John Eskew has quite a track record. Literally.

The 1963 graduate of Atlantic Christian College (now Barton) left his name all over the track and field record books during a sensational career for the Bulldogs. He was also a fine basketball player and was awarded the Kiwanis Male Athlete of the Year award for the school after his junior year in 1962.

Fast forward some 50 years later and you will find Eskew’s name on another list: Barton College Athletic Hall of Famers.

“I am humbled, very grateful and very thankful,” said Eskew, who lives with his wife of 47 years, Nancy Britt Eskew (ACC Class of 1964), in Flat Rock, N.C. “I am also glad to represent the track team in the Barton Hall of Fame.”

Eskew was born on May 21, 1941, in Atlanta, Ga., where he carved out a name for himself as an Eagle Scout and a basketball and track star at Brown High School. His junior season, his basketball team lost a triple-overtime, sudden-death (first team to score after the center court jump ball) heartbreaker in the state AAA championship, but rebounded to win the State AAA title the following season. He was named All-State in basketball and played in the North-South All-Star Game.

His basketball prowess caught the eyes of ACC head coach Jack McComas and assistant Jimmy Daniell, and he earned a full ride to play for the Bulldogs basketball team. Track was a low-key sport at ACC during that era, but since Eskew won the State AAA all-classifications meet in the 110-yard high hurdles his senior prep season, he was quickly recruited to run for Bulldogs’ head track coach Sam Coker.

Eskew was a basketball starter for most of his career, averaging 7.5 points and five rebounds per game while running the floor with Barton Hall of Famers Dick Knox, Bobby Dunn, Bobby Atkinson, Tom Parham and others.

“My early years of basketball were really exciting at AC,” Eskew said. “We had six freshmen my first year and we had some great experiences playing against other colleges. We even played the Carolina freshman team. It was just great fun playing for (junior varsity coach) Larry Farris.”

How did he end up at Barton?

“I came up to AC for a recruiting trip/tryout after my high school season, but all the players were at the beach, so me and a guy that was a junior teammate of mine just went to the old gym, ran through some drills and shot. We went to Parker’s to eat and they put us up at the Delta Sig House, which was an experience.”

It may have been the trip to Wilson that sealed the deal, along with a hefty scholarship offer that trumped other schools that were recruiting Eskew.

“We took the train to Raleigh and Daniell was there to pick us up at 3:45 in the morning, which was impressive,” Eskew recalled. “When we got to the Delta Sig House, people were still up there, which was also impressive. Seriously, I had to have a scholarship to go to college and I just fell in love with the place. I felt at home. The atmosphere was just really good, even though activities were very restricted.”

He said dating was a tough deal because during the week, it was only during a “Tweetie’s Break” from 9 to 9:30 each night that coeds were allowed to mingle.

“It was nice because it was a family atmosphere where you knew everybody, even your professors.”

Eskew, who majored in Physical Education & Health Studies and minored in History, lettered for four years in basketball and track, but it was the latter sport where he really left a legacy. He was the NAIA District champ all four years in the high hurdles and twice in the low hurdles. He was the conference champ his sophomore and junior seasons in the high hurdles. Most remarkably, he never lost a dual or tri-meet race in the 110 high hurdles or 220 low hurdles as a collegian.

He set the school record in the high hurdles at 15.2 seconds, the low hurdles (25.8) and the high jump (5-foot-10 in a sawdust pit) during his career and was a member of a record-setting mile relay team (3:38.5) with Floyd Parker, Joe Clay Jones and Hall of Famer Woody Daly. In 1962, the Bulldogs track team set eight school records and Eskew was a part of four of them.

“At that time, track was not that big at AC,” he remembered. “Most of the time we ran on a grass track with two square corners (at Fleming Stadium).”

After going undefeated in the hurdles his junior season and playing a major role with the basketball team, Eskew was named the Kiwanis Male Athlete of the Year, which he called the “highlight of his athletic career.”

“I was undefeated probably because the competition wasn’t that good,” he said humbly. “And I had run hurdles in high school, which many people hadn’t done. I think it just happened that I was a little bit faster than the others, but looking back, I wish I would have worked harder, because I could have been a lot better.”

In high school and college, Eskew said: “I was pretty much on my own in track (because not many people knew about hurdling techniques). When I got into coaching after college, I had my kids run 330s until they couldn’t walk any more. If someone had done that with me, I could have been better.”

After graduation, he served as head basketball and track coach and assistant football coach at Milton and Briarwood high schools in the Atlanta area from 1963-74. He also taught physical education classes. He worked in commercial and investment real estate for several years before joining Holt Reinhart and Winston, a major educational publishing company. He started as a sale rep in 1977 and by the time he retired in 2007, he was National Senior Vice President of Sales.

He and Nancy lived in Atlanta, Tallahassee, Fla., Raleigh, Wrightsville Beach, Atlanta and Dallas during their time together.

Eskew’s favorite athletic memory from college is from an AAU meet at N.C. State University after his freshman season at Atlantic Christian. It was his first “date” with his wife, and Parham and a few friends were in the stands to watch him run.

“I made the finals of the high hurdles and I was the only white guy in the race. I am extremely white and I was wearing an all-white ACC uniform, so I stood out. When they did the introductions, the guy next to me was Elias Gilbert, who still holds the world record in the 220 low hurdles. When they introduced me, he looked at me and said: “Well, Es-kews me!” and laughed. And, I didn’t come in last place.”

Well, now lots of folks can step aside for Mr. Eskew as he takes his place at the finish line as a Barton College Hall of Famer.