Brunson heads diverse BCAHOF class
Before Doyle Brunson became one of the most recognizable names in professional poker, he made his mark as a high school and college athlete.
A standout basketball and track athlete at Sweetwater and Hardin-Simmons, Brunson was among a diverse 12-member class that will be inducted into the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame. The honorees were announced Wednesday at a news conference at the Hall's display in the Abilene Independent School District Administration Building. The group includes two state championship-winning football coaches, track and field athletes, boxers and multisport standouts, according to BCAHOF chairman Al Pickett.
"It's absolutely amazing and we still have well over a hundred names of people we're trying to figure out who to put in," Pickett said. "There was a very close vote this year.
"I think the thing about this year's class is how diverse it is. We have boxers, track start, three-sport standouts, a poker player. We've never had one of those before. It's a really diverse class."
This year's induction class includes Larry Wartes, who helped Stamford reach four state football finals in five years as an assistant and head coach; Steve Lineweaver, an Abilene High graduate, who won four state football titles as coach at Commerce and Euless Trinity; Mary Bolden-Washington, who won 12 state track gold medals at Hamlin and later competed for the University of Texas; Jimmy Carmichael, who quarterbacked Brownwood to two state titles and later played at Texas Tech; Trey Forkerway, a three-sport star at Abilene High, who is now a regional scouting supervisor for the Chicago Cubs, and former Taylor County commissioner Jack Turner, who had a successful Golden Gloves career as a flyweight.
This year's Legacy Award goes to the Parris family of Abilene. Rickey Parris won four NAIA national pole vault championships at McMurry in the 1970s. His son, Brad, won five NCAA Division III pole vault crowns and is now McMurry's head track and field coach.
The Bill Hart Memorial Legends Award, for those who competed before 1950, will go to Hamlin's Charles Norris Shira and Haskell's Lon McMillin. Shira played football at Texas A&M and West Point before coaching at Tennessee and Texas. He was head coach and athletic director at Mississippi State when he died of a cerebral hermorrhage in 1976 at the age of 49. McMillin was a football and track standout at Haskell and won the state Golden Gloves lightweight title in 1938.
The class will he honored at the induction banquet on May 1 at the Abilene Convention Center. Banquet tickets are on sale, costing $65 for individuals. Tables of 10 are $800 and include the VIP reception before the banquet. Tickets can be purchased online at bigcountryhalloffame.org or by calling 325-668-3685. Proceeds from the banquet support college scholarships. Twelve $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to graduating student-athletes from the 19 counties in the Big Country.
Brunson, who won the World Series of Poker Main Event in 1976 and 1977, first made his mark in 1950 at Sweetwater. He led the Mustangs to the Class 2A state basketball tournament, where Sweetwater defeated Texas City in the quarterfinals before losing to eventual state champ Corpus Christi. Brunson was the second highest scorer in the tournament with 49 points in two games. That spring, in addition to playing baseball, he won the Class 2A state title in the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 38.1 seconds.
At HSU, Brunson was named Border Conference MVP as a junior after scoring 428 points in 28 games (15.3 points per game) and leading the Cowboys to the NCAA tournament. A broken leg in the summer before his senior year ended his hopes of a professional career.
"I spoke to the Rotary Club (on Tuesday) and mentioned Doyle Brunson, the poker player," Pickett said. "They all knew who he was. I said he's from Sweetwater, and they all went, 'Really?' It's amazing who is from the area.
"And the thing about Doyle Brunson is he was an amazing athlete. He was a Border Conference player of the year in basketball. He was a mile state champion in track. He led Sweetwater to the state tournament in basketball. He probably could have got in on that alone, but he's certainly a lot more famous doing what he's doing now. Everybody knows the cowboy hat on the poker on ESPN."
