Katie Smith Davis

Katie Smith Davis was an exceptional volleyball player at Northwest Guilford High School while also being an accomplished basketball player. She was named Conference Player of the Year in volleyball in 2000 and 2001, helped the Vikings win three conference titles, and advance to the state playoffs four times. Davis played Junior Olympic volleyball for four years and was named all-tournament in the USA Volleyball Summer Classic, helping lead her team to a gold medal in Hawaii in 2001. Davis continued her stellar career at Greensboro College where she was a four-time 1st team All-Conference choice, a two-time coaches’ All-America selection in 2004 and 2005, and winner of multiple other awards. She holds numerous volleyball records at Greensboro College and in the USA South Atlantic Conference. Davis was inducted into the Greensboro College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012 and the USA South Atlantic Conference Hall of Fame in 2018.

Mark Dixon

Growing up in Jamestown, NC, Mark Dixon attended Ragsdale High School and was a standout in football as well as basketball, which he said was really his favorite sport. He earned All-Conference honors as an offensive lineman and played in the North Carolina East-West All-Star game in 1989. Dixon was awarded an athletics scholarship to the University of Virginia, where he went on to become an All-ACC player in 1992 (2nd team) and 1993 (1st team), win the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the nation’s top lineman in 1993, and to be named to the 1993 All-America 1st team. With injuries setting him back, he was not drafted by an NFL team so Dixon played between 1994-1997 in NFL Europe and in the Canadian Football League. The Miami Dolphins signed him as a free agent at age 28 and, over the next five years playing either guard or tackle, he played in 62 games, starting in 60 of them. Dixon is currently the head football and basketball coach at Galax (VA) High School where he guided the football team to its first state championship in 2015.

Glenn Ford

(1957-2016)

The late Glenn Ford is still regarded as one of Guilford County’s great running backs while also starring in baseball, earning All-Conference honors and pitching a no-hitter in 1978. Ford was named City Offensive Player of the Year in 1976 and 1977 while playing at Greensboro’s Grimsley High School.  He was also named Conference Player of the Year as a senior in 1977 after leading the Whirlies to their first state playoff berth in ten years. Ford earned All-State honors, played in the NC-SC Shrine Bowl, and was named to the 1977 Parade All-America Team. He began his collegiate career at the University of Tennessee before transferring to Lenoir-Rhyne College. During his one season at Lenoir-Rhyne in 1983, Ford rushed for 1,093 yards and was named first-team All-South Atlantic Conference as well as second-team NAIA All-America. Selected in the 1984 United States Football League draft, Ford played two seasons. In 28 games with the Chicago Blitz and Memphis Showboats, he rushed for 433 yards, caught 27 passes for 315 yards, and scored four touchdowns.

JOe Inman jr.

Joe Inman Jr. had the fortune to be coached in golf by two legends, Bob Jamieson at Greensboro Grimsley High School and Jesse Haddock at Wake Forest University. During his career at Grimsley, he was a key member of 4-A state championship teams in 1963, 1964, and 1965. Inman walked on to the team at Wake Forest and played on three ACC championship teams in 1968, 1969, and 1970. He finished 3rd in the 1968 NCAA National Championship and was named to the All-America team in 1969. Inman won several amateur titles including the Carolinas Junior Amateur in 1965 and the NC Amateur in 1970. He played on the PGA tour between 1974-1986, winning the 1976 Kemper Open while playing in 24 majors during his career with his highest finish being 9th in the 1978 Masters. On the Champions Tour, he was Rookie of the Year in 1998 and won three events in his career. As a coach at Georgia State University, Inman led his team to four NCAA regional appearances and one NCAA championship appearance in 2014. He was voted Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2017. Inman was inducted into the Wake Forest Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.

robert linville

When it comes to golf, Robert Linville has excelled as a player, coach, and instructor. At Northwest Guilford High School he was all-conference three times and, at Guilford College, he was all-conference four times and was an NAIA All-America in 1979. Linville coached at Greensboro College from 1993-2007 when he led the Pride to eight top-five finishes and won the NCAA Division III national championship in 2000. He was USA South Coach of the Year three times and NCAA National Coach of the Year twice. Linville coached the victorious USA national collegiate team all-stars against Japan in 2000 and 2006. He founded the Precision Golf School in 1989 and co-founded the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour in 2007. Named a Carolinas PGA Teacher of the Year and Golf Digest Top Teacher in NC, his students have competed on the PGA, LPGA, and PGA Champions Tours.  Linville has been inducted into the Guilford College (1993), Greensboro College (2008), and USA South Atlantic Conference (2013) Halls of Fame.

Michael porter

His football jersey number being retired by Greensboro’s Ben L. Smith High School in 1998 and the field house at Smith being named in his honor in 2018 show the impact that Michael Porter has had on the school. After earning All-State honors in football and baseball and setting high school records that still stand, Michael Porter became the first African-American player from Guilford County to play in the NC East-West All-Star Football game as well as the North-South Shrine Bowl in 1968. He went on to star at Lenoir-Rhyne College, totaling 20 career touchdowns and excelling as a kick return specialist with a school-record 702 combined punt return yards, including a 96-yard run-back for a touchdown in 1969. He also played baseball at the intercollegiate level. After college, Porter served two years in the United States Marine Corps before resuming a 30-year career as a teacher and coach. He spent the final twenty-three years of his career at Smith High School, beginning in 1975, where he coached football, basketball, and baseball while teaching physical education.

David “Junior” Robinson

(1968-1995)

The embodiment of a natural athlete, David “Junior” Robinson left a lasting impression at High Point’s Andrews High School. The three-sport star capped his high school football career by totaling more than 2,500 total offensive yards, scoring 23 touchdowns, and starring for North Carolina in the 1985 Shrine Bowl. Robinson continued his stellar senior year by averaging 18 points per game in basketball and running on the Andrews’ record-setting 400-meter relay state championship team. At East Carolina University he was a three-year starter in the secondary and was named second team All-American in 1989. Selected by the New England Patriots in the fifth round of the NFL draft, Robinson appeared in all 16 regular-season games as a rookie. When his life was tragically cut short by an automobile accident in 1995, he was still in the midst of a successful professional football career that included stints in both the World League of American Football and the Canadian Football League. Robinson was inducted into the Andrews High School Hall of Fame in 2015.

Billy Sorrell

Although he was an excellent football player at High Point’s Andrews High School as a member of the 4-A state championship team in 1972 and played in the NC East-West All-Star game, Billy Sorrell made his strongest mark in the sport of baseball. He was a three-time all-conference selection and was twice named all-state. He had a two-year pitching ERA of 0.70 and, in 1973, also posted a .450 batting average. Although drafted by the Cleveland Indians after high school, he chose to attend High Point College. With the Panthers, Sorrell compiled a 39-11 career record as a pitcher, was an all-Carolinas Conference selection in 1975, 1976, and 1977, and was named to the NAIA All-District 26 team in 1976 and 1977 as well as the NAIA All-Area team. During his career, the Panthers won three conference titles and advanced to the 1974 NAIA National Tournament. His 39 wins and 407 innings pitched are still school records. After graduation, he played one season in the New York Yankees farm system. Sorrell was inducted into the Andrews Hall of Fame in 2014 and the High Point University Athletics Hall of Fame in April 2019.

Mickie Tuttle

Gifted with teaching and coaching skills that transcended multiple sports, Mickie Tuttle helped blaze a trail for girls’ high school athletics in Guilford County. A basketball and track star at High Point’s Allen Jay High School, Tuttle went on to letter in three sports at High Point College before embarking on a teaching and coaching career at Western Guilford High School. Over the next two decades, she coached six sports, amassed more than 650 wins, 16 conference titles, and 12 Coach of the Year honors. She guided the Hornets’ 1977 girls’ track and field team to Western Guilford’s first state championship in any sport and led the volleyball team to district and sectional championships in 1989. Tuttle also coached boys’ tennis, going 26-6 in two seasons with one conference title. Tuttle is a member of the Graham (NC) Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the nationally-known Rubi-Otts softball team. The court at Western’s gymnasium was named in her honor in 2018. Tuttle has twice been inducted into the Western Guilford HS Hall of Fame, once in 2017 as coach of the state championship track and field team and again as an individual in 2019.  

Ronnie Coveleskie woodard

Soccer is a lifelong passion for Ronnie Coveleskie Woodard who honed her skills as an all-state athlete at High Point Central High School. As a three-year all-conference player, two-time Region Player of the Year, and being named an all-state selection in 1987 and 1988, Woodard was invited to the U.S. National Team Training Camp in 1988. She then became the first player awarded a soccer scholarship when Duke University began a women’s soccer team. A standout goalkeeper, she set marks that still rank among the program’s top ten in four categories. Woodard landed her first head coaching job at the College of Charleston in 1999 and moved to Vanderbilt University in 2001. During 11 seasons, she earned Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2005 and led teams to the NCAA National Tournament in 2005 and 2006. A holder of multiple National and Advanced Soccer Coaching Licenses, since 2012 she has coached and served as an administrator for the Tennessee Soccer Club, leading teams to the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship in 2016 and to state championships in four consecutive seasons. Woodard was named the NSCAA National Youth Coach of the Year in 2016 and inducted into the Tennessee Soccer Hall of Fame in 2017.