Valdese Sports Hall of Fame to induct 13 members in 1st class (UPDATED 3:55 p.m.)

The Valdese Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday, Feb. 27, via a press release announced that its inaugural class will contain 13 members.

The 2025 class consists of: Ed Abee, Burton Barger, Joe Brown, Dave Bumgarner, Bill Cline, Doug Cline, Sammy Decker, Judy Keever, Connie Mull, Jerry Murray, Wayne Owens, Joe Temple Sr., and Danny Williams.

The new class will be inducted in a ceremony on May 19 at 6 p.m. in the Waldensian Room of the Old Rock School in Valdese. Tickets for the event can be purchased from members of the Rotary Club of Valdese.

Of note, Brown, Owens, and both Bill and Doug Cline are members of the Burke County Sports Hall of Fame.

The 13 honorees were selected based on nominations submitted to the six-member executive and selection committees prior to the Jan. 31 deadline, in accordance with the Valdese Sports HOF guidelines.

Eligibility criteria includes three categories — athletes, coaches, and contributors — and nominees must either be a Valdese native, have resided in Valdese at the time of their participation, or have attended high school in Valdese.

Inductees or their family members will receive a plaque identical to the plaque that will hang in the lower level of the Valdese Community Center.

For more information on the Valdese Sports HOF, its guidelines, or its nomination process, visit rotaryclubofvaldese.com/vshof. More information can also be found through the Valdese Sports Hall of Fame page on Facebook.

Here’s more on each of the inductees:

Ed Abee

Abee, who recently died in September 2024, was a Valdese High School 1953 graduate who went on to play basketball at Lees-McRae College before earning his undergraduate degree from Appalachian State University.

After then serving in the army, he returned to coach the Tigers on the hardwood in the 1960s and put winning teams together year after year.

Abee taught and coached in Guilford County and Wilkes County before he finished his career as principal at Ashe Central High School.

Burton Barger

Barger, who’s also a member of the Lenoir-Rhyne University and Davie County High School athletic halls of fame, coached football with the Tigers from the late 1940s until 1958, with his teams compiling an impressive 80-16-4 overall record. He also served as VHS athletic director and coached baseball, girls and boys basketball, and track.

The Rowan County native Barger starred in football and baseball at L-R, being named a “Little All-American” in both sports, and after graduation, played minor league baseball for the Hickory Rebels.

Later after leaving VHS, Barger taught and coached at North Rowan High School and Davie County High School, from where he retired in 1983. He died in 2011.

Joe Brown

A 1965 VHS graduate, Brown made his name in basketball. After being named all-conference and all-conference tournament twice apiece, as well as county player of the year and all-state once apiece, and leading the county in scoring as a junior, Brown was also selected as a prep honorable mention All-American by Coach and Athlete Magazine as a senior. He also played in the East-West All-Star Game that summer.

Brown then played on scholarship for the legendary Dean Smith at North Carolina, where his three Tar Heel teams from 1966-69 remain the last to win the ACC regular-season and tournament title as well as reach the Final Four in three successive years. Those three Carolina squads finished 81-15 overall, including 36-6 in ACC play.

Brown averaged over 6 points and 4 rebounds in his best statistical season as a UNC junior, playing in all 32 games as UNC fell to Lew Alcindor and UCLA in the NCAA title game.

Considered among the top sixth men in college basketball by sports writers of the era, Brown also played one year of JV ball under Larry Brown at UNC in an era in which freshmen were ineligible to play varsity collegiate ball.

Joe Brown was inducted into the Burke County Sports HOF in 2012. The Winston-Salem resident also serves on the advisory panels for both the Valdese and Burke County Sports HOFs.

Dave Bumgarner

Bumgarner is a 1961 VHS grad who starred in football at East Carolina University before becoming a prep head coach and leading Greenville Rose to the 1975 NCHSAA 4A state championship among two East Regional title seasons.

Bumgarner played all three sports with the Tigers and played American Legion baseball two summers locally. He went on to become a three-year starter on the gridiron at ECU and led the team in receiving his final two seasons as the Pirates finished 9-1 and won bowl games both years. Bumgarner also served as a team co-captain as a senior in ’64, when he was both named a Small College All-American and named to the all-state team by Greensboro Daily News.

He played one year professionally for the Toronto Rifles of the Continental Football League, hauling in two touchdown passes, before getting into coaching. Bumgarner led Edenton to the West Regional title in baseball and also served as an assistant football coach at the school before his success at Rose, during which time he served as head coach for the NC-SC All-Star Game and East-West Game and as an assistant coach in the Shrine Bowl. He was inducted into the Rose High School HOF in 2007.

Bill Cline

Cline is also a 1961 VHS graduate who was named to the all-conference and all-state teams as a senior football player. He also earned spots on the East-West All-Star and Shrine Bowl rosters after that season.

As both a sophomore and senior at ECU, Cline was named team MVP. He was also honored as an All-American twice and was named all-state once with the Pirates and earned 1965 Tangerine Bowl MVP accolades. While with the Pirates, he rushed for 3,383 yards, a program record that stood for 25 years, and passed for 2,425 yards and 27 TDs while also returning punts.

Cline then played professionally in the Canadian Football League for four seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders and Saskatchewan Roughriders, punting as well as playing some at defensive back and quarterback. He had two interceptions in five games in his final season.

Cline was inducted into the ECU Sports HOF in 1974 and the Burke County Sports HOF in 2004.

Doug Cline

The elder Cline was a 1956 VHS grad who played collegiately with Clemson before enjoying a seven-year American Football League run with the Houston Oilers and San Diego Chargers.

He was named all-county, all-conference, and all-state as a Valdese senior before being selected for both the Shrine Bowl and East-West All-Star Game. Cline was part of two football conference title teams in football and one conference title apiece in basketball and baseball at VHS.

He was named All-ACC at Clemson and played in the Sugar Bowl, gaining a game-high rushing yardage total.

Cline was drafted by the Oilers in 1960 and played on Oilers’ AFL title squads in both of his first two pro seasons, hauling in an interception in the AFL title game in 1961. Cline was named an AFL All-Pro in ’62, and in all for his AFL career, he had seven interceptions, two forced fumbles, and two TDs in addition to returning kicks.

Cline was elected to the Clemson University Sports HOF in 1991 and became a Burke County Sports HOF member in 1994.

Sammy Decker

Decker is a 1962 VHS grad who won three state track and field gold medals with the Tigers before playing football at Wake Forest University.

He earned all-county and all-conference football honors and also played basketball, where he averaged double-figure points and was named all-county and all-conference as well. Decker also played prep and American Legion baseball. In track, he won gold back-to-back years in the WNCHSAA boys 880 yards, setting a then-association record with a 2:03.7 clocking in the event as a sophomore in ’60. He also ran on the VHS state title 4x400 boys relay in 1960.

At WFU, Decker ranked second in the ACC in kickoff return yardage until an injury five games into his freshman season, when he moved to defensive back. He then coached DBs and recruited for one season as an assistant coach with the Demon Deacons.

Notably, Decker later coached future Super Bowl champion quarterback Brad Johnson with the Owen Middle School basketball team and played alongside future Bears star running back Brian Piccolo at WFU.

Judy Keever

Keever, a 1958 VHS grad, was East Burke High School’s first girls basketball coach and held that title for 20 years until 1996.

As a student-athlete at VHS, she played basketball and softball, winning a rec state title in 1960 as a pitcher in softball.

At EBHS, Keever coached the Lady Cavaliers to the NCHSAA 4A West Regional final in 1978. Her EB hoops teams won 234 games in all and qualified for the state playoffs eight times, and Keever was named Catawba Valley and Western N.C. coach of the year in ’79. She served as an assistant coach in the East-West All-Star game and was named Memorable Valdese Sports Person of the Century in 2000. Her EB program produced 20 college players including four East-West All-Stars, and Keever was inducted into the EBHS Athletics HOF in 2010.

Keever also taught P.E. and coached nearby at Oak Hill, North Carolina School for the Deaf, East Rutherford, and South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind.

Connie Mull

Connie (Bumgarner) Mull is a 1965 VHS grad who starred in girls basketball with the Lady Tigers.

She was a three-time all-county selection (twice first team) and both a four-time All-Northwestern Conference selection and All Northwestern-Southwestern Bi-Conference Tournament honoree at Valdese.

In her junior season, the Lady Tigers hoops squad was named a Mountain Amateur Athletic Club Outstanding High School Athletic Team of WNC. Mull was also the homecoming queen at the school in ’64.

Jerry Murray

Murray graduated from Valdese High, then was a coaching fixture both there and later at East Burke High School for more than a quarter-century.

Murray played three sports with the Tigers, including being a star running back in football. He went on to attend Appalachian State before returning in 1962 to take his first job in education locally at VHS, where he also initially coached eighth-grade teams in three sports and served as an assistant varsity football coach.

He that same year also began a successful career as Valdese girls basketball head coach (1962-68; 69-74). For the one season in between stints at VHS, Murray was JV football coach, girls basketball coach, and track coach at Morganton High.

Murray also served as Valdese head football coach (1969-73) before spending 18 seasons as a football defensive assistant coach at EBHS, where he also coached wrestling and was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame in 2003.

Wayne Owens

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.

Owens was the sports and youth director at the center for nearly 20 years, working there upon its opening in 1939, as well as a successful youth coach in multiple sports.

He organized football, basketball, and tennis activities as part of his role there, and coached Valdese youth baseball and basketball as well as women’s softball teams and adult men’s basketball teams. At one time, Owens coached 16 different teams: four “biddy” girls and boys hoops teams, plus both four older youth girls and boys teams. His 1958 biddy boys squad won the state championship.

At age 11, Owens lost his left arm after it had to be amputated due to an accident while Owens was playing at a grist mill. Still, he played basketball, and in the 1920s, was part of the first Tigers’ team to win a championship of any kind in the sport. Owens died in 1973.

Joe Temple Sr.

Temple, who died in 2004, was a 1954 VHS graduate who later played three sports at UNC and had the Valdese High football field renamed in his honor the year after his passing.

The Shrine Bowl selection led the Tigers to a 4-0 record in the Highland Conference as co-champions as a junior. He played both football and baseball for four years and basketball for three years at VHS.

The wingback had a state-best 26 TDs as a senior, including three five-TD games, as he was named the Hickory Daily Record’s Hickory Area player of the year and was selected to the all-state squad. In an all-conference and all-state junior campaign, Temple rushed for 21 TDs, outscoring VHS’ opponents by himself on the ground.

Temple also hit seven home runs and sported a .526 batting average as a senior in baseball. He later played football two years, played baseball three years, participated in track one season, and coached football for one year as an undergrad at UNC.

Danny Williams

Williams, a 1953 VHS graduate, is probably best remembered for his time as East Burke High’s first head football coach from 1974-83.

After graduating from Valdese, Williams played football for four seasons at L-R, with the Bears sporting a 27-2-2 combined record over his final three years lining up as a blocking back and linebacker.

He returned to become an L-R assistant coach in 1965 and stayed in that role for eight years as L-R claimed four conference championships until Williams was elevated and became the Bears’ head coach in the ’73 season.

Williams’ Cavalier gridiron teams finished 65-39-2 in his 10 seasons, including a 5-5 record in Fat Friday contests, and his tenure was highlighted by three consecutive nine-win seasons from 1977-79, claiming two Western 4A Conference titles in that span and reaching the third round of the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs in ’79.

A member of both the EBHS and L-R sports halls of fame, Williams also served as Shrine Bowl head coach in 1983 and was principal at EBHS until retiring in 1995. The Cavaliers’ football field was named in his honor in 2003, and Williams died in 2017.