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BLUE RAIDER HALL OF FAME
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    • Jimmy Earle

    Inducted: 1980
    Sports: Baseball, Basketball, Golf Coach, Athletic Director, Athletic Administration

    Jimmy Earle took MT basketball to the next level in the 1970s and also put his mark on its baseball team in the 1960s. His 164-103 basketball record included OVC championships, trips to NCAA tournaments and eight winning seasons. In 1968, as head baseball coach, his team won the OVC championship. He is the only MT coach to win Coach of the Year in two sports. From 1982-86, he also was head golf coach and was assistant athletic director in the 1980s.

    As sports chairman for the Partners of the Americas in 1978, he helped promote athletic competition in South America. In 1980, he worked with the Central Basketball Officiating Service Agency supervising officials in the Atlantic Coast and now defunct Southwest conferences.

    Named an MT Distinguished Alumnus in 1979, he was recipient of the Tennessee Community College Achievement Award in 1984.

    Class of 2012

    Mike Caldwell
    Football

    Diane Cummings Turnham
    Athletic Administration

    Harry Gupton
    Basketball, Baseball

    Tawanya Mucker Wilson
    Basketball

    Jayhawk Owens
    Baseball

    History of the Hall of Fame

    In the early spring of 1975, a pair of long-time supporters of Middle Tennessee State University's athletic program decided that the University should honor its greatest athletes. Homer Pittard, alumni director, and Gene Sloan, public relations director, came up with the idea and asked sports information director Jim Freeman to join them in setting up an athletic hall of fame.

    After getting approval for the Hall of Fame from President M. G. Scarlett, the trio began laying the groundwork to select the first inductees. Others, including Bob Womack and Joe Nunley, were also involved.

    "We decided not to have categories but to put all candidates in one group," said Freeman. "We also decided against inducting a large group to start with and felt that three per year was the ideal number. That way, everyone got a good share of the spotlight."

    The nominating and voting for the first several years was done by members of the old "T" Club, now reorganized and called the Varsity Club. Nominations were solicited, and the the list of candidates was mailed to the voters. They selected Horace Jones, Charles "Bubber" Murphy and Teddy Morris as the initial inductees in 1976.

    The Blue Raider Hall of Fame was originally housed in the old Blue Raider Room under the west side of the football stadium. It had to be torn down when then stadium was expanded in 1998. After several years without a home, the Hall of Fame moved into the new Rose and Emmett Kennon Sports Hall of Fame building in 2004.