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BLUE RAIDER HALL OF FAME
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    • Tommy Haynes

    Inducted: 1988
    Sports: Track and Field

    Versatility and a competitive spirit marked Tommy Haynes' long and illustrious career as a jumper on MT's track and field teams. He arrived from high school already long-jumping 22-23 feet. With help from MT track and field Coach Dean Hayes, he lengthened that mark to 25' 11" in his freshman year. In his sophomore year, he added the triple jump, coming within two inches of qualifying for the NCAA Nationals.

    Haynes went on to win both the long jump and triple jump championships in the OVC and was a three-time All-American. In 1975, he set an American record in the triple jump of 56' 5-1/4" in the Pan-American Games in Mexico City. He was captain of the U.S. Olympic team at Montreal in 1976. While at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he coached the track team to a 55-3-1 record.

    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.