Wilmington sports hall Class of 2020 finally reaches induction, 2 years later

A quartet of officials, coaches, athletes and trailblazers from Southeastern North Carolina were announced in November 2019 as the Class of 2020 inductees into the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame.

This weekend, they finally get to receive their honors.

After two years of delays from COVID-19, the Hall of Fame induction will be held Sunday evening, May 22, at the Wilmington Convention Center, with a speakers luncheon set for Friday and charity golf tournament on Saturday.

For details on tickets, go to GWSHOF.com and choose "Induction Banquet."

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Backing The Pack

Former North Brunswick High School and N.C. State basketball standout Chucky Brown might be the most recognizable name in the group.

Brown and his family moved to the area from New York City in 1983 and went on to star for the Scorpions at the high school level. With the Wolfpack, Brown was a member of the 1989 team that won the ACC regular-season championship.

He went on to play 13 seasons in the NBA and won a title with the 1994-95 Houston Rockets. He later coached in the NBA developmental league, was a professional scout and is now the boys basketball coach at West Johnston High School in Benson.

Knowing The Rules

Donnie Bowers is a Wilmington native who has more than 30 years of membership at Pine Valley Country Club, and turned an interest in the rules of golf into a passion.

As an official, he's worked more than 60 United States Golf Association championships and more than 70 NCAA tournaments in his career. He's also the chairman of the rules committee for the Dustin Johnson junior tournament in Myrtle Beach and a founding member of the Landfall Tradition collegiate tournament held here annually every fall.

In 2014, he also received the USGA's Ike Grainger Award for volunteer service, which was named after another Wilmingtonian who is in the GWSHOF.

Breaking A Barrier

Phyllis Mason moved to Wilmington in 1975 with her husband David and had two sons, David and Stephen. The former chemist became a stay-at-home mom to her children and found a new calling instead.

She entered the Wrightsville Beach Triathlon for the first time in 1986 and went on to complete nearly 250 triathlons at a variety of distances, including the famed World IronMan Championships in Kona, Hawaii, twice.

A top-ranked national triathlete in her age group in the 1990s, she brought her passion to the sport to local clubs at the Wilmington YMCA and Wilmington Athletic Club. She also pioneered youth participation by persuading local directors to suspend minimum age limits so her boys and other children could race.

Coaching Them Up

Joe Robinson moved to Wilmington less than two decades ago but has a storied career in athletics at the University of North Carolina.

He played football at UNC, was later drafted into the Army and then returned to Chapel Hill for a masters' degree and became a coach for the Tar Heels' freshman team. After a stint at Duke and high school coaching in Georgia, he was the director of recruiting for coaches Dick Crum and Mack Brown.

Since moving to Wilmington, he's been on the board of the GWSHOF for 13 years.

Dan Spears is the sports editor for the Wilmington StarNews, and Southeast Regional sports editor for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at Dan.Spears@StarNewsOnline.com or on Twitter @DanSpears.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington sports hall of fame Class of 2020 inducted 2 years late