March 25, 2013
Former South Carolina baseball coach Ray Tanner and former Clemson director of athletics Bill McLellan lead the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame’s Class of 2013.
The Class of 2013 also consists of Clemson quarterback Homer Jordan and former “Voice of the Tigers” Jim Phillips; South Carolina baseball great Hank Small; Furman basketball standout Clyde Mayes; The Citadel running back Travis Jervey; and legendary Bamberg-Ehrhardt baseball coach David Horton.
Phillips and Small will be enshrined posthumously.
The eight individuals will be enshrined with the state’s highest athletic honor on May 13 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Tickets (table of eight for $500) and program sponsorships may be purchased by calling the SCAHOF office at 803/779-0905. The affair, which includes a reception and dinner, begins at 5:30 p.m.
In addition to the inductees donning of the symbolic blue jackets, the Bobby Richardson Sportsmanship Award recipient will also be recognized. The event, which includes a host of returning past inductees, is the largest annual celebration of Palmetto State sports stars under one roof. Legendary South Carolina State coach and 2008 SCAHOF President Willie Jeffries, known for his witticism, will again preside over the banquet as master of ceremonies along with Executive Director Ephraim Ulmer and this year’s president, Nicky McCarter of Columbia.
Ray Tanner: Put simply, Ray Tanner made a difference. In a 16-year career as head coach of the baseball program, South Carolina reached unprecedented heights. Tanner led the Gamecocks to back-to-back NCAA Division I Baseball Championships in 2010 and `11 as well as a pair of national runner-up finishes, six College World Series appearances, three Southeastern Conference championships, six SEC Eastern Division titles and a SEC Tournament crown. His teams also advanced to 10 NCAA Super Regionals in 14 NCAA Tournament appearances. Tanner’s winning percentage for the Gamecocks was .700 – the second highest winning percentage for a coach in SEC history. Under Tanner, South Carolina’s postseason success from 2010-12 is arguably the greatest run in collegiate baseball history. In the three-year span, the Gamecocks established NCAA records with 22 consecutive postseason wins and 12 consecutive victories in the College World Series. South Carolina’s 30-4 (.882) record from 2010-12 in the NCAA Tournament is the fifth-best three-year postseason record in NCAA history.
BILL McLELLAN: A 1954 graduate of Clemson who was a two-time letterwinner, Bill McLellan served as business manager (1956-66), assistant AD (1966-71) and director of athletics (1971-85). During his tenure he oversaw an annual budget that grew from $3 million to more than $15 million. He oversaw the revitalization of Clemson Memorial Stadium from 18,000 seats to more than 80,000, making the facility the first on-campus stadium to construct sky boxes. IPTAY witnessed an increase in donations from $400,000 in 1971 to more than $5 million in 1985. Under his leadership, women’s athletics were added and the famed Tiger Paw was introduced. During his tenure, Clemson captured the 1981 National Football Championship and the 1984 National Soccer Championship. Men’s basketball received its first NCAA Tournament invitation in 1980 and advanced to the Elite Eight. McLellan was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993, having received Clemson’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1982.
HOMER JORDAN: Homer Jordan will always be remembered as the quarterback that led Clemson to the 1981 National Championship and Atlantic Coast Conference crown. That season, he led the team to a perfect 12-0 record as he was 107-196 in passing for 1,630 yards. He was also one of the team’s top rushers and was named the group’s most valuable player. Against Maryland in 1981, he was 20-29 in passing for 270 yards and also rushed for 42 giving him a 300-yard total offense day. He was Clemson’s offensive MVP in the 22-15 victory over Nebraska that clinched the National Championship for the Tigers. Jordan was 11-22 passing for 134 yards and a touchdown and also had 46 yards rushing on 16 carries in that memorable Orange Bowl. He ran out the clock with dexterity on the final Clemson drive, and then passed out after the game from heat exhaustion. During his senior year, a knee injury forced him to miss a good bit of the season. Still, he helped the 1982 team to a 9-1-1 record and a number-eight national ranking. He played professionally in the Canadian Football League for two seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
JIM PHILLIPS: The legendary “Voice of the Clemson Tigers” for 36 years, Phillips passed away on September 9, 2003 and at the time was the only Atlantic Coast Conference play-by-play announcer to broadcast his school’s football, basketball, baseball and women’s basketball games. A five-time recipient of the South Carolina Broadcaster of the Year Award, Phillips, in 1992, was presented the Master Broadcaster Award by the South Carolina Association of Broadcasters. Inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992, Phillips, in 1998, received the Skeeter Francis Award from the Atlantic Coast Conference Sportswriters Association for his contributions to ACC athletics. In addition to his duties at Clemson, Phillips was the sports director at WYFF-TV from 1968-80 and the sports director at WFBC Radio in Greenville for 25 years. He was also the “Voice of the Greenville Braves” from 1985-91. Over his career he broadcast more than 2,000 Clemson sporting events and also served as host of the Clemson football and basketball coach’s shows for many years. He broadcast his 1,000th Clemson men’s basketball game at the 2002 ACC Tournament in Charlotte. During his Clemson career, he missed just one broadcast of a basketball game in Littlejohn Coliseum.
HANK SMALL: Hank Small lettered from 1972-75 and was inducted in the USC Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991. He is second all-time in career home runs in school history with 48 in his four-year career, and held the career home run record until 2008 when it was broken by current MLB player Justin Smoak. During those four seasons at South Carolina, the Gamecocks went 155-45-2 including a 51-6-1 record in 1975 to finish as National Runner-Up to Texas at the College World Series, the first-ever appearance by the Gamecocks in Omaha. Small was a two-time All-American, having earned second-team honors in 1974 as well as first-team honors in 1975. He hit .360 his junior season with 17 homers and 65 RBI and did even better his senior year with a .390 average with 19 homers and 66 RBI. Along with being second in career home runs at South Carolina, he currently ranks fifth all-time in RBI (184), sixth in total bases (433) and 11th in hits (245). In 1978 he led the International League with 25 home runs and 101 runs batted in, while hitting a .289 average and making the All-Star team. Selected in the fourth round of the 1975 Major League Baseball Draft by the Atlanta Braves, Small earned a late-season call-up to the majors and played in one game on September 27. He passed away on March 3, 2010.
TRAVIS JERVEY: A Charleston native, Travis Jervey waited his turn to play after backing up All-American Everette Sands for three seasons, but when his time came he had six 100-yard rushing games in 1994 and his 224 yards against VMI is the fourth-best effort in school history. His 96-yard run on the opening play in the 1994 Oyster Bowl against VMI in Norfolk, Va., remains the longest running play in school history. In 1994, he gained 1,171 yards, good for fifth in school history, and no one has rushed for more yards since. Jervey averaged 7.7 yards per carry that season – tops in school history – and had 12 touchdowns. He ranked third in the SoCon in rushing and sixth in scoring in 1994 and was named second team All-Southern Conference by both the coaches and media. For his career, he rushed for 1,490 yards. Jervey played professionally for nine years with the Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons, and is the first Citadel player ever to win a Super Bowl ring (1996). Jervey earned Pro Bowl honors in 1997 and was enshrined in The Citadel Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012.
CLYDE MAYES: The 6-8, 230-pound bruiser dominated the Southern Conference while averaging 17.9 points and 12.6 rebounds and shooting 53.2 percent of his field goals. During his three-year career (1973-75), he made All-Southern Conference first-team three times while leading Furman to its best three-year overall record (64-25) and best SoCon mark (34-3) in its history. In 1975, he led the Paladins to an upset victory over South Carolina in the NCAA Tournament. He two won All-SoCon player of the year awards and conference tournament MVP honors. As a senior he also won the league’s Athlete of Year Award. Mayes earned first-team All-America honors by Basketball Weekly and was a Citizen Savings Foundation first-team All-America as well as second-team A-A by The Sporting News and Converse, and third-team by the Associated Press. Milwaukee selected Mayes in the second round of the NBA draft and he averaged 4.0 and 3.1 rebounds in two NBA seasons. Furman inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 1983.
DAVID HORTON: David Horton coached baseball at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High for 45 years and owns the most wins by a high school baseball coach in the country (840-251). His teams tied a national record of eight consecutive state titles from 1974-81 and posted additional titles in 1986, ’92, ’94, ’95, ’08 and ’09. Coach Horton’s teams also won four Lower State crowns (1982, ’05, ’07 and ’10). He was named the state coach of the year in 1979 and ’82, and served as the 1985 South Head Coach in the state’s first all-star game. He was the American Baseball Coaches Association National Coach of the Year in 1997 and the 1993 National High School Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year. He was recognized as South Carolina High School Sports Report’s Statewide Coach of the Year in 1992, ’95 and ’08, and was later honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the publication. Horton was honored with the Region III Coach of the Year honors by the NHSAC in 1987, ’93 and ’97 while The Greenville News also recognized him as their coach of the year in 1986 and ’92.
