He’s an original. Tie slung over the shoulder, boisterous voice, avid and relentless Bulldogs fan. Friend to all. The guy you talk to when the going gets tough, no matter the time of day or night. From the “Glass Palace” known as the Hamlin Student Center, he hears all and knows all.
If you’ve ever spent any time on the Barton campus, this description fits only one person: Tony Tilley.
By title, he has been the Director of Dining Services at Barton for the past 25 years, but he is much more than that. He has been a member of every team, a consultant and confidante for almost every player and coach, a mentor to numerous students and a never-say-die supporter of college athletics. He has put several teams through conditioning, has fed teams countless meals and is a fitness nut himself.
For all of those characteristics and more, Tilley will join a short list of non-Barton student-athletes to earn induction into the Barton College Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies on Friday night, Oct. 21, which is his 56th birthday.
“This is a great honor,” Tilley said. “I think when Gary (Hall) and Russell (Rawlings) called me to let me know that this was as high an honor as anything I have ever achieved. I joked with them that ‘1,000 bag lunches will get you anything!’”
Tilley, the consummate jokester, likely knows more student-athletes personally than anybody in Barton history. He sees them at breakfast, lunch and dinner; at school functions; at ball games; and around town. And the students stay in touch with him. He provides a key link between graduates and Barton College. He and his wife Susan even sent their only child, Katy, to Barton College.
“From my perspective, I think I support all the teams and all the coaches,” he said. “I’d love to think that I have made a difference in somebody’s life, not because they played a sport, but because I wanted them to feel like an important part of our community.”
He can name names, then names some more. He remembers each one and treasures his relationships with them.
“You look at the guys and girls we have helped over the years and it feels good to think about how we might have helped them be successful. I would love to say that we taught them something about life. I also made sure all the foreign kids got fed,” he quipped.
The son of James and Peggy Tilley grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., and attended Parkland High School. He was a tailback in football: “I wasn’t bad and I lettered, but it was nothing to write home about.” He ran cross country “only to stay in shape after football season.” He ran the 110-yard high hurdles for the track team, “but I couldn’t get over one now!” He played club soccer “because high school soccer was not a sport.”
He chose to continue his education at Elon University and had high hopes of walking on to the football team.
“A few of us met with (head coach) Red Wilson and he took us out to a practice and let us watch. After that, since I was a little guy, I said “there is no way Tony Tilley is doing this. I am too young to die!”
Tilley eventually wound up trying out for Dr. Charlie Harris and made the soccer team. He was red-shirted his sophomore year because of a severe concussion, so he spent five years with the Fighting Christians as a halfback, wing and fullback.
Ironically, Elon and Atlantic Christian (now Barton) were archrivals in the NAIA Carolinas Conference, so many of Tilley’s biggest collegiate clashes came against the Bulldogs, whose star player, Gary Hall, would wind up being the long-time athletic director and men’s soccer coach at Barton.
“We always had a big game against AC,” Tilley recalled. “We hated playing here because we played at night at Fleming Stadium. I was the talker (no surprise to anyone!) who had to lean on players from the other team. Gary was a great player, and they had some others like Sharhabil Humieda, Willie Diamond and Rhine Sharp. When they came on the field, you had to bring your best game every time. My senior year, it was 0-0 here in the second half and our coach told us to pull back because we were trying to stop their offense. That’s how good they were. They ended up winning 1-0.”
Tilley, who majored in Physical Education and graduated in 1980, said his original plan was “to teach, but I got into a little bit of trouble and Dean Rhodes gave me two choices: ‘I can give you community service or you can withdraw from school.’ I will tell you the choice I made: I didn’t want to go home.”
Little did Tilley know that his “community service” job would turn into a career. He went to work with Howard Southerland, the Director of Dining Services at Elon. “They paid me to work, so I took advantage of that. I figured everybody had to eat and that I knew everybody, so it was a good spot. I worked there all summer.”
When he graduated, he looked at a teaching job for $17,000 and Southerland offered him $26,000 to stay at Elon, which he did for five years. He worked in Dining Services at Greensboro College for two years before landing his current position at Barton.
“Bill Miller (basketball coach) and Bill Morningstar (golf coach) from Elon called AC Athletic Director Ed Cloyd and told him I was coming down for an interview. Tom Parham had just left AC to be the tennis coach at Elon, so he called a friend of his, Russell Rawlings, back in Wilson and told him he needed to help me out when I got there, so that’s what the hell happened to me!”
Tilley has always taken great pride in the accomplishments of Barton faculty, staff and students, and he has been a proponent of what the school stands for during his 25 years.
“When we make someone feel special, it bleeds into success for all of us,” Tilley said. “I have had several former students tell me that the reason they got where they are was because of me, or because of some other members of the staff. Sometimes a kid would call me when they had a bad day or a bad game, and I would tell them: “Look, you know what? It’s just a game and you can’t win them all. But I will say that when we won the National Basketball Championship (in 2007), I was shedding tears in the stands like everybody else. I still do!”
Tilley says that “Dave Davis taught how to run and Ron Lievense taught how to believe. Ninety percent of everything is just showing up. We have a great coaching staff here that does a great job of teaching and helping our kids learn how to win. Because of that, we will all win at the end of the day.”
Students and colleagues are not sure if Tilley ever sleeps. He is swimming in the KRIC pool with his crew of President Dr. Norval Kneten, former baseball coach and current assistant athletic director Todd Wilkinson and Barton graduate/board of trustee member Chuck Finklea at 6 a.m. every morning. It’s a routine he began 10 years ago with former president Dr. James Hemby. Tilley is then in the cafeteria cooking, organizing and fraternizing until late each evening. He believes hard work is a part of life.
He also believes in Barton and its people. That’s why he is the loudest, proudest fan at athletic events … and why he has been escorted out of several venues. He’s been known to jump the referees to the point where they couldn’t take it anymore. He is the one voice you can hear amidst the crowd, even from across the soccer field.
Fellow Hall of Fame inductee Corey Taylor (Class of 1994) summed up what so many people feel about Tilley and his impact on their lives.
“When Tony knows your name, that’s when you know you are a part of the Barton family,” Taylor said. “I was a shy kid, but Tony, as loud as he is, makes you feel comfortable and welcome here. It is a great feeling to be going in with all the inductees, but it is really a great honor for me to be going in with Tony Tilley. He’s a hoot!”
And now, he’s a Hall of Famer.
