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BLUE RAIDER HALL OF FAME
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    • W. R. (Jack) Yearwood

    Inducted: 2006
    Sports: Football, Baseball

    Like many MT men in the World War II era, Jack Yearwood's first college year in 1942 was interrupted. Serving in the military from 1943-46, he was a POW and weighed just 115 pounds when he escaped German custody. After leaving the military, he returned to Blue Raider Football to play both offense and defense in 1946 and in the spring he held an outfield position on the baseball team. He was an all-conference performer in his last two years in football.

    Yearwood earned a master's degree and subsequently taught and coached in Tennessee and Florida. After retiring from coaching in 1974 and teaching in 1983, he kept his hand in the game by officiating at both basketball and baseball games in Florida.

    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.