The Nashville area has lost several famous athletes in 2022.
Here’s a look at some of the deceased who excelled at the professional, amateur, college, or high school level.
⋅ Billie Joe Adcock aged 94 (July 29)In 1946, Adcock became the first person to receive a Vanderbilt basketball scholarship after turning down offers from Tennessee and Kentucky. The former West High star was a four-year starter for the Commodores, a three-time Consensus All-American, All-SEC winner with more than 1,000 career points, Adcock named his SEC Legend , Vanderbilt inducted him into the Athletic Hall of Fame and Tennessee into the Sports Hall of Fame.
⋅ Jerry Balloo, 74 years old (Mar 5). Baloo was an outstanding athlete at Lytton High School who won the Tennessian Trackman of the Year in 1966 after being a state champion in the 100- and 200-yard dashes. He tied the state record with his 9.8 seconds on his 100. Ballou was also named to the All-City Baseball First Team and was the starting flanker for his football team. He was drafted by the San Francisco Giants.
⋅ Santonio Beard, 41 years old (Feb 5). After winning two Mr. Football Awards with Pearlcorn, Beard played running back for Alabama, totaling 1,541 yards and 16 touchdowns during the 2001 and 2002 seasons. The Tennessee named Beard one of his 50 greatest high school players of all time from Nashville.
⋅ Joe Biddle, aged 78 (October 26).Biddle spent over 30 years as Nashville’s most popular sports columnist and sports talk radio show host. He was a sports editor at Nashville He Banner (1979-98), then became a sports columnist for Tennessean until 2011. He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
⋅ Jerry Broadbent, 78 years old (Nov 23)In 1961, Glencliffe star Broadbent set a Nashville Interscholastic League record for longest run from scrimmage with a 99-yard rumper against the West. The following week he broke his record against Franklin County. Broadbent continued to play at his MTSU, then at Metro where he coached for 24 years.
⋅ John Bluhin, 57 years old (April 5).Bruin was an offensive lineman from Knoxville who chose Tennessee over Georgia, Kentucky and Memphis. He was the starting right guard for the 1985 team that defeated Miami in the Sugar Bowl, the 1986 team that defeated Minnesota in the Liberty Bowl, and the 1987 team that defeated Indiana in the Peach Bowl. Bruhin played his four seasons in the NFL with the Tampa Bay Bucks.
⋅ Mel Brown, 78 years old (February 8). Brown won 582 games as McGavock’s baseball coach from 1972 to 1992. This included his three state championships. He coached at his alma mater, Lipscomb University, from 1996 until his 2000s. Brown is inducted into the TSSAA and he’s the Lipscomb Athletics Hall of Fame.
⋅ Bob Bundy, 74 years old (Feb 21)As a 6-foot-9 high school prospect from Virginia, Bundy signed on with the former Vanderbilt basketball coach. Roy Skinner Replaced in 1965 Clyde Lee, a two-time SEC player of the year. Bundy went on to become one of the Commodores’ best players from 1967-69.
⋅ Mike Clark, 58 years old (July 12). A native of Greenbrier, Clark was a standout tight end in Middle Tennessee. After helping lead the Blue Raiders to his 11-3 record and his FCS (then Division I-AA) playoffs, in 1984 he made his team All-OVC .
⋅ Tommy Friendsly, 83 years old (March 30). Friendsley spent a total of 36 years as a men’s basketball coach in Nashville. Twenty-nine of those years he spent at Hillsborough and seven years at Donelson He Christian Academy. The record he compiled was 632-304. The Hillsboro court was named after Friendsly in 2007. He was at Hillsboro from his 1965 to his 1994. He won a total of 494 games and led the Barros to state competition in 1972, 1974 and 1979. He was in his hall first Hillsboro his sport. of fame class.
⋅ Joe Gaines, 72 years old (July 29)In 1969, Gaines became Belmont’s first black scholarship athlete when he began his career on the basketball team. The Mount Pleasant native made his three appearances in the All-Volunteers Athletic Conference. His 1,955 points in his career rank him 10th in program history. He owns his career record for rebounds (1,895) and set his one-game record of 30 against Lipscomb in 1971.
⋅ Rich Gardner, 65 years old (Feb 8). After being a four-time TSSAA State Track Champion in East Nashville, Gardner became an All-American with Tennessee in 1976. He set his NIL records in his 1974 with his 100-yard dash and 220-yard dash of 9.5 seconds. At 21.3, he won his 1973 and his 1974 Tennessian Trackman of the Year awards.
⋅ Milton Harris, 75 years old (April 23). Harris was ML King’s first men’s basketball coach. There he spent three years before becoming a TSU graduate coach at Pearlcorn, succeeding McGavock in 1993 and starting his career as an assistant. Harris was on McGavock’s staff when the Raiders won his 1976 state championship.
⋅ Dean Hayes, 84 years old (Jan 7)Hayes spent 57 years as a track and field coach at MTSU. He coached many All-American and Olympians from his 1965 to his 2021 years, including Blue in 1982. He was inducted into the Raiders Sports Hall of Fame, 1994 into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Championships in 2008. He was inducted into the Country He Coaches Hall of Fame. MTSU’s track and football stadium are named after Hayes.
⋅ Paul Hoolahan, 72 years old (Nov 16). After replacement Roy Kramer As Vanderbilt’s track and field director in 1990, Hoolahan ran the Admiralty program for six years.he hired Jerry Dinardo As Vandy’s football coach, January Van Breda Corff As a men’s basketball coach, Jim Foster as a women’s basketball coach. Hoolahan became Executive Her Director of Sugar Bowl when she retired in 1996, where she remained until her retirement in 2019.
⋅ Mark Howard, aged 65 (July 24)Howard was one of Nashville’s most popular sports personalities during his 20-year career on NewsChannel 5 and 21 years as co-host of WGFX-FM’s Morning Wake Up Zone. He also spent many years as the host of the Tennessee Titans’ post-game radio show and as the co-host of the Predators’ pre- and post-game shows.
⋅ EJ “Doc” Kreis, age 69 (Feb 9)Kreis was a highly respected strength and conditioning coach at Vanderbilt (1980-85) and MTSU (1985-92). He held the same position at Colorado (1993-2002) and he at UCLA (2003-08). In 1991-92 and 1994-95, Kreis was named the National Collegiate Strength Coach of the Year by the Association of Professional Football Strength and Conditioning Coaches. He is inducted into the US Strength and Conditioning Hall of Fame.
⋅ Larry Racewell, 85 years old (May 17). Racewell was the defensive coordinator for Tennessee’s 1990 SEC Championship football team that played in the Sugar Bowl. A native of Fordyce, Arkansas, he left his UT in 1991 for Dallas.He became a college director and professional scout for the Cowboys.
⋅ Ed Lambert, 73 years old (January 8). After arriving at Vanderbilt Jerry Dinardo After coaching the running backs in 1992, Lambert spent 10 years with the Commodores.he was promoted to offensive coordinator Woody Weidenhofer Early in his career, Lambert was a candidate for TSU Head Coach.
⋅ Larry Majors, 81 years old (Dec 5). Brother of legendary Tennessee football coach Johnny MajorsLarry Majors was an outstanding footballer to his father Shirley In Sewany (1960-63). He helped lead the Tigers to winning records in all four of his seasons. Majors then became a high school coach before joining his father’s staff at Sewanee (1970-77). He was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1966, and Sewanee in 2016. He was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame.
⋅ Roy McDonald, 92 years old (May 1)After 21 years as a baseball umpire at the college and high school level, McDonald was inducted into the Nashville Umpire Hall of Fame in 1993. The West High School alumnus has been selected to work in three NCAA Regional Tournaments, two he NAIA World Series, and five SEC Tournaments. He was the first Nashville umpire to work in the NCAA Tournament.
⋅ Johnny Miller, aged 90 (Nov 14). After serving as Austin Pea’s athletics director (1978-84), Miller became the director of Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools. He was inducted into his TSSAA Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. He also served on the high school board for 18 years, served on the NCAA board for several years, and was recognized as one of the top 25 basketball officials in OVC history.
⋅ Denny Moore, aged 67 (July 13)Moore became the first MTSU baseball player to retire his jersey number (2). He was a center fielder with a career batting average of .351 (1976-77). At the end of his career, Moore owned school records for stolen bases in one season (26 in 1976) and career stolen bases (37).
⋅ Fred Picard, 83 years old (January 1). Picard set a record for five touchdowns in his senior season at Columbia Central and played for Florida State University, where he set a career rushing yards record with 1,546 yards. He joined UT Martin’s coaching staff as an assistant in 1975. George McIntyre staff. In 1982, Picard was replaced Rin Amedee He coached UT Martin until 1985.
⋅ Kenny Sidwell, 86 years old (December 25). Sidwell became the Belmont men’s basketball and baseball coach in 1962. After two seasons, he spent his five years as a basketball coach at his alma mater, Tennessee Tech. He returned to Belmont in his 1972 for his second stint as basketball coach. In the early 1990s, Sidwell helped the school transition from his NAIA in 1996 to NCAA Division I, becoming Belmont’s first full-time athletic director.
⋅ Fred Valentine, 87 years old (December 27). After playing soccer and baseball for TSU, Valentine left after his junior year to sign with the Baltimore Orioles in 1956.
⋅ Angelo Volpe, 83 years old (May 8). A former president of the Tennessee Institute of Technology, Volpe was inducted into the Golden Eagles Sports Hall of Fame in 2006 and the OVC Hall of Fame in 2001. During his tenure (1987 to his 2000), Volpe added women’s soccer and built his team of school golf from scratch. An annual program he promoted to his three-time conference champion and revived the women’s track and field team for the first time in 12 years.
⋅ Steve White, 48 years old (August 31). A native of Memphis, White played on the defensive line for the Tennessee Bolds (1992-95) before spending seven seasons in the NFL, playing for the Tampa Bay and New York Jets. In 94 NFL games, White had 119 tackles and 11.5 sacks.
⋅ Jimmy Williams, aged 43 (July 7)After transitioning from running back to cornerback, Williams became one of the greatest defensive players in Vanderbilt history. A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2000 he was named All-SEC First on his team, and in May he was named the Commodore’s greatest player in the past 100 years, based on fan voting, in his 100. He was chosen as one of the people. In his 2013 he was named an SEC Football Legend. Williams spent his seven seasons in the NFL.
⋅ Peggy Williams, 98 years old (May 9). After graduating from Pearl High, Williams became a member of the first TSU women’s track and field team. She was one of seven women who put up a sign that said “all girls are welcome” and called for shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes to come to tryouts. For the next 39 years, Williams worked at TSU as an Associate Professor of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
For Midstate Chatter items, contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.
