Eight more legends join Black Cats hall of fame
Phillips who, having been unable to attend the 2019 celebration, was a popular choices for the second batch of inductees.
And the striker spoke of his delight at joining a number of club legends – including strike partner Quinn – in the hall of fame.
“When Rob put the idea to me a long time ago about setting-up a hall of fame and said he wanted to put me in it, I was naturally delighted,” said Phillips.
“As you know, I’ve got a great affiliation with the football club and achieved many things here.
“This is an award that I’m delighted to receive and I’m honoured to be inducted.
“I think it was a great idea by Rob to set this up because the people I’ve met already this evening and the players who were inducted in the first hall of fame show that this is an incredible football club.
“This club has a fantastic history and I’m very honoured.”
And it wasn’t just Stadium of Light favourites who were honoured by the club.
Mason and the Black Cats were keen to ensure that all moments of the club's illustrious history were covered – right back to the days of Ted Doig, the stopper who was inducted having played in Sunderland’s early league games.
He was joined by Dave Watson – a hero of the 1973 FA Cup Final – and Dave Halliday and Billy Hughes, both of whom were posthumously inducted.
Meanwhile, Jill Scott became the first female member of the hall of fame, but was unable to attend given her international commitments with England in the SheBelieves Cup.
The eighth member of the class of 2020 was Gary Rowell, who remains a fan favourite to this day.
And Mason was delighted with how the hall of fame continues to develop – and has promised more is to come in the future.
“I’m thrilled to bits,” he said.
“Most clubs of stature have had a hall of fame for some considerable times, and I’m delighted that after I’d been trying to get a hall of fame off the ground for some time that we got it going last year.
“It was a tremendous success last year. I know it would be good, I knew it would go down well, but I have to say that it totally surpassed my greatest expectations. It was outstanding.
“I'm confident that tonight’s will be as successful, and again we’ve got a range of people that stretch across the period of the Stadium of Light – up to the Stadium of Light era with Super Kevin Phillips and of course Kevin Ball, but back to the club’s third-ever league game in 1890 with the 89-year-old grandson of Ted Doig.
“It was great to introduce Kevin Phillips to the grandson of Ted Doig and see them immediately hit it off, because they’ve both got such a strong connection with this football club.
“I’m really delighted that despite his recently announced health problems, Dave Watson has made the effort to come up from Nottingham.”
He added: “We’ve also got the family of Billy Hughes, who sadly passed away in December – though I’m very pleased that we managed to let Billy know that he was inducted into the hall of fame a few weeks before he passed away and I know from the family that it had given Billy a real lift in his last few days.
“For that reason, above all, I’m delighted that the hall of fame is working well.
“Trust me, in the dinners to come we’ve still got many more tremendous names to induct, and there are many great names we’re keen to get into the hall of fame as soon as possible.”