Basketball, track and field, golf, football and baseball players are all represented in the first class to be selected for Vanderbilt’s new athletic hall of fame. A pair of administrators, a coach and a sportswriter will also go into the to-be-constructed hall of fame. Three of the honorees are graduates of the School of Engineering.
Vice Chancellor David Williams announced the class at the end of June during a news conference at McGugin Center. One of the hall of famers is Dan McGugin, legendary football coach and namesake of the building where the news conference was held.
The inductees will be honored Sept. 13 during a luncheon that will be part of the first Hall of Fame weekend at Vanderbilt. Williams said a hall of fame facility is planned to open during the fall of 2009. ”We’ve had great athletic achievements, but no hall of fame,” he said.
The hall of fame will be constructed using funds raised as part of a $16 million capital improvement campaign, one of the largest in Vanderbilt athletics history.
Engineering alumni in the inaugural class are:
John Hall
Football
1951-54
John Hall describes himself as an overachiever on and off the football field. The Knoxville, Tennessee native was an under-sized offensive lineman who became Vanderbilt’s first academic All-America in 1954, then enjoyed an enormously successful career that culminated as chairman and chief executive officer of Ashland, Inc., and president of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.
• 1954 football team co-captain and first academic All-America in school history
• 1955 graduates Magna Cum Laude with degree in chemical engineering
• Joined Ashland Oil in 1957
• Elected to a vice president in 1966
• Became president of Ashland Chemical Company in 1971
• Elected executive vice president of corporation in 1974
• Elected vice chairman of the board and chief operations officer in 1979
• Elected chairman of the board and chief executive officer in 1981
• Member of Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust
• President of Vanderbilt Board of Trust 1995
• Only Vanderbilt student-athlete elected to CoSIDA’s Academic Hall of Fame
Perry Wallace
Men’s Basketball
1966-1970
Perry Wallace would have become a premier Hall of Fame candidate even if he didn’t make Southeastern Conference history by becoming the SEC’s first African-American basketball player. Wallace was a star student-athlete who went on to an outstanding career in law and education.
• First African-American basketball scholarship athlete in Southeastern Conference history
• Jersey retired by Vanderbilt University in 2004, one of only three in school history
• Attended Nashville’s Pearl High School where he stared on undefeated state championship basketball team, the first year Tennessee integrated its high school tournament.
• Sought by approximately 80 universities, mostly located in the north
• Arrived on Vanderbilt’s campus in the fall of 1966
• Still is the school’s second leading rebounder and ranks 35th in scoring, playing just three years from 1968-70.
• Named all-Southeastern Conference his senior year
• Won the SEC Sportsmanship Trophy after a vote by the league players in 1970 and has been honored many times since leaving Vanderbilt.
• In 1996 the National Association of Basketball Coaches named him to its five-man Silver Anniversary All-America team.
• 2003 inductee into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
• 2004 “SEC Living Legend” honoree.
• Graduated from Vanderbilt with a bachelor of engineering degree in electrical engineering and engineering mathematics
• Earned his J.D. degree in 1975 from the School of Law at Columbia University.
• Professor of law at The American University in Washington, D.C. since 1991.
• On the faculty of the University of Baltimore and was an attorney with the United States Department of Justice.
• Also served as a legislative analyst for Mayor Walter Washington of the District of Columbia and was a field representative for the National Urban League.
Peggy Harmon Brady
Golf
1968-1972 B.E. Computer Science
She came to Vanderbilt after graduating from Central High School in Shelbyville, Tenn., in an era when there was no varsity athletics for women. Out of the blue her sophomore year, Director of Athletics Jess Neely called to invite her to represent Vanderbilt in the Intercollegiate. Perhaps Neely noticed she had won the United States Golf Association Junior Championship. While her pioneer story is inspiring, little did she realize that she was blazing a trail that her daughter, Chris, would follow decades later. They are the only mother-daughter All-Americans in school history.
• 1968 Enrolls at Vanderbilt after winning the USGA Junior championship
• 1969 Medalist at the Broadmoor Women’s Championship
• 1970 Receives surprise invitation from Athletic Director Jess Neely to represent Vanderbilt at the National Intercollegiate in Athens, Ga., where she placed third. (She was a one-person team)
• Named All-American by Women’s Golf magazine
• 1971 Medalist at the Intercollegiate, played at Singing Hills in San Diego
• 1972 Chose not to play in her third Intercollegiate “because I had a job waiting. If I had it to do over, I’d play in the tournament and let the job wait!”
• Won the Tennessee State Women’s Tournament several times and has won numerous club championships despite becoming a weekend player due to job and family commitments.
• Mother of Chris Brady, four-year star and All-America golfer at Vanderbilt under Coach Martha Freitag. Chris is currently playing professional golf.