Six Individuals Elected for Induction into Big South Conference Hall of Fame
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – The Big South Conference announced this morning that six individuals have been elected for enshrinement into the Big South Conference Hall of Fame. Former High Point men’s soccer and men’s tennis standout
Chris Archer, former Coastal Carolina baseball head coach
Gary Gilmore, former Winthrop women’s track & field athlete
Octavia Goode, former Radford baseball pitcher
Phil Leftwich, former UNC Asheville track & field athlete
Natalie Pearson and former Gardner-Webb football player
Mario Williams are the newest members to be inducted.
The Hall of Fame ceremony is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 29, as part of the Big South’s annual spring meetings at the Wild Dunes Resort in Isle of Palms, S.C. In the event honorees cannot attend in-person, their enshrinement will be part of the 2026 Hall of Fame festivities.
The
Big South Hall of Fame, created in 2003 as part of the League’s 20th Anniversary celebration, now totals 87 former Big South Conference student-athletes, coaches, administrators and contributors with the addition of the new honorees. Below is a look at the newly-elected enshrinees:
CHRIS ARCHER, High Point, Men’s Soccer & Men’s Tennis, 2003-07
Archer excelled as a two-sport athlete, earning Big South All-Conference honors in men’s soccer and men’s tennis during his time at HPU. In men’s soccer, he was a two-time All-Big South First-Team selection (2004, 2006), was named NCCSIA All-State (North Carolina) in 2004, and was a Big South All-Tournament team honoree in 2006. Archer started 73 of 79 career matches and played 5,937 minutes on the pitch. He tallied 80 career points and 33 career goals, and set HPU Division I era single-season records for points (33) and goals (15) in 2004. Archer helped High Point reach the 2006 Big South championship match, the program’s first as Big South members. He garnered three Big South Player of the Week plaudits in 2006 and five total in his soccer career. In tennis, Archer was a three-time All-Conference honoree in both Singles (2003, 2004, 2005) and Doubles (2004, 2005, 2006) -- becoming just the seventh player in Big South history at the time to be voted a three-time All-Conference player in both Singles and Doubles. The 2003 Big South Men’s Tennis Co-Freshman of the Year, Archer was voted to the Big South’s 2000-09 All-Decade Team for Doubles. He helped guide HPU to its only Big South men's tennis championship in 2003, as well as two appearances in the title match (2003, 2004). The Panthers went 19-8 in Big South matches ( =70.4 percent) and 51-23 overall ( =68.9) with Archer in the lineup. Academically, Archer was a CoSIDA Men’s Soccer Academic All-America Second-Team honoree in 2006, a two-time NSCAA Scholar All-Region member (2004, 2006), and a three-time ITA Tennis Scholar-Athlete (2004, 2005, 2006). Archer was inducted into High Point’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
GARY GILMORE, Coastal Carolina, Baseball Head Coach, 1996-2016
Gilmore led Coastal Carolina to the Big South’s first-ever team National Championship with the Chanticleers’ 2016 College World Series title. He coached 21 years in the Big South from 1996-2016, earning Coach of the Year honors nine times (1999, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2016) while guiding CCU to 10 regular-season crowns, 11 conference championships, 14 NCAA berths and three NCAA Super Regional appearances -- all Big South records. He finished his time in the Big South with an 847-438 overall record ( =65.9 winning percentage), 331-124 Big South mark ( =71.2 percent) and 63-20 conference tournament record ( =75.9 percent) -- in addition to 29 NCAA Tournament victories. Gilmore was named the 2016 National Coach of the Year by the ABCA, NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball, D1baseball, HERO Sports, and Perfect Game/Rawlings, and was a two-time ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year (2005 and 2016). Gilmore had 13 40-win seasons, five of which were 50-win campaigns -- including a Big South single-season record 55 victories in 2010 and 2016. During his time in the Big South, he had 62 players selected in the MLB Draft, including a league-record seven in 2007 and 2010, coached 11 National Player of the Year Finalists or Semifinalists -- including 2016 Gregg Olson Award winner Andrew Beckwith, and developed 10 Big South Player of the Year honorees as well as six Big South Pitcher of the Year recipients. Gilmore coached a Big South-record eight First-Team All-Conference selections in 2010, and a conference-record 11 First- and Second-Team All-Big South picks in 2008. Gilmore is a member of five Halls of Fame, including the American Baseball Coaches Association (2022), and will be inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame on May 19.
OCTAVIA GOODE, Winthrop, Women’s Track & Field, 2000-04
Goode was a 16-time Big South Champion (seven indoor, nine outdoor), as she won the 60m Indoor four times, the 200m Indoor twice and helped Winthrop win the Indoor Distance Medley Relay in 2003. Her nine titles in Outdoor were in the 100m (four), 200m (three) and the 4x100m Relay (two). Goode remains the only 4-time Champion in both the 60m and 100m events in Big South history, and finished her career as a 23-time All-Conference performer in Indoor (10) and Outdoor Track & Field (13). Voted to the Big South 2000-09 All-Decade Teams in both Women’s Indoor Track & Field and Outdoor Track & Field, Goode was a two-time Big South Most Outstanding Indoor Track Performer (2002, 2003) and Most Outstanding Outdoor Track Performer (2003, 2004) for the Eagles. She remains Winthrop’s record-holder for the Indoor 60m (7.43), which was also the Big South record when first set in 2002 and held until 2013. Goode also set Big South records in 100m and 200m (since broken), and was a member of the Winthrop record-holding 4x100m and 4x200m relay teams. She qualified for the 2003 and 2004 NCAA East Regional in the 100m, 200m and a member of the 4x100m team, and qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2004 in the 100m and finished 17th. Goode was inducted into Winthrop’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.
PHIL LEFTWICH, Radford, Baseball, 1988-90
Leftwich was a two-time All-Conference pitcher for the Highlanders, earning First-Team honors in 1988 and Second-Team recognition in 1989 -- becoming Radford’s first All-Conference pitcher. He set Big South single-season records at the time for complete games in 1988 (9) and 1990 (10), and remains the conference’s all-time leader with 25 career complete games (34 career starts). Leftwich finished his Radford career with a 19-14 record, 3.62 ERA and 234 strikeouts -- which was second-most in Big South history at the time. Voted to the Big South Baseball 1986-89 All-Decade Team, Leftwich was also named to the Big South All-Tournament Team in 1990. He departed Radford with 13 pitching records, including ERA (3.62), wins (19), strikeouts (234), complete games (25), strikeouts per nine innings (7.93), innings pitched (265.2) and batting average against (.243). Leftwich helped Radford's young baseball program reach new heights, leading the Highlanders to their first winning season in 1989, in which he went 7-2 with a league-leading 2.88 ERA for the 27-19 Highlanders that year -- just the program's fifth season of varsity play. He was selected in the 2nd round of the 1990 MLB Draft by the California Angels (64th overall and the organization’s top selection that year), the Big South's third-highest draft pick at the time. Leftwich quickly rose through the Angels’ minor league system, needing less than three full seasons to go through four different levels of the minors to reach the big leagues in 1993 and become the Radford athlete in the major leagues. He made his MLB debut on July 29, 1993 against the Oakland Athletics and posted a career-low 3.79 ERA in 12 starts as a rookie. His first career win came on August 15, 1993 on the road against the Seattle Mariners, and he pitched three seasons for the Angels (1993, 1994, 1996), going 9-17 with a 4.99 ERA in 34 career games (all starts). Leftwich was inducted into the inaugural Radford Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995.
NATALIE PEARSON, UNC Asheville, Women’s Track & Field, 2006-11
Pearson was a two-time Big South Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year honoree, winning the top honor in 2010 and 2011, in addition to earning 11 All-Conference medals in Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field during her career. She was a four-time Big South individual champion, as she won the 2007 Indoor 60m, along with the Outdoor 100m (2011) and Outdoor 200m (2010, 2011). Pearson was voted the 2007 Big South Women’s Indoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year as well as the 2011 Big South Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Most Outstanding Track Performer. A member of the Big South’s 2010-19 Women’s Outdoor Track & Field All-Decade Team, she set school records in the 55m, 60m, 100m and 200m events during her time at UNC Asheville, and became program's first-ever two-time national qualifier in both 2010 and 2011. At the 2011 National Meet, she finished 24th overall with a time of 23.99 in the 200m to earn Honorable Mention All-America Honors. Pearson also competed in the United Kingdom Olympic Trials in 2008 and 2012, and would later compete for the United States bobsled team in the winter of 2014-15, winning a silver medal in Lake Placid, N.Y. She was inducted into UNC Asheville’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022.
MARIO WILLIAMS, Gardner-Webb, Football, 2002-04
Williams was a heralded four-time All-American and three-time All-Conference performer during the Big South’s first three seasons of sponsoring football, as well as becoming the first two-time Big South Defensive Player of the Year honoree in league history while leading Gardner-Webb to the first two Big South football championships. In 2002, he earned his first Big South Defensive Player of the Year honor along with All-America accolades from
The Sports Network following a season in which he posted a conference-leading 120 tackles (12.00 per game) along with three interceptions and a TD in helping Gardner-Webb to a 9-1 record and a final Top 20 national ranking. Williams repeated as Big South Defensive Player of the Year his junior season of 2003 and earned All-America distinction from the
Associated Press,
The Sports Network and
Weekly Football Gazette. He notched a then-Big South record 70 solo tackles among his 118 total stops, had 7.0 tackles-for-loss, three interceptions, five forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, and a then-conference mark of 15 pass break-ups. He was a candidate for the Buck Buchanan National Defensive Player of the Year his senior season of 2004, but suffered a season-ending injury five games into the year. Williams still had 61 tackles, two interceptions for 70 yards with a score, and seven PBU to earn All-Big South honors for the third consecutive time. A nine-time Big South Defensive Player of the Week honoree, Williams finished his two-and-a-half seasons in the Big South (27 games) with 326 career tackles, eight interceptions for 117 yards and two touchdowns, 38 passes defended, and seven fumble recoveries/returns -- still tied for the most in Big South football history. He went on to enjoy a successful professional football career in Germany, beginning in NFL Europe with the Frankfurt Galaxy, in addition to a stint in the Arena Football League. Williams was inducted into Gardner-Webb’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017.