North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame

The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame (NCSHF), which honors coaches, administrators, journalists, and other sports-related professionals in addition to athletes, was established in 1963 through the efforts of Jack Wood, a Charlotte merchant, and Lloyd Caudle, a Charlotte attorney, with support of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. The first five inductees were runner Jim Beatty, baseball pitcher Wes Ferrell, football players Charlie Justice and Ace Parker, and golfer Estelle Lawson Page. Each was officially inducted into the NCSHF at a banquet in Charlotte in December 1963.

All subsequent NCSHF members have been elected annually and required to attend an induction banquet, where they provide the Hall of Fame with mementos of their career, including uniforms worn and equipment used. In 1969 the Charlotte Coliseum agreed to display the mementos in trophy cases in the corridors of the building. The memorabilia was later transferred to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, where it has become a permanent exhibit. In April 1994 the NCSHF moved into a new 4,000-foot wing of the museum.

As of 2006, there were 236 members of the NCSHF, about half of whom were still living. Members include golfers Peggy Kirk Bell (inducted in 1976), Raymond Floyd (1981), and Arnold Palmer (1988); football players Christian "Sonny" Jurgensen (1971), Dwight Clark (1997), and Jethro Pugh (1980); track-and-field athletes Tony Waldrop (1977) and Betty Springs Geiger (2003); baseball players Gaylord Perry (1973) and Jim "Catfish" Hunter (1974); auto drivers Dale Earnhardt (1994) and Richard Petty (1973); sports journalists Marvin "Skeeter" Francis (1993) and Billy Packer (1996); swimmers Sue Walsh (2003) and Peggy Pate Chappell (1993); basketball players Phil Ford (1991), David Thompson (1982), and Mike Gminski (2003); and basketball coaches Dean Smith (1981), Jim Valvano (1995), Kay Yow (1989), Mike Krzyzewski (2000), and Norm Sloan (1994).