Area native Nelson recalled as Olympic swimmer, coach - and more Chattanooga region sports news

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

A memorial service is scheduled for this Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a man who was born in Chickamauga, Ga., and starred in football at LaFayette High School before earning worldwide acclaim as a swimming coach. Jack Nelson died last Wednesday in Delray Beach, Fla., at the age of 82 from complications from Alzheimer's disease. He would have been 83 last Saturday. After shining as a 5-fo0t-4 fullback for LaFayette in 1949, he moved to Fort Lauderdale and played semi-pro football and then played for the U.S. Air Force. But he changed from football to swimming after two years and became a world record-holder in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly events, earning spots in the 1955 Pan American Games and the 1956 Olympics. He then became a swim coach and won 30 state championships with three Florida high schools and was the U.S. women's head coach in the 1976 Olympics -- reportedly the only person in U.S. history to be both an Olympic swimmer and an Olympic head coach. He was inducted into the Fort Lauderdale, University of Miami, states of Florida and North Carolina, American Swimming Coaches Association and International Swimming halls of fame, and his Jack Nelson Swim Camp pulled in young swimmers from around the world for decades.

• Mowbray resident Lou Farris recently was inducted into the Warren Wilson College Athletic Hall of Fame for her pioneering efforts for women's athletics. Farris, now 78, played basketball for Soddy-Daisy High School and the Nashville Business College Amateur Athletic Union traveling team before going on to Warren Wilson in Swannanoa, N.C., which did not have varsity sports for women but did have a basketball team that played other schools. She was in the class of 1957. She later played for the Pepsi-Cola AAU team in Jacksonville while teaching school. She moved back to the Chattanooga area and taught at Harrison and Falling Water elementary schools before retiring in 2000. She played Senior Games basketball until she turned 75.

Basketball

• Sean Tate made 24 of 26 free throws and scored 30 points as Dalton State opened its men's basketball season Monday night with a 99-96 overtime win at Life University in Marietta, Ga., and the Roadrunners quickly went to 2-0 with a 75-63 home victory Tuesday against Erskine. Life provided one of the Roadrunners' four losses in a 26-win inaugural season last year and took a six-point lead in the extra period before succumbing. In that Monday game, DSC -- ranked No. 15 in the NAIA Division I preseason poll -- got 14 points despite foul trouble from Anthony Hilliard and 13 points and nine rebounds from LaDaris Green. Tuesday, Anthony Earle scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds, Jordan Bowling had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Tate scored 15 points and Hilliard had 11.

• Rico Overall scored 21 points to lead Cleveland State past visiting Gordon State 74-65 in junior college men's basketball Tuesday night. Solomon Rolles-Tyson and Orlando Moore added 14 and 12 points for the Cougars (3-2), while Austin Harwood had five assists and Darrion Leslie had four assists and three steals.

Soccer

• The Covenant College men's soccer program has NAIA national tournaments in its history, but the Scots will play their first game in an NCAA Division III national tournament Friday at Emory University in Atlanta against Whitworth from Spokane, Wash. The winner will play Emory or Berry on Saturday. The Scots (15-4-2) were seeded second for the USA South tournament but won it last weekend with conference player of the year Snoopy Davidson as tournament most valuable player. Chattanooga-area players on the team are Builder Brock, Hudson Brock and Hunter Brock from McCallie; Daniel Kubin from Northwest Whitfield and Chattanooga Christian alumni Roy Anderson, Jonathan Crossman and Tim Love.

Volleyball

• Payton Tipton from Cleveland High School had match highs of 14 digs and three aces as King University won its Conference Carolinas volleyball tournament quarterfinal 3-0 Tuesday night against Mount Olive.

Field Hockey

• Sewanee freshman Allegra Massey-Elim was honored Tuesday as the Southern Athletic Association field hockey newcomer of the year, and Tigers teammates Carrie Anderson and Sarah Barry joined her on the All-SAA first team with Zuie Billings, Kat Mulligan and Janie Spilman making the second team. Massey-Elim had six goals and four assists from her midfield position while Barry scored 13 goals and first-team repeater Anderson had nine goals and five assists.

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