Brunswick, Ga. –The Glynn County Sports Hall of Fame Board of Directors is proud to announce its 2020 Induction Class.
The latest Hall of Fame class features Laron “Bud” Bennett, Gerald Cox, Mark Drury, Carroll Minick, Harold “Red” Roberts and Clyde Williams.
The class was voted on recently by the Hall board. It will be the seventh class inducted by the local sports hall of fame which currently includes 35 members.
The date for the 2020 induction ceremony will be announced by early fall.
The new induction class is another strong and worthy group.
Bennett was a standout track competitor at Glynn Academy and the University of Georgia before also competing professionally and competing in several U.S. Olympic trials.
At Glynn, Bennett was voted the Red Terrors’ most valuable performer four times and he left the school as the record-holder in several events while also claiming the Region 3-AAAA High-point honor as a senior.
With the Bulldogs, Bennett was a three-time All-American and set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles. He went on to compete in the Olympic trials four times and won silver and bronze medals in the Pan American Games.
Bennett has already had success early in his career as a track and field coach, winning a state title with North Oconee before continuing his success in the collegiate ranks. He is currently the head men’s and women’s coach at Belhaven University in Mississippi.
Cox was a longtime basketball coach at the College of Coastal Georgia, spending 32 of his 40 years in the college ranks with the Mariners after coming to Brunswick to revive the school’s men’s basketball program in the early 1980s.
Under his guidance, the Mariners won seven state championships and went to the Sweet 16 of the national tournament twice. His 1991-92 team compiled a school-best 27-7 record while winning the state crown and advancing to the national tourney. His teams at the local college had a combined 19 winning seasons and 10 seasons with 20 or more wins.
Drury was a standout golfer at Glynn Academy before going on to play at the University of Georgia and having an outstanding career in amateur golf.
Drury won region titles as a sophomore and junior at Glynn and led the Terrors to the 1981 state championship which was program’s first-ever state title and the first of eight under longtime coach Herman Hudson, also a Glynn County Sports Hall of Fame inductee in the Class of 2018.
Drury was a four-year letterman for the Bulldogs. As an amateur player, he won the prestigious Golden Isles Invitational twice and the Okefenokee Invitational in Waycross five times.
Drury won several state championships and qualified for nine different USGA tournaments in his career. He played in the PGA Tour’s Heritage tournament in Hilton Head, S.C., after qualifying as a an 18-year-old.
Minick played baseball at Glynn Academy before also going on to play at Brewton-Parker
College and Georgia.
Minick had a .385 career average with the Terrors while playing from 1957-60. At Brewton-Parker, he helped the team to two state junior-college titles while batting .390 and .435 in his two seasons with the team.
He was a two-year letter-winner at Georgia and later won the Bulldogs’ Distinguished Baseball Letterman’s Award.
Roberts was a standout wide receiver at Glynn Academy and was a sophomore on the 1964 state championship team.
He went on to an outstanding college career at Austin Peay where he set several NCAA, Ohio Valley Conference and school records. He was an all-conference selection four times and an Associated Press Little All-American in 1970.
Roberts is in the Austin Peay Athletics Hall of Fame and his No. 84 jersey number is retired on the football team.
Williams was an outstanding player on Risley High’s 1951 state championship basketball team before going on to also become a standout at Fort Valley State College.
After college and a stint in the Army, Williams returned home to Brunswick to coach at
Risley, winning a state football championship as an assistant coach with the 1957 Tigers before leading the boys basketball team to the 1969 GIA state crown and also the all-classification championship as the head coach.
The Hall of Fame looks forward to celebrating the careers of each member in the 2020 class at its banquet early next year, according to Hall president Kevin Price.
“This is another stellar class with each member having great credentials that make them very worthy candidates for induction into our county sports hall of fame,” Price said. “Our board of directors spent a lot of time in discussion once again before ultimately arriving at the selection of these six very accomplished individuals. We’re looking forward to welcoming them into our membership early next year.
“Once again, it should be fun to look back on their careers and their many accomplishments at our induction banquet, and we hope that our community will again support the Hall of Fame and our inductees by coming out to the ceremony and again being part of what should be another great evening for athletics in Glynn County.”
Price said that more exciting news will be forthcoming from the Hall of Fame this summer and that news will be announced through local media and also the Hall’s new web site which launched earlier this year.
People are encouraged to visit the Inductees section on the site to learn more about the Hall of Fame and its past inductees.
The Hall formed as a non-profit organization in February 2011 and honored its first induction class the following year. The Hall of Fame’s display is located at Southeast Georgia Health System in Brunswick and is currently being relocated within the local hospital.
Anyone wishing to sponsor the 2020 induction banquet or make a contribution to the Hall should contact the Hall of Fame by email at gcsportshall@gmail.com.
The following are full-length biographical sketches of the 2020 Inductees:
Glynn County Sports Hall of Fame
2020 Induction Class Bios
Laron “Bud” Bennett
Bennett is a former Glynn Academy track standout who went on to compete at the college level for the University of Georgia.
At Glynn, he served as team captain his last three years while being the team’s most valuable performer four times. He left as the school’s record -holder in the 300 intermediate hurdles (39.04 ), 110 high hurdles (14.01) and 4x400 relay (1 minute, 27.14 seconds) and set the Region 3-AAAA record twice in the 800-meter dash, setting the new mark at 1.55.08.
As a senior, he was the high-point winner at the Region 3-AAAA meet and won the 300 hurdles and 800-meter a third straight year. He also helped the 4x400 relay team win the region title while also qualifying for state in the 110 high hurdles and triple jump by finishing second in the region.
Competing in five events at state, he finished second in the 800 after placing third the two previous years.
At Georgia, where he was a team captain, Bennett was a three-time outdoor All-American and finished runner-up in the 2005 SEC outdoor meet in the 400-hurdles. He set a school record in the 400 hurdles at the 2005 NCAA Championships.
As an assistant coach at Georgia, he assisted in coaching 18 NCAA All-Americans, coordinated all aspects of campus recruiting visits, monitored team community service projects and helped facilitate annual summer track camps.
Professionally, Bennett competed in the 400 meter hurdles in four United States Olympic Trials (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016) with a semifinal appearance in 2012. He was a Silver Medalist in the 4x400 Relay and a Bronze Medalist in the 400 Meter Hurdles at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He finished sixth in the 400 meter hurdles at the USATF Championships in 2010.
From 2009-2012, he worked at North Oconee High in Bogart as a Track and Football Coach. He coached boys and girls teams to back-to-back region titles, and in 2010 led the girls squad to a State Championship while the boys' team earned a third-place finish.
Bennett spent 2012-2017 on the staff at NCAA Division I Drake University as both an Assistant Track Coach and later the interim Co-Head Men's and Women's Track & Field Coach. He was active committee member of the renowned Drake Relays. During his tenure, Drake student-athletes earned nine Missouri Valley Conference Elite 18 awards given on the basis of the highest GPA combined with the highest event finisher at the conference meet. He coached nine student-athletes in NCAA first- round competition with four MVC champions.
Most recently, he worked with Men's & Women's Track & Field at Grand View University (NAIA). With the Vikings, he coached six student-athletes to NAIA All-American honors in addition to a Men's Outdoor Team Conference Championship.
In January, he was hired as the men’s and women’s track coach at NCAA Divison III Belhaven (Miss.) University.
Gerald Cox
Gerald Cox spent 40 seasons as a collegiate basketball coach including 32 at the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick. Cox retired from coaching after the 2013-14 season, finishing with a 632-556 career record in the college ranks. At Coastal Georgia, he compiled a 497-453 record in his 32 seasons at the school while his teams finished with an overall winning record in 19 seasons while having 10 20-win seasons.
While coaching the Mariners during their junior-college years from 1982 through 2011, Cox guided the program to seven conference championships (1984, 1986, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2002) while taking two teams (1985-86 and 2001-2002) to Hutchinson,Kan.,for the Sweet 16 in the National Junior College Athletic Association national championship tournament. The 1991-92 Mariners team posted a school-best 27-7 record when it won the conference championship and qualified for the national tournament.
The 2011 Coastal Georgia team won the Georgia College Athletic Association regular-season championship in the school's final year playing in the juco ranks before losing close in the championship game of the league tournament.
Cox coached previously at the collegiate level for 10 years at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga., where he was the assistant men's basketball coach for two seasons prior to becoming the head coach in 1970 and staying in that role for eight seasons .In his first four seasons at TMC, Cox guided his teams to the postseason tournament each year in a league that included both Georgia and Alabama teams. With only the top four schools from each state qualifying for the tournament, TMC was the only school to earn that distinction. His team played for the championship once during that span. He compiled a 135-103 record there as head coach with five winning seasons including a 28-4 campaign in 1972-73.
Cox left Truett-McConnell in 1979 to become head coach at Piedmont High in Monroe, N.C., where he spent the next three years. At Piedmont, Cox turned a struggling program into an instant winner. He remembers the senior players on his first team winning more games that particular year than they had in junior high school and the three previous seasons combined.
He was hired in 1982 to revive the men's program at then-Brunswick Junior College which had been dormant since the mid-1970s. During his time at the local college, Cox coached several All-American and All-Conference players while sending many players on to four-year colleges. Several of his former players also played professional basketball, including former All-American Frankie King, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA and later played professionally overseas for several years.
Cox began his coaching career in 1965 at Coulwood Junior High in Charlotte, N.C., where he coached boys basketball, track and field and also football. He returned to college in 1967 to pursue a master's degree in physical education and education at Appalachian State University before resuming his teaching and coaching career the following year at Truett-McConnell. Cox earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from Appalachian State Teachers College. He previously received his associate's degree from Presbyterian Junior College, where he also was a member of the men's basketball team.
He graduated from Ramseur High in Ramseur, N.C., where he was a four-year letterman for the varsity basketball and baseball teams. Cox made all-conference in basketball and baseball as a senior, pitching three 1-hitters that year.
In addition to coaching basketball at Coastal Georgia, Cox was a physical education teacher and also served several years as athletic director before retiring from both roles in 2010 while remaining head basketball coach.
Since retiring from coaching, Cox has continued to reside locally with his wife Polly who also is a retired educator.
Mark Drury
Mark Drury is a former Glynn Academy standout golfer who would become a four-year letterman for the University of Georgia golf team while enjoying an outstanding amateur career.
At Glynn, Drury won the region individual championship in both his sophomore and junior years as the Red Terrors captured the team title both years. In his senior year, he finished second in the region tournament, losing in a playoff to eventual PGA touring professional Gene Sauers. However, Drury led Herman Hudson's Terrors to the 1981 state championship that senior season, the first of eight state titles Glynn would win under Hudson's tutelage.
Playing four years for the Georgia golf team, Drury participated in approximately 15 tournaments for the Bulldogs.
Outside of prep and collegiate competition, Drury twice won the prestigious Golden Isles Invitational at the Brunswick Country Club, the first in 1981 when he was just 17 years old and the second time in 1992. Drury also recorded several runners-up and high finishes in that tournament. He won the Okefenokee Invitational championship in Waycross five times, including one string of three consecutive victories. Drury captured the title of the Jack Oliver Invitational in Valdosta and also won the Valdosta Open. He also won the Peach Blossom Invitational in Macon and the Oglethorpe Invitational in Savannah.
He qualified for the prestigious U.S. Amateur no less than five times and the U.S. Mid-Amateur twice while qualifying for the U.S. Junior tournament once. In all, he qualified for nine USGA national championship events. Drury won the Georgia State Junior in Tifton at age 16, captured the title of the Georgia Junior Challenge Cup four times and won the Georgia Junior PGA twice. In the Georgia State Junior World qualifier, he finished first to advance to the world junior tournament at Torrey Pines in California. There, Drury finished in eighth place in a total field representing 43 countries.
At age 17, Drury finished second in the Future Masters, and at age 18, he qualified and played in the Heritage stop on the PGA Tour. He also played in two Georgia State Golf Association Professional versus Amateur Challenge Cups and one Georgia-Florida-South Carolina Challenge Cup.
Though he had all the talent and credentials to enter professional golf, Drury instead opted to remain an amateur while going into private business.
He currently lives in Camden County.
Carroll Minick
Carroll Minick is a former Glynn Academy baseball standout who went on to collegiate success at the University of Georgia.
Minick, a shortstop and second baseman for the Red Terrors from 1957-60, finished his prep career with a .385 batting average. He received a baseball scholarship from Brewton-Parker College, playing two seasons at the Mount Vernon school which he helped to back-to-back state championships in the Georgia junior college ranks in the 1961 and 1962 seasons. Minick batted . 390 and .435 in his two seasons with the team.
He would go on to play his final two collegiate seasons at Georgia, lettering in both years with the Bulldogs. Minick batted a team-high .333 in the 1963 season which was just 27 games. He also led UGA with 29 hits including an NCAA record seven triples. In his final season, which was just 20 games, he led the Bulldogs with three home runs and 20 RBIs.
Minick served as president of the University of Georgia Baseball Letterman’s Club from 1995-2001 and was the recipient of the Distinguished Baseball Letterman’s Award in 2012.
Minick played in the Basin League in South Dakota in summer 1963 and was named a midseason second-team all-star. He was among 50 players invited to tryouts for the U.S. national team in 1964.
Also, he led the South Georgia Baseball League, a semi-pro league, in hitting in 1961 and 1962 and was named the league’s Most Outstanding Player in 1962.
As a youth player, Minick played on four state championship teams and was twice the leading hitter for the Glynn County Babe Ruth League team and also the St. Simons Island American Legion Team in 1960.
He went into business as a stock broker and continues to reside in Savannah.
Harold “Red” Roberts
Roberts is a former Glynn Academy standout receiver who played on the 1964 State Championship team and was a team captain as a senior in 1966. He went on to play at Austin Peay, where he was one of the most prolific pass receivers in NCAA football history.
At Austin Peay, he once caught 20 passes in a single game (Murray State, November 8, 1969). That record stood for six years at all NCAA levels and 20 years as a Division II mark. For his career, Roberts totaled 232 catches for 2,999 yards and 31 touchdowns from 1967-70 — all that during an era that still was more known for the run than the pass.
His single-game 20-catches mark stood for 45 years in the Ohio Valley Conference while his career 232 receptions lasted until 2013. Roberts was an All-Ohio Valley Conference choice four times — the first APSU football player to gain such distinction and still only one of two. He was chosen first-team Associated Press Little All-American in 1970 after earning honorable-mention twice previously.
Roberts was inducted into the APSU Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 and his jersey No. 84 was officially retired in 1991. After graduating, he became a highly successful high school football coach in Tennessee, first at Lynchburg High School and then at Franklin County High School from 1979 to 1999, where he had a record of 145 wins and 86 losses.
Clyde Williams
Clyde Williams was a standout basketball player for the 1951 state championship team at Risley in Brunswick and would later return to his alma mater as an educator, becoming a championship-winning coach as well.
At 6-foot-4, which was considered very tall in the 1950s, Williams was the leading scorer and rebounder for the 1951 Tigers who finished 24-4 en route to the state crown. Williams earned a scholarship to Fort Valley State, where he led the team in scoring and rebounding as a sophomore.
After graduation, Williams entered the Army and played several sports including basketball while in the military. He once scored 56 points in an Army game. He later earned a master’s degree at North Carolina and returned home to become a physical education teacher and coach at Risley.
He led the Tigers to the 1969 GIA state championship and also the all-classification title as Risley finished with a 20-5 record that season. He also was an assistant coach when the Tigers won a state championship in 1957 in football.
Williams was also a great golfer who played on World Professional and American Professional tours. He served as administrator in Glynn County Schools before retiring. Williams continues to live locally.
Comments