Richard Huntley proved a teacher wrong and is now in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
GREENSBORO - Richard Huntley was determined to escape his hometown of Monroe, especially since those who tried to leave came back without realizing their dream.
"I just wanted to have one story, and that was not the what-if story," said Huntley, the former Winston-Salem State running back who eclipsed the 6,000-yard rushing mark and is one of four Triad-area athletes inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on Friday in Greensboro.
"I did not want to be that guy that came back home and said, 'If I had did this, if I had did that," Huntley said at a news conference on Thursday at First Horizon Coliseum. "For me, I didn't want to disappoint two people: my uncle, who couldn't be here and I wanted him to be here so much, and my mama. She couldn't be here. She just had back surgery. I told her it's OK. I'll just go represent the whole family."
He also had a fourth-grade teacher who told him he wouldn't amount to much.
"I had to prove her wrong. Not me. I had to prove her wrong," Huntley said. "So this whole time as a young fella, I'm sitting here thinking, 'How can I prove this to myself?' I just started working hard at everything I wanted to do."
It's fair to say Huntley surely made his uncle and his mother proud and proved that teacher wrong.
Huntley rushed for 6,286 yards at Winston-Salem State, tops all time in the CIAA and 12th in NCAA Division II. He scored 57 rushing touchdowns, 16 more than any other player in CIAA history. Huntley also holds the league's career mark in scoring with 368 points. He ranked first nationally in rushing yards per game (188.9) as a senior and earned first team Division II All-America honors. Atlanta picked him in the fourth round of the 1996 draft, and he went on to play six years in the NFL.
A career choice
John Isner is a Greensboro native and Page High School graduate who excelled at basketball as well as tennis, but there came a time as a teenager when he had to decide which fork in the sports road he would take.
"When I was about 14, I was playing tennis and hoops. It became really hard for me to play both of them because I was playing both of them at a pretty high level and I had to give one sport up," Isner said. "My dad will not admit this, but I'm pretty certain he wanted me to stick with basketball. My mom wanted me to stick with tennis.
"For whatever reason, I decided to go with tennis. If someone would have told me at 14 I was going to be 6-foot-11, I think I would have stuck with basketball."
Isner said he never stopped growing, but he also said he managed to avoid injuries to help his development. He determined that, at 14, he wanted to find a college where he could play tennis. He had the ranking to back up his dream, and he went to the University of Georgia. It was during his junior year in Athens that Isner's career goal became clear.
"I knew that I didn't want to work a normal job, and so I wanted to try to do this professional tennis thing," he said. "Fortunately for me, it worked out."
Isner had a powerful serve that produced an ATP-leading 14,411 career aces. He was the top-ranked U.S. tennis player for eight years and ranked among the top 20 in the world for 10 straight seasons. Isner finished his career with 16 titles and more than $22 million in earnings.
He won the longest match in tennis history when he beat France's Nicolas Mahut in 11 hours and 5 minutes in a match played over three days at Wimbledon in 2010. Isner also was a 2012 Olympian who played in 17 straight U.S. Opens and retired after losing a five-set super tiebreaker in the second round at Flushing Meadows in 2023.
Two of a kind
It was eight years ago that speed skater and Greensboro native Joey Cheek was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. This week, the hall introduced another speed skater in High Point native Heather Bergsma.
Bergsma started her athletic career as an in-line skater, but within two months of switching to ice, she was on the World Cup circuit.
She competed in three Olympics, earning a bronze medal in team pursuit at the 2018 Winter Games. In addition, Bergsma won 88 World Cup speed skating medals, including 34 gold, and was a four-time world champion in her specialty, the 1,000 meters. She also won the world title in the 1,500 meters in 2017. She held four world records during her career.
"My 9-year-old self could have never imagined skating around in circles would take me to the places that it has," she said. "And I'm just really grateful for this opportunity.
"Twenty years ago, I watched Joey Cheek ... get his gold medal. I was the little girl running around with his Wheaties box wanting to be like him," she said.
The pitch instead of pitching
Eddie Pope, also from High Point, said he grew up playing football, basketball and baseball. Soccer attracted him, but it led to curiosity.
"When you say you play soccer, people look at you sideways, especially in the late '70s, early '80s, '90s," Pope said. "Especially if you're an African-American to be playing soccer."
Pope said what people didn't realize is that soccer is the most popular sport in the world. He said the sport took a hit in the U.S., "but we're getting there," and he thinks the World Cup will help advance the sport in this country.
"Hopefully, we'll have some future stars here, and we'll get our third World Cup in this country," he said.
Pope played soccer and football at Southwest Guilford High School and kicked a career-best 48-yard field goal before turning to soccer when he attended UNC-Chapel Hill. While there, he was a two-time first-team All-ACC performer in 1994 and 1995 and first-team All-America in 1994.
In 1996, Pope was the No. 2 pick overall by DC United in the MLS Draft, scoring the game-winner in overtime as United beat the LA Galaxy for the first MLS Cup title. He was the 1997 MLS Defensive Player of the Year and a five-time MLS All-Star. Pope currently works as the sporting director for the MLS Next Carolina Core in his hometown.
Isner told the audience that his kids were going to pursue basketball. Pope had a suggestion.
"John, let your kids play soccer and not basketball," Pope said. "We need some goalkeepers."
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