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Tate Selected To National Hall Of Fame
INDIANAPOLIS — Jim Tate, highly successful track coach at St. Paul’s Episcopal School, has been selected for induction into the 2013 class of the National High School Sports Hall of Fame in June.
He becomes the third inductee from the AHSAA ranks in the last three years, following Pat Sullivan as an athlete in 2012 and former AHSAA Executive Director Dan Washburn as an administrator in 2011.
Tate, who has won over 80 state championships in his fabled 34-year coaching career at the Mobile school, is being enshrined in a class that includes four individuals who excelled as high school athletes, including former Washington Redskins’ all-pro quarterback Joe Theismann, current Los Angeles Clippers’ guard Chauncey Billups, four-time Olympic gold medalist Harrison Dillard, and former Stanford volleyball-basketball standout Kristin Folkl Kaburakis.
Tate, after coaching stops in South Carolina and Georgia for nine years, joined St. Paul’s staff in 1978 and started the school’s boys track and cross country programs. Combining boys and girls cross country, boys and girls indoor track and boys and girls outdoor track, his teams have won an unbelievable 86 state championships. His girls cross country teams won 16 consecutive state titles from 1983 to 1998, an all-time national record.
“We are extremely proud of Coach Tate and excited about his selection,” said Steve Savarese, AHSAA Executive Director. “We thank him for his many years of service, first as an outstanding member of our military and later through his teaching and coaching. His accomplishments are many, but more important are the many young men and young women he has helped mold into outstanding adults through his dedication and service.”
Tate is one of five high school coaches, four athletes, two officials, one administrator and one in the performing arts to be inducted June 27 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center. The 31st Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be the closing event of the 94th annual NFHS Summer Meeting.
Other high school coaches slated for induction include Ed Aston, who retired in 2011 after over 30 years as girls and boys swimming coach at Cheshire (Connecticut) High School; Chuck Koeppen, cross country and track coach at Carmel (Indiana) High School for 37 years before retiring in 2008; Chuck Lenahan, in his 42nd year as football coach at Plymouth (New Hampshire) Regional High School; and Mike Messere, lacrosse coach at Camillus (New York) West Genesee High School for the past 37 years;
Honorees in the Officials category are Jerry Kimmel, a basketball official from Kentucky who recently retired after 56 years and assigner for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA), and Haig Nighohossian, a soccer official from Granite City, Illinois, in his 39th year as an active official with the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).
Ronnie Carter, who retired in 2009 after 23 years as executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), is this year’s inductee in the Administrators category and Richard Floyd, retiring this year after 50 years in music education that includes 29 years as director of music for the University Interscholastic League (UIL) in Austin, Texas, in the Performing Arts category.
The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS to honor high school athletes, coaches, contest officials, administrators, performing arts coaches/directors and others for their extraordinary achievements and accomplishments in high school sports and activity programs. This year’s class increases the number of people in the Hall of Fame to 411.
The 13 individuals were chosen after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school state association administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nominations were made through NFHS member associations.