Macon Sports Hall of Fame announces eight-member class

Eight individuals have been selected for induction into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame with the ceremonies to be held May 11 at the Macon Coliseum. Swimming, football, baseball, basketball and golf will be represented at this year’s event.

Swimmer Laura Conway is the second youngest inductee ever for the Macon Hall. Only Chris Hatcher was younger when he was inducted in 2001. Conway swam for Mount de Sales as a freshman before finishing high school at Central. She qualified for the Olympic trials while still in high school, and she went on to Georgia, where she was a five-time NCAA All-American and was a team captain as a senior. Conway is the only Maconite to swim for the United States national team. .

James Outlaw was a standout basketball player at Ballard-Hudson in the late-1960s, averaging 34 points per game as a senior, when he was named to the Parade Magazine All-America team. Following his high school playing days, Outlaw attended North Carolina A&T and was was a two-time all-conference selection for the Aggies. He holds the North Carolina A&T single-season scoring record.

Also representing basketball is Mercer head coach Bob Hoffman. The Oklahoma native, who just completed his ninth season with the Bears, is currently the program’s second all-time winningest head coach. He has a 179-130 record with the Bears. Included in those totals are wins over Power 5 conference members Duke, Alabama (twice), Auburn, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia Tech.

Eighty-six-year-old Robert Scott is the oldest member of this year’s class. He was a star pitcher for the New York Black Yankees and the Memphis Red Sox in the Negro Leagues in a career that spanned from 1946 until 1950. He signed with the Black Yankees at age 16. He had the opportunity to play in the major leagues after Jackie Robinson integrated the sport, but he never made the tryouts.

Lee Gerdes is one of the top amateur golfers in Georgia. He played at Mount de Sales before going on to Tennessee-Chattanooga on a golf scholarship and was the Southern Conference Tournament runner-up in 1987. Gerdes has won virtually every amateur championship in Middle Georgia during the past three decades, including the Peach Blossom Tournament championship, the Honors Championship, the Macon-Middle Georgia Championship and the Cherry Blossom Tournament championship, among others. He has more than 25 amateur titles to his credit.

Three individuals with football ties are also included in the group of eight. Tim Clifton, who enters his 25th season as head coach at Mars Hill in North Carolina, was a three-sport star at Stratford, helping the Eagles to state championships in football, basketball and baseball. He also started at second base for Mercer’s baseball team for four seasons. Clifton, who has a 130-123 head coaching record, also coached in the high school ranks for five seasons and in college at South Carolina, VMI, Fayetteville State and Ferrum.

Michael Brown, a bruising running back at Southwest, became the Patriots’ first 1,000-yard rusher during his final year when the team finished with an 8-2 record — the first of four eight-win seasons in program history. He then lettered three seasons for the Purdue Boilermakers from 1975 to 1977, averaging 5.9 yards per carry as a sophomore and 4.1 yards as the team’s starting tailback his senior season.

The final inductee is Central’s Tony Gilbert, who is now a defensive quality control coach at North Carolina. After an all-state senior season at Central, Gilbert was a three-year starter and All-SEC linebacker at Georgia, and he was the Bulldogs’ leading tackler his senior season. He played in the NFL for eight seasons after being drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the sixth round. He spent six seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars and two years with the Atlanta Falcons.

This story was originally published March 11, 2017 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Macon Sports Hall of Fame announces eight-member class."