NC Sports Hall of Fame reveals its 2025 class. Here are its newest members
The N.C. Sports Hall of Fame’s newest group of inductees includes a former UNC and NFL football player, an Olympic swimmer from N.C. State and the man who helped put the Durham Bulls on a national stage.
The hall announced its class of 2025 on Tuesday, with the 11-person class including former Tar Heel Greg Ellis, former Wolfpack swimmer Cullen Jones and sports executive Miles Wolff, who bought the Durham Bulls in 1980 and was later involved at the ownership level for teams in Asheville and Burlington.
“The Class of 2025 of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is wonderfully diverse, just like the sports landscape of this great state,” said Rick Webb, president of the hall’s Board of Directors. “Trailblazers, icons, and luminaries, from the high school ranks to the professional circuits, there is so much history encapsulated within these eleven inductees, all of whom contributed to the sports culture of North Carolina.”
In addition to Ellis, Jones and Wolff, the class also includes Nora Lynn Finch, Rollie Geiger, David Gentry, Dale Inman, Bobby Isaac, Chester McGlockton, Wendy Palmer and Jimmy Raye.
The NC Sports Hall’s 61st induction ceremony is scheduled for May 2 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel’s Joseph S. Koury Convention Center, starting at 5 p.m. The inclusion of this class will bring the number of enshrinees to 421.
Here’s a look at all 11 new NC hall of famers:
Greg Ellis, football, UNC
UNC’s all-time sack leader (32.5) and a first-team all-American in 1997, Ellis was selected with the 1998 NFL Draft’s No. 8 overall pick by the Dallas Cowboys. A Wendell native who played at East Wake High School, Ellis recorded 84 sacks in this 12-season NFL career. He made the 2007 Pro Bowl team. Ellis was a three-time, all-ACC pick with the Tar Heels.
Nora Lynn Finch, basketball, Henderson
After a 13-year coaching career that included stops at Wake Forest, Peace College and N.C. State, Finch was the ACC’s first female associate commissioner during a 47-year career as an administrator. From 1981-88, Finch was the inaugural chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee. A Henderson native, she won the 2007 Billie Jean King Lifetime Achievement Award, given by the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Rollie Geiger, cross country, N.C. State
The Wolfpack’s men’s cross country coach since 1982, Geiger also coached the school’s women’s cross country team (1981-2004) in addition to men’s track and field (1984-2023) and women’s track and field (1981-2004). He has led N.C. State to 40 ACC titles and he’s coached 24 NCAA individual, relay and team champions, as well as 250 individual ACC champs and 400 all-ACC performers. He’s won 34 ACC coach of the year honors.
David Gentry, football, Murphy
Gentry compiled 426 career coaching wins, including 366 while coaching Murphy High School to nine state championships. No coach has won more games at a single school. Gentry won 76.6% of his playoff games at Murphy, compiling an 82-25 record. Gentry was a four-sport athlete at Edneyville High School before playing college football at Elon.
Dale Inman, motorsports, Level Cross
A crew chief for seven of Richard Petty’s NASCAR Cup Series championships, Inman is credited with revolutionizing the crew chief position and for helping develop the driver-pit communication system. A 2012 NASCAR Hall of Famer, Inman was part of 193 wins, including seven Daytona 500 victories.
Bobby Isaac, motorsports, Catawba
Named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers in 2016 by the sport’s Hall of Fame, Isaac won 28 races among 61top five finishes during the 1969 and 1970 seasons. While winning 32 pole positions during that two-year stretch he set NASCAR’s single-season record with 19 poles in 1969. Prior to his death in 1977 at age 45, the Catawba native won the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series and logged 37 wins, 48 poles, and 134 top-five and 160 top-10 among his 308 Cup Series starts.
Cullen Jones, swimming, N.C. State
A 2006 NCAA champion in the 50 freestyle with the Wolfpack, Jones was a five-time ACC champion at N.C. State. As an Olympian competing in 2008 at Beijing and 2012 in London, Jones won four Olympic medals. His first medal was gold in 2008 and came in world record time in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay with Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak and Garrett Weber-Gale. Jones won three medals in London – silvers in the 50-meter freestyle and 4x100-meter freestyle relay, as well as a gold in the 4x100 meter medley relay after swimming the freestyle leg in the preliminaries.
Chester McGlockton, football, Whiteville
A second-team USA Today All-America at Whiteville High School, McGlockton returned nine interceptions for touchdowns during his high school career. He played three seasons at Clemson, where he was first-team, all-ACC in 1991. Drafted in the first round by the NFL’s Los Angeles Raiders in 1992, he played 12 NFL seasons. He made four consecutive Pro Bowls with the Raiders and was a 1995 All-Pro selection. McGlockton died in 2011 at age 42.
Wendy Palmer, basketball, Roxboro
A high school All-American in 1992 at Roxboro’s Person High School, Palmer played collegiately at Virginia where she remains the school’s all-time rebounding leader (1,221). The ACC’s player of the year in 1995 and 1996 when she was also a first-team all-American, Palmer was the first Virginia women’s basketball player to surpass 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. She played 11 years in the WNBA.
Jimmy Raye, football, Fayetteville
A two-time NCSHAA player of the year at Fayetteville’s E.E. Smith High School, he quarterbacked Michigan State for three seasons. He threw for 1,733 yards with 15 touchdowns and 18 Interceptions while rushing for 926 yards and nine touchdowns and was second-team, all-Big Ten in 1966. Raye played two seasons in the NFL before coaching 37 seasons in the league with 10 teams.
Miles Wolff, baseball, Durham
Bought the Durham Bulls in 1980 for $2,417 and helped revolutionize minor-league baseball. He met a Hollywood producer who developed the iconic baseball movie, Bull Durham, that made the Durham Bulls a household name nationwide. Wolff also worked in ownership for minor-league teams in Asheville and Burlington while also running Durham-based Baseball America magazine for 18 years.