Wayne Golden

He was the quiet leader of the Golden years of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball, when the Mocs reached the NCAA Division II final in 1976 and '77, winning it the second time, and he remains the school's all-time scoring leader with 2,384 points.

An All-American who averaged 20.4 points a game for his four seasons, Wayne Golden will be among the 20 new members going into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame at its annual banquet Feb. 25 at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. event cost $35 and must be bought by Feb. 15 from organization president Dr. John Farr at 423-875-9282.

Another UTC Division II national champion and All-American among the inductees is tennis player Lori Massengill from East Ridge, and longtime cross country and track and field coach Bill Gautier is another Mocs representative entering the hall.

Also going in for track and field is former McCallie and Princeton star Peter Hunt, and another tennis inductee is Pat Guerry from Chattanooga's royal family of the sport.

Joining Golden from basketball is former Kirkman Tech and Missouri star Jeff Strong, and former Brainerd, Memphis State and professional player Edwin Lovelady will be inducted for football along with the man for whom Howard's stadium is named, Theodore "Red" Gaston.

Former Vanderbilt teammates Rick Duncan and Ted Shipley for baseball, Caroline Caulkins Bentley and Laura Sawyer Pitman for swimming, Gordon Connell and Ed Woodham for wrestling, Ronnie Kincer and Pat Weller for softball, Randall McDowell for boxing, Willard Dickerson and Antinio Petty for officiating/administration and WTVC's Dave Staley from the media are the other inductees.

Special award winners previously were announced as golfers Brooke Pancake and Steven Fox for athletes of the year, Peggy Michaels for the Betty Probasco Award for lifetime service, Rachel Price for the Jim Morgan/Allan Morris Award for courage and perseverance and Brenda Lawson for the Fred Gregg Jr. Award.

Golden lives now in Austin, Texas, working by day as a permanent substitute in a school and by night at a group home, and will not be able to attend the banquet. He has sent his ticket to Herbert "Book" McCray, a Chattanooga educator and coach who played with him for seven years at Shawnee High School in Louisville, Ky., and UTC.

The Shawnee duo were part of the Mocs' Louisville connection begun a year earlier by assistant coach Ralph Underhill and Kevin Gray. The big freshman group from Louisville joined a team headed by senior Walter McGary in reaching No. 3 in the Division II poll, and Golden was electrifying on the court from the start.

One of his unforgettable images of that season was a hanging jump shot late in a tense game against Tennessee State in jam-packed Maclellan Gymnasium. Golden fouled TSU senior and future NBA standout Truck Robinson out of the game on the play, and the Mocs went on to win.

"He was awesomely talented in the sport of basketball," McCray said of Golden. "He was supremely talented. I was alongside him when he scored 84 points in a high school game. And he was a true leader. He was one of those classic 'lead-by-example' types who wasn't vociferous but would get out there and do his thing on the court. If it was crunch time, you could tell he wanted the ball.

"When he got his jaw broke that freshman year, he already was thin as a rail and he lost a lot of weight, but he played through that in excruciating pain. He had to suck down milkshakes through those wires, but he played -- and he produced.

"He was a major, major contributor to Chattanooga sports."

Golden played professionally in Europe and South America and on the U.S. Army team. After MVP years for Moberly Junior College and Missouri, where he was All-Big Eight, Strong was picked in the NBA draft and played professionally in the World Basketball League, for Las Vegas, and in Europe.

Lovelady twice scored five touchdowns in a game in the New York Knights' one season (1988) in the Arena Football League, and he played one season for the NFL's New York Giants with 10 receptions, two for touchdowns, in three games. Gaston starred at Chattanooga's Lincoln High and Tennessee State and went 191-58-6 as Howard's football coach from 1934 to '59, with seven undefeated teams.

After being part of a Baylor tennis team that went undefeated for his six years, Guerry was a four-time All-American at Sewanee and won the national Arthur Ashe Award as a senior. He is a teaching pro who serves as president of USTA Atlanta and USTA Georgia, the nation's largest community and state tennis associations.

Massengill won six Southern Conference singles and doubles titles and the 1986 State Open singles and doubles championships, when she was ranked No. 1 in the state. Gautier has been a SoCon coach of the year in cross country or track 13 times in his 22 years with the Mocs and Lady Mocs, and he's directed 15 runners of the year with 11 team conference titles in cross country and one in track.

Hunt was all-state in football and track at McCallie and the state decathlon and intermediate hurdles champion and set decathlon and pentathlon records in his All-America career at Princeton. The decathlon record still stands.

Shipley led Southeastern Conference baseball batters in hits in 1973, set a stolen-base record in 1974 and batted over .300 all three years he started for Vandy. A 12-letter winner and football as well as baseball MVP at Baylor, the shortstop was a first-round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins in '74 and was a Southern League all-star with Orlando in '76.

Duncan went to Vandy from Central High and held or shared 15 school records and 11 SEC records when he left the 'Dores in 1975. A three-time All-SEC choice, he hit .340 in college, was drafted by the Twins in '75 and played five years in the minors with a .283 career average.

Pitman came from Cleveland to be a University of Tennessee All-America seimmer and was listed on four AAN national top-time lists and was an AAU all-star in 1977. She is one of the coaches for the nationally high-ranked Baylor teams.

Bentley was a two-time high school All-American swimmer at GPS, competing on the varsity from the seventh grade on, and qualified for the NCAA nationals as a Brenau University freshman before a career-ending injury. She continues in the sport as a Fairyland Club coach and director of the McCallie-GPS Aquatics year-round team.

Woodham was a standout wrestler and football player at the University of Chattanooga who helped start the East Ridge wrestling program and assisted in the Pioneers' first state championship and was the head coach for two more. He had an 85-16-3 record before going full-time into administration, and he also excelled by coaching East Ridge teams to 1972-74 national handball championships.

Connell won a state wrestling title as a Brainerd athlete and coached Hixson to one team championship and McCallie to seven traditional and six duals state crowns, and he won national and world freestyle age-group championships in his 50s. He also has been very helpful to the sport as the crew leader for the NCAA/NWCA wrestling video team.

Kincer was one of the star pitchers in the Dixie Major Fastpitch League known for pitching throughout the Southeast. He won 19 games in a row in 1967, including back-to-back games in which he pitched a perfect game and another no-hitter. Weller was an all-around offensive and defensive player who starred in the league from 1967 to '83, mixing speed and power. A 10-time Dixie Major all-star, he was MVP of the all-star game in 1972.

Dickerson was another Dixie Major player who also played Tri-State baseball but is being inducted for his prowess as a football official. He worked the most state playoff games of anyone in Tennessee for the span of 1970-86, including several TSSAA finals.

Petty has been to the highest level in college basketball officiating, working the Final Four in 2011, after working the 1997 NAIA championship game and calling for years in the Southern, Ohio Valley and Southeastern conferences.

McDowell was a national Silver Gloves champion and runner-up in consecutive years and went 13-1 in Golden Gloves bouts as part of his 192 fights. An outstanding football and baseball player growing up, he became a world-class archer.

Staley's 29-year Channel 9 television career has gone far past just sports, but he is known nationally for his "Dave's Diamond Darlings" feature during youth softball and baseball season. He has been a regional Edward R. Murrow award winner 10 times and won national Murrows three years in a row, 2004-06.