Rossville High alum to be inducted into 2020 Hall of Fame class

Rossville High School alum Rick Allen is among the 19 people that will be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of the Fame as part of its newest class.

Allen played basketball for four years and baseball for three years at Rossville, where he made it to state with the Bulldogs as a senior. He continued his diamond career at Dalton Junior College and later at UTC, where he was the leading hitter and team MVP as a senior in 1976.

However, the Ringgold resident is being inducted for his fastpitch softball exploits. He was a 19771992 local Dixie Major/ Martin-Thompson League All-Star with a career .468 batting average and .605 on-base percentage. He was the league’s All-Star MVP four times, was twice an All-American and Chattanooga Softball Player of the Year on two other occasions.

Two men who have had ultimate international success, Ted Turner and Jim Foster, will also be inducted in this year’s class. Turner, a McCallie School graduate, well-known for his cable-television and communications empire, for his philanthropy and for his former ownership of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks, won the America’s Cup, among other ocean yacht races. he did much of his formative sailing out of Privateer Yacht Club in Hixson.

Foster spent the last five years of his Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame college coaching career at the UTC, where his teams went 120-40 overall and 64-10 in Southern Conference games, with four consecutive league regular-season championships. He retired in 2018 with a 903-347 record in 40 years at St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, Ohio State and UTC, and he also helped coach five United States teams to international gold medals, including two as head coach.

He will be joined in the women’s basketball category by Gloria Scott Deathridge, whose brother, Terry Scott, will be a men’s basketball inductee along with Darryl Yarbrough.

Greg Dennis and Mike Turner are being inducted for baseball, Julie Garner for golf, Wendy Oakes Wilhelm for swimming and diving, Jeff Clark for tennis, Lee Pride for track and field, Judy Rominger Pruett for volleyball, Earl Condra and Joe Scruggs as officials/administrators, James Beach for sports media and David Hannah, Brent Johnson and the late David Douglas for football.

The induction ceremony will take place on Feb. 24 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Six special award winners also will be honored, including the Reggie White and Catherine Neely Athletes of the Year.

Tickets are available for $40 through Laura Pitman (lpitman@epbfi.com) or at (423) 304-3208. Eight-person tables can be reserved for $320.