Led by the Endearing Dot Ford Burrow, 2024 Hall of Fame Class Had Many Storylines

            

Among the inductees this year were four former high school athletes, including one who played high school sports 74 years ago, and four high school coaches with 196 combined years of experience and 43 state championships –all of whom are still coaching today.

            

The four coaches included Paula Kirkland, who has won 15 state volleyball titles at Dorman High School in Roebuck, South Carolina; Gary Rankin, the winningest football coach in Tennessee history with 17 state championships at four different schools; Roy Snyder, who has coached swimming at Wilson High School in West Lawn, Pennsylvania for 60 years; and Ronald Vincent, who has won more than 1,000 games as baseball coach at J. H. Rose High School in Greenville, North Carolina.

            

Marie Ishida, the first female president and executive director of the California Interscholastic Federation, and Mike Colbrese, who was executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for 26 years, were the administrators in this year’s class. And David Gore, a longtime baseball and football official from Norman, Oklahoma, was the official in the 2024 class.

            

The four athletes, including three who parlayed their success at the high school level into professional careers, all talked about the value of education-based athletics as a springboard to shaping their future lives. They recognized if it was not for their positive experiences in high school sports, particularly the many coaches who helped guide them along the way, they would not have made it to the big stage.

           

Without a doubt, the show-stopper was Dot Ford Burrow, the basketball star from Smithville High School in Mississippi, who averaged almost 50 points a game in 1949-50, including individual games of 82 and 72 points. She remains the leading scorer in the history of Mississippi high school girls basketball.

            

In a class that included Minnesota baseball star Joe Mauer and pro football standouts Takeo Spikes and Tyrone Wheatley, the 92-year-old Burrow received the longest and loudest ovation at the ceremony. All three of her children, all 11 of her grandchildren – including Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow – and two great grandchildren, were in attendance to celebrate her amazing high school accomplishments.

            

There simply was no stopping Dot Ford during her high school days in Mississippi – not even when one team put a player on another player’s shoulders in an attempt to keep her from scoring.

            

“I believe that was the night I scored 52 points,” Dot said. “Another team tried to step on my ankles to keep me from scoring, but my daddy bought me some high-top shoes.”

            

While the incomparable Dot Ford Burrow brought the house down, the other athletes, coaches, administrators and official in this year’s class were remarkable as well. At the press conference that preceded the induction ceremony, all 11 inductees shared what they treasured most about their involvement in high school sports. As has been the case with previous classes, everyone talked about the relationships that were formed during those crucial years being far more important than any victories or championships.

            

In response to a question about leadership, Spikes talked about being authentic.

            

“Don’t ask anything of your teammates that you’re not willing to do yourself. You have to set the example and you have to lead by example. I’m always learning. I’ll never get too old to stop learning.”

            

Mauer, who was a three-sport standout at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Minnesota, talked about the value of playing multiple sports.

            

“I was a shy kid growing up, so playing multiple sports was a way to meet new people, engage with other students and learn from other coaches and mentors,” Mauer said. “I feel like playing all the sports I did through high school made me a better person in general as well as a better baseball player.

“Being thrown into a lot of different situations where you have to deal with adversity helped me learned to respond to that adversity. At the high school level, you get a great opportunity to be involved in and play other sports; you never know what that will lead to.”

Wheatley, one of the top multi-sport athletes in Michigan history from Robichaud High School in Dearborn, at the press conference talked about the transformation that occurred in his life during high school that led to his future success at the college and professional levels and into his coaching career.

“I was a jagged piece of glass when I came to high school, and my coaches put me through the heat. And as the glass smith who shapes that glass through the heat, my coaches helped mold me through the process, which made me want to become a coach. Now I understand what it takes to de-construct a young man and construct a young man into what he needs to be, and it’s an incredible feeling. So. for me, what I remember most about high school was transformation.”

Later that evening, Wheatley delivered an inspirational acceptance speech on behalf of the 2024 class. Following are a few of his comments about the value of his high school days.

“High school sports – saying that it saved my life is an understatement, a true understatement. Sports give people a chance to find their tribe. That’s what this is about. Find your tribe. Finding out who you are.

“Coaching and sports made such an impact on my life that I wanted to become a coach. To the administrators and coaches, I want to say ‘thank you’ for always being engaged, always being locked in, for always finding a way and having the patience to deal with me, and for always being there for me and my teammates.

“Mrs. Burrow, . . . it’s people like you that helped shape what female sports are today. I am happy they are able to see that and give you this honor. This is an incredible class . . . We all share a commonality – sports that we love, a respect for high schools in the cities we come from, paying tribute to the shoulders we stand on and the people who guide us.”

The resounding message from this year’s remarkable class of inductees was that high school sports are much more than games, and victories, and championships. High school sports help to shape young student-athletes into successful parents, citizens and leaders of our nation for years to come.