For as long as there has been a Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame, Russell Rawlings has been an integral part of it. So it is only fitting that the arrangement be made permanent with his 2015 induction as a member.
Rawlings was present for the very first induction ceremony in 1983, covering the event for the Wilson Daily Times as its assistant sports editor. He recalls asking Buster Bell how it felt being one of three living inductees among the 10 enshrined that day. He got back an answer Rawlings himself might have given. “Better than the other seven,” Bell chirped.
By the third or fourth ceremony, Rawlings had become Atlantic Christian (now Barton) College’s alumni director – hired by fellow 2015 inductee President Emeritus James B. Hemby, Jr. – and was given the responsibility of serving as the emcee. With the exception of perhaps two occasions since then, he has done so for every member to be accepted into the Hall of Fame.
At the 2015 ceremony, he continued that long-standing role and introduced five more new members into the exclusive group. But then he temporarily stepped aside to hear his good friend Tom Parham, former Barton tennis coach and Hall of Fame member, welcome Russell Rawlings as a Hall of Famer.
“It’s unbelievable. I am very humbled and honored to be inducted into the Hall of Fame,” Rawlings said. “This is a truly outstanding group of inductees. I’m especially proud of the fact that I’m going in with my mentor, Dr. James B. Hemby, with whom I have had a relationship dating back to my years as a scorekeeper for the Fike High School boys’ basketball team. He was the clock operator, having retired from officiating, and that’s how we got to know each other. A few years later he would be my advisor in the English department at the college, and a few years after that my boss. I’m also extremely proud to go in with four distinguished student-athletes who have been selected for induction this year.”
Although Rawlings is a member of the hall’s selection committee – and has been for as long as he has been emcee – he was not involved in his nomination or selection. In fact, he left the final meeting with no clue what was about to take place.
“When I left the selection meeting this year, I thought ‘wow, we have a great group. We did a great night’s work.’ I was very excited about how that had all gone,” Rawlings said. “Then (committee chair) Gary Hall excused me from the meeting because he knows I like to get back home (to Holly Springs) as soon as possible. The next day I got a call that I’m going into the Hall of Fame. So you never know who you can trust (he said with a laugh).
“But I certainly am very grateful for the honor and very proud to be going in with this group. They are all so richly deserving, certainly much more so than I. I’m also especially honored that Tom Parham is going to be the one who inducts me. We go back so far.”
Parham isn’t the only one with whom Rawlings has a relationship that goes back so far. He has been somehow involved with Barton athletics for nearly his entire life.
Growing up, Rawlings said he loved going to games at the Rec Center with his father and later to games at the “new” gym with Rhine Sharp and his father, Dr. Allan Sharp.
He went to a tennis match with his best friend Freddy Owens, who lived around the corner from the courts, even though he knew nothing about the sport, and ended up witnessing Parham’s first conference championship. (Later, as a sports writer, he would also cover both of Parham’s national titles with ACC).
Despite his affection for the Bulldogs, Rawlings had plans to follow his brother, Lenox, to the University of North Carolina. However, a writing opportunity at the Wilson Daily Times offered to him by sports editor Tom Ham as a senior in high school changed all that. Ham and Rawlings attended the Carolinas Conference Tournament in Lexington, N.C., where ACC pulled off a big upset over defending NAIA national champion Guilford, and Rawlings unveiled a skill and passion for writing about it.
“That game really triggered everything, because that’s the night I met (athletic director) Dave Adkins, who later offered me a partial scholarship to be the sports information director,” Rawlings said. “I had only been working at the Wilson Daily Times for about two weeks. Over the course of the last three months of my senior year of high school, I completely redirected my career path from attending UNC to working for the Daily Times and going to Atlantic Christian, which until that night I had never even considered.
“Although I had a great affinity for the school and its athletic teams, I was not planning on staying in Wilson to go to college, but the main thing that happened was I fell in love with the job.”
Rawlings worked throughout college at the Daily Times covering Atlantic Christian games, and also served as ACC’s student sports information director for two years. He continued his work with the paper after graduation, earning a promotion to assistant sports editor, and remained there until 1984. That is when he went to work as alumni director under Dale Almond, the vice president for institutional advancement who helped establish the Hall of Fame.
In addition to scheduling alumni chapter meetings around road games, he began his connection with the Hall of Fame, provided some sports information support and even coached the tennis team for a semester.
He would later return to the Wilson Times as managing editor, then back to the college in public relations and development through the 1990s as the institution was making the transition to the name Barton and NCAA Division II competition.
Rawlings left Barton in 2000 to write “Cyclone Country,” which chronicled Fike High School’s state championship football teams in 1967, 1968 and 1969. In 2001 he went to work for the North Carolina Bar Association, where he has served as its director of communications since 2002, but has remained close to the college through the hall of fame, service on the board of trustees, and his involvement with Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity.
One recurring theme throughout his connection to Barton has been the strength of the relationships he has formed with those with whom he has interacted.
“Russell Rawlings has been a true Bulldog his entire life,” said Hall, who served as Barton’s athletic director for 25 years. “I got to know him when we were both English majors at the college, and by the fact that he was covering our athletic events at that time for the Wilson Daily Times. He of course went on to serve as our sports information director and as a reporter for the Wilson Daily Times, but also to work here in alumni affairs and in development. He also served as a trustee of the college, and has remained a great friend.
“He is a great asset to us by his service on the Athletic Hall of Fame Committee and in his long-standing role as emcee for the Bulldog Club and Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Banquet. He has been a true friend to the college, students, employees, and to people in the Wilson community.”
