HUNTSVILLE – In 1966, Danny Treadwell became the first black player to participate in the state high school basketball tournament. He played for Huntsville’s S.R. Butler High School, one of the first all-white high schools to be integrated.
And Treadwell faced more than just the other teams during the three-game tourney.
Despite racially charged taunts from the crowd in Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama, Treadwell led the Rebels to the state championship.
Treadwell’s heroics on and off the court are being recognized by the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame’s Special Achievement Award.
On Wednesday, athletes representing sports from outdoors to swimming to ice hockey to wrestling to volleyball to track, as well as baseball, basketball, and football, were announced as the Class of 2023 of the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame.
Treadwell and the others will be recognized in April at the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame banquet, presented by TOC, at the Von Braun Center’s South Hall.
The class of 2023 was selected by a vote of the Hall of Fame board of directors after receiving nominations from the public.
David Cain, the track and field and cross country coach at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is among those to be inducted.
“I was surprised (to get the call),” said Cain, a Grissom High graduate. “But I am honored to be recognized.”
Cain, who ran at Mississippi State, has been UAH’s men’s and women’s coach since 1998. He is an eight-time Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year and his teams have won 15 GSC titles, including the men’s track and field championship in 2022.
And he’s won it all without an on-campus facility.
“Despite not having a facility, I have always had good support from the athletic directors and I’ve had truly fantastic assistant coaches,” Cain said. “I’ve tried to recruit the best people I could and I’m able to surround myself with great people.
“It’s really rewarding for me to see people on the team be successful later on.”
Joining Treadwell and Cain are Adam Bass (baseball), Darrell Blackburn (football), Kenyon Hambrick (football), Margaret Hoelzer (swimming), Turner Jackson (wrestling), Holly Richards (volleyball/coaching), Jared Ross (ice hockey), Marvin Stone (basketball), Dr. Warren Strickland (outdoors), Jon Sumrall (football) and Gary Wagner (football).
Adam Bass played for Madison Academy and UAH. He pitched five years in the minors in the Arizona and San Diego systems and ended his career in Japan.
Darrell Blackburn, a Butler graduate, started at linebacker at Alabama as a freshman. However, his promising career was cut short by a degenerative kidney disease that ultimately necessitated a transplant.
David Cain, who ran track and cross country at Grissom High and Mississippi State, has been the men’s and women’s track and field and cross country coach at the University of Alabama in Huntsville since 1998. He is an eight-time Gulf South Conference Coach of the Year and his teams have won 15 GSC titles, including the men’s track and field championship in 2022.
Kenyon Hambrick, a J.O. Johnson graduate, played wide receiver for Alabama A&M, where he caught 102 passes and scored 14 touchdowns in two seasons. He was signed by the Baltimore Ravens and spent two years on their practice squad, and one season in Frankfurt in NFL Europe before returning home and starring for the Tennessee Valley Vipers.
Margaret Hoelzer, a Huntsville High and Auburn graduate, won three medals in the 2008
Summer Olympics at Beijing, and was also on the U.S. team in 2004. She set a world record in the 200-meter backstroke during the 2008 Olympic trials. She was a 22-time All-American and won six national titles at Auburn.
Turner Jackson, a two-time state champion at Butler High, was a two-time NCAA Division II champion at UT-Chattanooga, winning 55 consecutive matches during his final two years. He was named Tennessee’s 1976 Amateur Athlete of the Year and is in UTC’s Hall of Fame.
Holly Richards was a star volleyball player at Westminster Christian Academy and went on to become a second-team All-SEC choice at Alabama. She has coached for a quarter-century with club, college and high school teams, winning a state title at McGill-Toolen in 2004 and back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022 at Westminster.
Jared Ross, the son of the late UAH hockey coach Doug Ross – a 2008 Hall of Fame inductee, was signed by the Philadelphia Flyers after his UAH career and in 2008 became the first Alabama-born and raised player to appear in an NHL game. He wrapped up his pro career with five seasons in Germany.
Marvin Stone was a high school All-American at Grissom, which he led to the 1999 state
championship. He signed with the University of Kentucky, then transferred to Louisville after 2½ years with the Wildcats, averaging 10.3 points per game for the Cardinals as a senior.
Dr. Warren Strickland, a widely respected cardiologist, has been a nationally renowned
bowhunter and archer, producing a plethora of hunting-related videos and programs. He is also an active conservationist, with more than a dozen years as a member of the Alabama
Conservation Advisory Board.
Jon Sumrall was a two-time All-State football selection at Grissom and lettered three years as a linebacker at the University of Kentucky. After serving as assistant coach at a number of schools, including Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tulane and San Diego, he was named head coach at Troy University last December. He led the Trojans to an 11-2 season and a Cure Bowl bid.
Gary Wagner was an All-State football player at Grissom and state wrestling championship finalist. He spent his freshman year in college at Wake Forest before transferring to Jacksonville State, where he was named All-Gulf South Conference and Little All-American.
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