Sept. 17, 2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Six individuals are being honored this week as inductees into the University of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame for 2009. The class includes Art Swarts (track & field), Tom Riker (men’s basketball), Marty Baltzegar (men’s soccer), Tonique Williams-Darling (track & field), Kyle Thompson (men’s golf) and Harold White (coach and administrator).
This year’s group is being honored at a dinner on Thursday, September 17 at Seawell’s in Columbia and will be honored during halftime of Saturday’s football game.
Art Swarts was an All-American and ACC champion in track & field from the 1960s. He was the ACC discus champion for three straight years and earned All-America honors in 1965, `66 and `67. In addition, he won discus titles at the Florida Relays, the Penn Relays and numerous other events.
Tom Riker was a first-team Associated Press All-American basketball player from the early 1970s. He once scored 42 points in an NCAA tournament game. Riker averaged 19.6 points as a senior and 15.8 points during his career, scoring 1,343 points in three seasons.
Marty Baltzegar was a 1987 All-American in men’s soccer. A four-year letterwinner from 1984-87, Baltzegar anchored a Gamecock defense that allowed just 10 goals for the entire 1987 season.
Tonique Williams-Darling is a track & field All-American and Olympian from the late 1990s. She is credited as one of coach Curtis Frye’s original recruits who helped build the women’s program to a national championship level. Williams-Darling won the SEC 400-meter title in 1997 after finishing as runner-up for three straight years. A two-time All-American, Williams-Darling captured the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, becoming the first Carolina women’s individual gold medalist in any sport. She was also the 2005 world champion in the 400-meter dash.
Kyle Thompson was an All-American golfer at South Carolina from 1999-2001. He won the 2001 NCAA West regional and broke Carl Paulson’s school record for most individual titles with five. In 1999 he won both the Seminole Classic and the NCAA East Regional, where he set a school record of 63 in the final round.
Harold White is a former football coach and academic adviser, who has coached and counseled thousands of Gamecock athletes since 1971. Before retirement, White had risen to the title of Senior Associate Athletics Director for Academic Support & Student Services.
Since the University of South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame was created in 1967, the University of South Carolina Association of Lettermen has previously selected 105 members.
