Sept. 27, 2006
Six individuals, including football standouts Mike Hughes, Loyie "Buddy" Humphrey and J.J. Joe, track's Deon Minor, women's basketball star Carol Reeves-Brandenburg and baseball's Steve Smith comprise the Baylor University Athletic Hall of Fame's Class of 2006 and will participate in on-campus enshrinement activities Oct. 27-28. Football and track standout Weldon Bigony will join the Hall of Fame's Wall of Honor.
Tickets to the 2006 Hall of Fame banquet, which will be held on Friday, Oct. 27, in the Cashion Building on the Baylor campus starting at 7 p.m., are $35 each ($25 for Baylor letterwinners). Tickets may be purchased by contacting the "B" Association's Reba Cooper by phone at 254.710.3045 or e-mail at reba_cooper@baylor.edu. In addition to the banquet, the seven honorees will be recognized prior to the Oct. 28 Baylor-Texas A&M football game.
Baylor's Athletic Hall of Fame, organized in 1960, recognizes and honors individuals whose participation and contributions enriched and strengthened the university's athletics program. Athletes are required to wait 10 years after completing their eligibility before being eligible to be considered for this honor. Since coach Floyd "Uncle Jim" Crow and baseball's Teddy Lyons comprised the hall's first class in 1960 through this year's class, 156 former Baylor student-athletes have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The Wall of Honor, established in 2000, boasts nine total honorees.
A Denton, Texas, native, Hughes was a three-year starter at offensive tackle for coach Grant Teaff's Bears from 1973 through 1975 and a key player in one of the biggest turnarounds in Baylor sports history. As a senior in 1975, Hughes earned All-America honors and played in both the Coaches All-America and Blue-Gray All-Star games. He was also named to Baylor's 1970-79 All-Decade Team after helping pave the way for the school's first two 1,000-yard rushers ever in running backs Steve Beaird (1,104 yards in 1974) and Cleveland Franklin (1,112 in 1975).
Hughes was drafted by the NFL's Washington Redskins in the fifth round of the 1976 NFL Draft and currently lives in the Houston area where he has worked in real estate for more than 25 years.
Humphrey, a Kilgore, Texas, product scored the winning touchdown on a quarterback sneak in Baylor's 1957 Sugar Bowl victory over No. 2 Tennessee. He still holds Baylor's single-game record for passing yards with his 387-yard performance against Rice in 1958 when he completed 22-of-37 passes with two touchdowns and four interceptions in a 33-21 loss to the Owls. At the time, Humphrey's yardage total vs. Rice was a SWC record and ranked as the second-best one-game total in college football history. As a senior, Humphrey completed 112-of-195 passes for a nation-leading 1,316 yards with seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. His 112 completions also led the nation in 1958 and set an SWC single-season record.
The three-year letterman (1956-57-58) captained the Bears as a senior and played in three all-star games--the 1958 North-South Shrine Game, the 1959 Senior Bowl and the 1959 Chicago Tribune College All-Star Game. Humphrey earned MVP honors in the North-South game after throwing five touchdown passes for the South. Drafted in the second round of the 1959 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams, he played with the Rams (1959-60), Dallas Cowboys (1961), St. Louis Cardinals (1963-65) and Houston Oilers (1966). Humphrey passed away in 1988.
The only three-time Academic All-American in Baylor football history, Joe received second-team national honors in 1991, 1992 and 1993. He earned 1992 All-SWC honors on the field and was a three-time GTE Academic All-SWC pick (1991-92-93). A four-year letterman for the Bears from 1990 through 1993, Joe helped the Bears to three winning records and back-to-back bowl trips in 1991 (Copper) and 1992 (Hancock). The quarterback of Baylor's 1990-99 All-Decade Team still holds Baylor's all-time records for total offensive plays (1,073), total-offense yards (6,815), touchdowns responsible for (43), passing yards (5,995), yards per pass attempt (9.015), yards per pass completion (17.277) and pass efficiency (134.87 rating).
Currently in his third season as the color commentator on Baylor football radio broadcasts, Joe lives in his hometown of Arlington, Texas.
Minor was a 14-time All-American at Baylor from 1992 through 1995 and earned a school-record seven individual awards for coach Clyde Hart's Bears during his standout career. He won a pair of NCAA Indoor titles in the 400-meter dash, taking gold in 1992 with a time of 46.15 and coming back to win the 1995 national crown in 46.00. Minor also ran on the Bears' national championship 4 x 400-meter relay teams during the 1992 indoor season and the 1995 outdoor campaign.
The Paris, Texas, native ran on the three fastest 4 x 400-meter relay teams in school history and anchored the school-record setting foursome which included Michael Ford, Raoul Howard and Corey Williams, to gold at the 1995 NCAA Championships in 3:00.60. Minor also won nine Southwest Conference titles during his standout career, three as an individual and six as a member of championship BU relay teams. He currently resides in Sugar Land, Texas.
Reeves-Brandenburg scored 1,394 points over her four-year career from 1977 through 1980, a total that still ranks as the 10th-best mark in school history. She averaged 17.2 points and 7.7 rebounds over her four-year career and stands among Baylor's career leaders in six categories. Reeves-Brandenburg also is ranked on six of Baylor's single-season lists and still holds the school single-season record for blocked shots with 76, which she set during the 1979-80 season. She also shares the school single-game record for blocked shots with seven, a feat she accomplished twice during her career.
As a freshman, Reeves-Brandenburg led the 1977-78 Bearettes in both scoring (19.8 ppg) and rebounding (7.7 rpg) while helping the team to a school-record 33 victories and 10, 100-point efforts. One of only a handful of female student-athletes to have earned eight letters at Baylor (she also lettered four years in softball), Reeves-Brandenburg lives in Dallas with her family and works for the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
First as a student-athlete and now as the program's head coach, Smith continues to make his mark on Baylor baseball. As a pitcher on the 1982 Baylor team, he led the Southwest Conference with a 1.72 ERA, bettering league foes and future major league pitchers Norm Charlton, Roger Clemons, Doug Drabek and Calvin Schiraldi. He posted a 5-4 record in nine starts, yielding only 13 runs in 68 innings of work. The following season Smith went 6-7 with a 3.57 ERA for the Bears, allowing only 32 runs in 80.2 innings work. Drafted in the fifth round of the 1983 Major League Draft by the San Francisco Giants, he worked his way through the organization's minor league system, ending his career with the Class AAA Phoenix Firebirds in 1986.
As head coach of the Bears since 1996, Smith has led the Bears to a 455-284-1 record. He owns the best winning percentage (.616) of any coach in Baylor baseball history and ranks second among the program's 18 head coaches in career victories. Smith has led Baylor to eight NCAA Regional appearances, three NCAA Super Regional trips, one College World Series appearance and two Big 12 Conference titles while coaching 12 All-Americans and seven USA Baseball Team members.
Bigony earned four varsity letters--two each in football (1940 and 1941) and track (1939 and 1940) and was 24 hours short of earning his degree when he joined the U.S. Naval Air Corps during World War II. Some 60 years later in 2003 he returned to Baylor with his scholarship renewed to complete those final eight classes and earn his business degree. His amazing life story and a quest for his college degree prompted stories in USA Today, People and a "Forever Young" segment on NBC's Today Show.
Since retiring from a 40-year career as a pilot at age 61, Bigony has been an active volunteer, spending countless hours at nursing homes, hospitals and prisons. He also is a champion race walker who has competed in 1,500-meter and 5-kilometer races at the National Senior Games. Bigony resides in Waco.
