Cullowhee, N.C. – A pair of people together with one former student-athlete and one head coach, in addition to one honored workforce comprise the 2022 induction class into Western Carolina’s Athletics Corridor of Fame, it was introduced this week. Skip Nelloms (Baseball, 1985-88), former head coach Steve Lott (Ladies’s Golf, 1998-2010), and the 1995-96 Catamount males’s basketball workforce comprise the thirty third class to be chosen by the WCU Athletics Corridor of Fame committee.
WCU’s 2022 Athletics Corridor of Fame weekend is scheduled for Nov. 18-19 surrounding the Catamounts’ dwelling soccer recreation towards Southern Convention opponent Chattanooga at 1 p.m. Full particulars of the weekend’s ceremonies might be made accessible nearer to the occasion.
Sylvester “Skip” Nelloms was a three-time, first-team All-Southern Convention choice on the baseball diamond for the Catamounts within the mid-Eighties, incomes all-conference plaudits as a chosen hitter in 1985 and as an outfielder in 1987 and 1988. He was part of four-consecutive Southern Convention championship squads, twice main the SoCon in runs batted in. Nelloms delivered 70 in 1987 – a mark that continues to rank tenth within the college’s single-season report books – and posted 69 RBI in 1988, tied for the Eleventh-most at WCU in a yr.
Nelloms performed in 214 profession video games for the Purple & Gold, ending with a profession batting common of .346, tied for twenty sixth in class historical past. Amongst his 264 profession hits, which continues to rank him tied for thirteenth in WCU’s report books, had been 46 doubles (t-Nineteenth), 9 triples (t-Sixth), and 47 dwelling runs, tied for the fifth-most by a Catamount all-time. He scored 192 profession runs, the Eleventh-most in program historical past whereas plating 212 to additionally rank fifth in program historical past in RBI.
Nelloms batted a career-best .367 throughout the 1986 season, posting 76 hits together with 13 doubles, three triples, and 11 dwelling runs together with a college single-game report 4 dwelling runs towards mountain-rival UNC Asheville. He completed with a program-best 17 complete bases within the win over the Bulldogs. Nelloms then batted .358 as a junior with 73 base knocks, legging out a career-high 16 doubles with a triple and 13 dwelling runs in 1987. He went on to earn NCAA Mid-East Regional All-Match workforce accolades in Starkville, Miss., after batting .500 over the 4 video games that included wins over Purdue and Mississippi State.
As a senior, Nelloms shared the title of male athlete of the yr at WCU with Earl Bates in 1988. He hit .355 with a career-best 81 hits that included a career-high 22 dwelling runs, the fourth-most by a Catamount baseball participant all time. Throughout his closing collegiate season, he was acknowledged nationally throughout a 15-game stretch the place he slugged 12 dwelling runs together with three towards nationally ranked Clemson and a pair towards a ranked South Carolina squad. Throughout his mid-season tear, he drove in 23 RBI on a .467 batting common.
Following his collegiate enjoying profession, Nelloms was drafted by the New York Yankees within the twenty second spherical of the 1988 MLB First-12 months Participant Draft. That very same yr, he was instrumental in successful the Penn League championship in his first yr as a Yankee. He spent three years within the Yankees’ farm system, enjoying for the Oneonta (N.Y.) Yankees within the New York-Penn League and two seasons in 1989 and 1990 with the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Yankees of the Florida State League. Over a mixed 274 profession skilled video games, Nelloms recorded 217 hits together with 34 doubles, 11 triples, and 9 dwelling runs as part of a .238 profession batting common, scoring 115 runs whereas driving in 114.
Nelloms was amongst seven Catamount baseball gamers to be chosen to the Southern Convention’s a centesimal Anniversary workforce in 2021. Among the many most ebullient sentiments in favor of Nelloms’ choice to WCU’s Athletics Corridor of Fame got here from his former head coach – and fellow Corridor of Famer – Jack Leggett who said, “Of all the good gamers I’ve coached, Skip (Nelloms) stands out. There isn’t a doubt in my thoughts that he belongs [in the Hall of Fame], and I solely want that this had occurred sooner.”
Initially from Decatur, Ga., Nelloms believed in being a real student-athlete throughout his time at WCU. He was the president of the “W” Membership, an lively member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., which sole function is “Achievement in each subject of human endeavor” and he obtained tutorial honors, such because the Ronnie G. Childress award for tutorial achievement. Upon his retirement from the diamond, Nelloms loved a profession in public schooling that spanned 30 years as an educator and administrator within the DeKalb Public Faculty System.
He’s at the moment married to his stunning spouse Dr. Sheila Nelloms, and so they have three youngsters Kalela, Sydney, and Myles.
Steve Lott served as the pinnacle girls’s golf coach from 1998 by way of 2010, including the title of Director of Golf to his ledger in January of 2004. He guided WCU girls’s golf to a pair of Southern Convention Ladies’s Golf Championships in each 2003 and 2007, advancing this system from the underside of the convention to the league title and this system’s solely two berths into the NCAA regional subject. Together with the 2 convention titles, Lott guided the Catamount girls’s golf program to 22 of its present 28 workforce championships between 2000 and 2010.
Lott recruited and coached WCU’s three SoCon Freshman of the 12 months picks – Line Cordes (2003), Brandy Andersen (2004), and Desiree Karlsson (2007) – with 10 of his girls’s golfers combining to gather a mixed 22 All-Southern Convention and SoCon All-Freshman plaudits throughout their WCU careers. Underneath his tutelage, 5 golfers earned SoCon Ladies’s Golfer of the Week honors a complete of eight instances with 5 additionally accumulating SoCon Golfer of the Month accolades a mixed 9 instances between 2003 and 2009. A complete of 14 of his golfers mixed to earn Ladies’s Golf Coaches Affiliation (WGCA) All-American Students recognition.
Lott was a three-time SoCon Ladies’s Golf Coach of the 12 months, accumulating plaudits from his friends in 2002, 2003, and 2006. He was beforehand enshrined within the WCU Athletics Corridor of Fame because the coach of the 2002-03 Catamount Ladies’s Golf workforce inducted again in 2014.
Since retiring from the full-time teaching position in 2010, Lott has remained lively with the ladies’s golf neighborhood, serving because the event director for the Southern Convention in addition to aiding each WCU and league members Wofford and The Citadel with internet hosting dwelling girls’s golf tournaments.
Initially from Blackville, S.C., Lott is married to Dr. Mickey Randolph.
The 1995-96 Western Carolina males’s basketball workforce at the moment stays the one workforce to have gained a Southern Convention event title and advance to the NCAA postseason event. The Catamounts claimed the 1996 SoCon South Divisional title after which gained three video games over three days in Greensboro, N.C., to dethrone league-favorite Davidson to say WCU’s first males’s basketball event title.
Chosen because the No. 16 seed within the West Area, the Catamounts drew three-time Large Ten champion and No. 4 total event seed Purdue at “The Pit” in Albuquerque, N.M. Regardless of a herculean effort and a purple-skewed crowd that was witnessing historical past within the making – dubbed as “Ramsey Middle West” by former Asheville Citizen-Instances sports activities editor Doug Mead – the Boilermakers edged the upset-minded Catamounts, 73-71.
After being edged by simply two factors within the championship recreation of the 1995 SoCon Males’s Basketball Championship, expectations had been excessive getting into the 1995-96 season. Nevertheless, the yr didn’t get off to a terrific begin a WCU dropped its first 5 video games – together with two in of all locations, Albuquerque, N. M., the place destiny would later see the Catamounts flirt with future.
The Catamounts caught hearth on the finish of January beginning with a highway win at Georgia Southern on Jan. 22. WCU gained 11 of its closing 13 regular-season video games together with a stretch-run of successful eight of its final 9, clinching the SoCon’s South Division Championship with a convincing 19-point win over archrival Appalachian State on the ultimate Monday of the common season and capping the very best second half of a hoops season in over twenty years.
The Catamounts drew the rival Mountaineers within the opening spherical of the SoCon event in its first yr in Greensboro, N.C., advancing with a 74-66 win over Appalachian State. Anquell McCollum struggled capturing however scored 16 factors with Kevin Kullum including 15 factors and Joel Fleming chipped in 14 factors and eight assists. Taking pictures woes weren’t an issue within the semifinal match-up towards VMI because the Catamounts scorched the nets for a season-best 57.1-percent capturing and McCollum scored 40 factors within the 97-93 victory over the Keydets to propel WCU into the title recreation for a second-straight season, incomes a date with the 25-4 Davidson Wildcats and their 19-game successful streak.
Western Carolina went on to defeat closely favored Davidson, 69-60, regardless of capturing simply 36 % from the sphere and committing 24 turnovers. The Catamounts crashed the glass, incomes a 51-to-39 edge in rebounds, and made eight of 12 free throws down the stretch to set off a celebration that spanned Interstate 40 from the Piedmont Triad to the mountains.
Incomes a No. 16 seed on Choice Sunday, the Catamounts returned to the place the season had begun – “The Pit” in New Mexico, web site of NC State’s historic nationwide title victory in 1983 – to face No. 1 seed, Purdue within the NCAA West Area. The Pit practically noticed one other bout of historical past.
Rallying from a seven-point deficit halfway by way of the second half, the in any other case see-saw affair stood tied 71-71 with lower than three minutes remaining in regulation after a McCollum 3-pointer. The Boilermakers’ Brandon Brantley scored the sport’s closing basket inside the ultimate 90 seconds to play on an offensive rebound stick-back and WCU’s closing makes an attempt within the waning seconds each fell quick. A blocked shot with 13 seconds remaining and a pair of missed photographs within the closing 11 seconds is all that stood between WCU and faculty basketball historical past. Guard Joel Fleming teed up a would-be game-winning 3-pointer from the highest of the important thing that rebounded lengthy the place Joe Stafford corralled the ball and his 12-foot try on the buzzer simply missed.
McCollum led the upset-minded Catamounts with 21 factors with Jarvis Graham scoring 14 and Kevin Kullum including 10. Fleming dished out 9 assists with out committing a turnover.
The roster of the 1996 Catamounts included 2010 WCU Athletics Corridor of Fame inductee Anquell McCollum, who collected each SoCon Participant of the 12 months and the SoCon Match Most Beneficial Participant honors on the way in which to the title. McCollum was amongst two seniors on the roster together with ahead Kevin Kullum. Six juniors included ahead Lazarus Channault, guard Ken Gibson, guard Larry Mayo, ahead Scott Scholtz, guard Joe Stafford, and heart Kerry Wright. Stafford obtained the Basketball Corridor of Fame’s Edward S. Steitz Award that season. The sophomores had been guard Joel Fleming and ahead Jarvis Graham, with freshman Joey Bryson.
WCU’s 1995-96 males’s basketball workforce was led by Phil Hopkins, who was in his first season as the pinnacle coach after serving as an assistant below Benny Dees. His assistant coaches had been Thad Matta, Orlando Early, and Brett Lamb. The help workers for the 1995-96 squad included Mike Hooper (Pisgah Forest, N.C.), Kirk Macemore (Pfafftown, N.C.), Alex Smith (Huntersville, N.C.), and Martin Unger (Richmond, Va.).
The 1995-96 Catamount males’s basketball workforce is the second males’s hoops squad to earn induction into WCU’s Athletics Corridor of Fame, becoming a member of the 1963 NAIA nationwide runner-up squad. Additionally it is the seventh workforce to earn induction into the Corridor all-time.
Based in 1990, the Western Carolina Athletics Corridor of Fame pays tribute to these superior Catamount athletes, coaches, directors, and alum who’ve made main contributions to the distinction and fame of WCU. Together with this yr’s induction class, the WCU has enshrined 128 people, six athletic groups, 11 Patron Award recipients, and two people acknowledged for profession achievements since its creation.
To be thought of for induction into the WCU Athletics Corridor of Fame, nominees should be submitted to the Corridor of Fame committee the place they’re saved on file for 5 years. Every spring, the committee convenes to vote upon an inventory of nominees which are authorized by the Corridor’s government committee, which vets these nominated towards the factors put forth by the committee’s structure. The suitable nomination kinds can be found on-line at CatamountSports.com.
