkley and his wife, Marie, for their donation to have the HOF plaques on permanent display at the Valdese Community Center. He also thanked the Rotary Club of Valdese, the HOF’s sponsor.

“They are responsible for what we had tonight. All the decorations, everything on the stage, the meal,” Brown said. “We would have been here at some point without them, but we wouldn’t be here tonight without them. … This is a dream come true for me.”

The first HOF class honored those who graduated from or coached at Valdese High School in or before 1965 exclusively. Preliminary plans are to induct around 10 next year and then have “normal” size classes of two or three inductees annually after that.

“I promise you; we are not going to run out (of people to induct). We have decades and decades of athletes,” said Brinkley.

Inductions will take place on the third Monday of May annually with the “hope this becomes a reunion of sorts,” Brown said.

Valdese Sports HOF executive committee member Tamika Garrison gave the evening’s benediction.

“In order to be a giant, you must first stand on the shoulders of one. And so, it is not just these folks that are on stage, but many faces in this room,” she said. “Tonight wasn’t just about sports. It’s about perseverance, leadership, teamwork, and a legacy that lives on when people commit themselves fully to something greater than themselves.

“Our inductees tonight remind us that greatness is built not just on talent, but on hard work, character, and the support of a community that believes in them.”