fBy Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — After four meetings, the final vote for the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame Class of 2026 was taken last week.
It’s an interesting class, heavy on hoops and with plenty of life experience. Two electees are in their 80s and another will reach 80 before he’s inducted. Two more are in their 70s.
Nine individuals and one team were elected.
Five of the new Hall of Famers were exceptional athletes who graduated from Rowan County high schools before achieving considerable success beyond high school. Two were outstanding high school coaches, institutions at their respective schools.
The high school coaches elected were North Rowan football coach Roger Secreast (1988-2001) and South Rowan boys basketball coach Bobby Parker (1983-1999).
Athletes elected were Wade Moore (West Rowan, Class of 2006), Hillary Hampton (West Rowan, Class of 2024), Larry Dixon (North Rowan, Class of 1990), Sheldon “Skip” Shipman (Salisbury, Class of 1972) and Damien Argrett (South Rowan, Class of 2000).
There also are two annual inductees for contributions to sports in Rowan County. They enter the Hall as recipients of the Fred Evans Community Service Award and the Horace Billings Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2025, the Hall also began recognizing one very special team from the hundreds of great teams that have represented Rowan County.
When they are inducted in ceremonies at 3 p.m. on Aug. 8 at the Salisbury Civic Center, the Hall’s membership will swell to 175.
The Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame was started in 2001. This is the 26th year, but the 24th induction class. There were no inductions in 2020 or 2021. There were no meetings due to the COVID pandemic.
Charles “Buddy” Poole, long-time broadcaster of Rowan sporting events, is this year’s Horace Billing Award winner. Poole has been part of the radio landscape for more than 60 years now and was a familiar, friendly voice on the broadcasts for Rowan County American Legion, Catawba and high school sports.
A volunteer coach who has meant a lot to a lot of young ball players, William “Willie” Noles is the Fred Evans Community Service Award winner. Noles is a
legend at the Eighth Street Ballpark in Spencer. The main field was named Sparger-Noles Field in 2022 to honor Noles and Phip Sparger. Noles began coaching in Spencer back in the 1960s.
Parker coached 182 varsity boys basketball wins at South. He’s eighth on the all-time wins list for the county. That was an achievement. as almost of his seasons were spent coaching in the 4A ranks and competing with Winston-Salem schools. Parker was an assistant football coach during’s South best days on the gridiron, and he had a 25-year run as a broadcaster after that.
Secreast is famed for bringing “The Airport” to the Cavaliers in the 1990s. North’s passing game was well ahead of its time.
The Cavaliers were 108-59 during Secreast’s head-coaching tenure. The Cavaliers were regional champs and 3A state runners-up in 1992. They won 12 games in 1992 and in 1994 when they reached the 2A quarterfinals. They also made the quarterfinals in 2000 and 2001.
Moore was an outstanding football player as well as a standout two-way baseball player for the Falcons and Rowan County American Legion.
Moore rushed for 4,256 yards for West and scored 54 TDs in three varsity seasons as an I-formation tailback. Those were school and county records, but KP Parks arrived at West just a few months after Moore graduated.
Moore was recruited by UNC and NC State as a baseball outfielder before choosing the Wolfpack. He returned home for his senior year and put up huge numbers for Catawba. He made All-America teams.
Moore was a draft pick and played pro baseball for several years. After baseball, he found NASCAR. He was part of the winning pit crew at Daytona this year.
Hampton scored over 1,800 points for West Rowan basketball and was the program’s all-time leading scorer when she graduated. She was a Rowan County Basketball Player of the Year.
On the softball field, she was a big part of West’s back-to-back 3A state championships in 2002 and 2003.
Hampton also played volleyball well in high school. She was honored 17 times as all-county or all-conference.
Hampton played four years of college basketball at Catawba and two years of softball. She had a night where she went 6-for-6 on 3-pointers to enter the Catawba record book.
Shipman was a standout on the Boyden basketball team of 1970-71 and the first team that played as the Salisbury Hornets in 1971-72.
He was the point guard for the 1971 team, a famous squad that beat undefeated Crest, led by David Thompson, in the WNCHSAA championship game played at Catawba.
As a senior, Shipman led the 1972 Hornets to a 25-2 season. He was Rowan County and South Piedmont Conference Player of the Year.
He had plenty of success in the sixth-man role for the UNC Charlotte 49ers during his college career. He set program records for double-figure games off the bench that still stand.
Dixon was a basketbal standout for North, averaging better than 20 points per game as a senior in 1990.
Dixon got an opportunity to play college ball at Johnson C Smith and became a major factor for the Golden Bulls. He won awards such as Most Improved Player and Best Defensive Player.
Dixon went into high school coaching before taking a leap of faith and a pay cut to enter the college ranks at St. Andrews. That led to a long journey as a Division I assistant coach with stops at South Florida, Georgia Southern, Winthrop, East Carolina and South Carolina State.
Dixon was on the staff for the NC State team that made a run to the Final Four in 2024. He got his first chance as a head coach this past season at Division II Morehouse in Atlanta and had tremendous success. He was honored with a number of post-season accolades.
Argrett was a late-blooming, late-growing post man, who suddenly burst on the scene at South Rowan as a senior in the 1999-2000 season.
He starred for the Raiders, including a 40-point, 22-rebound game against Northwest Cabarrus.
He continued to improve and was a devastating player at 6-foot-8 for the Pfeiffer Falcons, shooting 62 percent for his career when they were among the country’s top D-II programs.
Argrett scored over 1,500 points for Pfeiffer. He was a conference tournament MVP and a 2005 All-America.
He added success in pro ball overseas. He averaged 20 points and 7 rebounds and was named MVP of his league in the Czech Republic.
The honored team for this year will be the 1955 Salisbury Legion team that Tom Eaton’s left arm and the power of China Grove’s Richard Snider and Granite Quarry’s Virgil Bernhardt propelled all the way to the World Series in Minnesota. That team, coached by the great Joe Ferebee, made Legion baseball a popular summer staple in Rowan County.
The Hall’s membership includes 37 men who were elected as coaches/ADs and another 30 men and women who have received the Billings Award or Evans Award as contributors to sports or public servants. As far as those elected as athletes, 88 males have been elected and 20 females.
Thirty-five coaches and athletes have been elected primarily for what they did on the football field. Next are men’s basketball (22), baseball (17) and women’s basketball (13).
The criteria: “The Salisbury-Rowan Sports Hall of Fame was created in 2001 to honor individuals, living or deceased, who are native to, or have worked or performed in Rowan County. The inductees must be of good character, have made significant contributions to the dimension of sports by their participation and performance and have made a positive impact on sports locally, regionally, nationally or internationally.”
“Worked or performed in Rowan County” has included college coaching fixtures such as Jim Gantt, but it has not included Catawba or Livingstone athletes who came to Rowan for a four-year stay and then moved on. Even Dwight Durante and Ben Coates are not in the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame always has taken the position that Catawba and Livingstone already have their own halls of fame.
Many sports — golf, soccer, wrestling, tennis, swimming, volleyball, softball, to name a few — are drastically under-represented in the Hall.
The 1970s appear to be the most under-represented time period.
