Aug. 31, 2009
Six individuals--Charles Benson (football), Frank Ditta (football), Billy Hollis (men's track and field), Jay Jeffrey (football/baseball), Jason Jennings (baseball) and Stacey Smith (women's track and field), comprise Baylor University's 2009 Athletic Hall of Fame's Class and will participate in on-campus enshrinement activities, Oct. 23-24. In addition, former Baylor basketball letterman Dr. Gerald D. Cobb will join the Hall of Fame's Wall of Honor.
Tickets to the 2009 Hall of Fame banquet, which will be held on Friday, Oct. 23, in the Ferrell Center at 7 p.m., are $45 each ($35 for Baylor letterwinners). Tickets may be purchased by contacting the "B" Association's Tammy Hardin by phone at 254.710.3045 or e-mail at tammy_hardin@baylor.edu. Table sponsorships (seating for 10) are available for $450 each and corporate sponsorships are available for $500.
With the 2009 enshrinement ceremony taking place during the 100th anniversary of Baylor's first Homecoming, this year's Hall of Fame class and all previous Hall of Fame members in attendance, will be recognized as Baylor's 2009 Honor Team. The Honor Team will again ride in the school's annual Homecoming parade on Saturday, Oct. 24, prior to Baylor's Big 12 home opener against Oklahoma State (kickoff time TBA).
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, 174 former Baylor student-athletes have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. The Wall of Honor, established in 2000, boasts 13 total honorees.
Benson, a four-year letterman for coach Grant Teaff's Bears from 1979 through 1982, ranks as one of the greatest defensive ends in school history. A three-time consensus All-Southwest Conference selection (1980, 1981 and 1982), Benson earned All-America honors in his final Green & Gold campaign. He registered a school-record 49 tackles for losses totaling 259 yards during his standout career, a mark which still stands as Baylor's all-time mark, and 263 total career tackles. Benson also tallied a then-BU single-season 8.5 sacks in 1982, the first year that statistic was officially kept, and a mark that still stands No. 3 on the school's one-season list. He is the only player in school history to lead Baylor three consecutive years in tackles for loss, and he shares school records for single-game (6.0 vs. Texas Tech in 1980) and season (20 in 1982) tackles for loss.
Following his All-America senior campaign, Benson played in the 1982 Blue-Gray Game and the 1983 Hula Bowl. Drafted in the third round of the 1983 NFL Draft with the 76th pick overall by the Miami Dolphins, he played two seasons for the Dolphins (1983 and 1984), one season with the Indianapolis Colts (1985) and one year with the Detroit Lions (1987). He was a member of Miami's 1984 team which played in the AFC championship game. The Houston native was also selected to Baylor's 1980-89 All-Decade team.
Like Benson, Ditta was a starter on Baylor's 1980 Southwest Conference championship team which played in the Cotton Bowl for the second time in program history and won a school-record 10 games, including a perfect 8-0 SWC mark. The three-year (1978, 1979 and 1980) letterman at offensive guard for the Bears was a second-team All-SWC selection as a junior in 1979 when Baylor capped an 8-4 campaign with a 24-18 victory over Clemson in the Peach Bowl.
Ditta garnered first-team All-America honors as a senior team captain in 1980 from The Associated Press, when he helped pave the way for Bears' running back Walter Abercrombie to rush for a school-record 1,187 yards and the team to average a school-record 296.8 yards per contest. A consensus All-SWC performer in his senior campaign, the Houston native's work in the trenches did not go unnoticed by The Dallas Morning News, which tabbed him as the league's Offensive Player of the Year. Another member of Baylor's 1980s All-Decade honor team, Ditta was drafted in the ninth round of the 1981 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears, and currently resides in Houston with his wife, Kelly.
Hollis earned letters for the Baylor track and field team in 1958, 1959 and 1960. As a sophomore at the 1958 SWC Championships, the Bears finished third as a team and Hollis scored 11 of Baylor's 34.5 points by placing second in both the 100- and 220-yard dashes as an individual and running on BU's third-place 4x110-yard and mile relay teams. In 1959, he placed third in the 440 and fourth in the 100 to help Baylor to a fourth-place team finish.
As a senior, Hollis had a hand in three gold medals at the 1960 Southwest Conference Championships, winning the 220-yard dash in 20.6 seconds, and anchoring the Bears' 4x110-yard and mile relay teams to gold in 40.6 and 3:13.40, respectively. He also placed third in the 100-yard dash. Hollis' championship performance helped coach Jack Patterson's Bears tally 79 points to win the first track and field team title in program history. All-told, he scored 27 points for Baylor in three SWC Championship meets, including 12.5 points in his final season which earned him the meet's High Point Performer Award. Hollis, an insurance executive, resides in San Angelo with his wife, Sharon.
The starting quarterback on the Bears' 1980 SWC championship team, Jeffrey, joins his Baylor teammates Benson and Ditta as 2009 Hall of Fame inductees. He earned a pair of letters in football (1980 and 1981) and two monograms on the baseball diamond in 1981 and 1982. Jeffrey earned consensus All-SWC and SWC Newcomer of the Year honors as a junior in 1980 after throwing for 1,096 yards and eight touchdowns. The following season, he passed for 1,643 yards and nine TDs to become just the fifth quarterback in school history to throw for 1,000 yards or more in consecutive seasons joining Larry Isbell (1950 and 1951), Don Trull (1962 and 1963), his older brother, Neal Jeffrey (1972, 1973 and 1974) and Mark Jackson (1975 and 1976). Jay Jeffrey ranks 13th all-time at Baylor in passing yards (2,739), the highest two-year total in school history, third in career yards per attempt (7.608 ypa), fourth in career total-offense yards per attempt (5.907 ypa),fifth in career yards per completion (14.967 ypc) and eighth in career passing efficiency (116.44 rating). He also holds the Baylor school-record for the longest run from scrimmage, an 83-yard scamper vs. Lamar in 1980.
On the baseball field, Jeffrey was the Bears' starting short-stop in 1981, then moved to left field for his senior season. He hit a team-high .320 in 1981 with six home runs and 29 RBI, then came back as a senior to hit .239 with one round-tripper and nine RBI. He served as the Bears' team captain in 1982. Jeffrey resides in Lorena, Texas, with his wife Chris, and the couple has five children.
The first consensus National Player of the Year in Division I history, Jennings was a three-year letterman for Coach Steve Smith's Bears from 1997-99, and is one of only two, two-time first-team All-Americans in program history (the other was Mickey Sullivan). As a junior in 1999, he led the Bears in batting average (.386), while leading the Big 12 Conference in wins (13), strikeouts (172) and innings pitched (146.2), while ranking 23rd nationally in ERA (2.58) and tied for fifth in victories en route to consensus national Player of the Year honors. BU's career leader in slugging percentage at .615, also ranks sixth in batting average, fourth in home runs, ninth in RBI, tied for eighth in extra base hits and ninth in total bases. Jennings ranks third all-time at Baylor with 27 career wins and first with 17 career Big 12 wins, while standing fourth all-time in saves. He is also the Bears' all-time leader in career complete games.
After earning 1997 Baseball America first-team Freshman All-America and Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors, Jennings garnered first-team All-America honors in his final two seasons at Baylor. A two-time Big 12 Player of the Year, he was a three-time All-Big 12 and Academic All-Big 12 honoree, as well as a two-time Academic All-American. The first-round pick of the Colorado Rockies in the 1999 MLB Draft, Jennings reached the Major Leagues with the Rockies in 2001 and was named National League Rookie of the Year the following season. He spent six years with the Rockies, one with the Astros, and has spent the last two seasons with the Texas Rangers.
During her collegiate days, Smith became Baylor's first female individual NCAA national champion when she won the 1999 outdoor triple jump crown with a leap of 45-10. She earned All-America honors nine times during her storied career, tied for the most in school history. Smith holds the school record for women's individual All-America honors with six. She became the Bears' first female athlete to claim a United States Championship in 1999 in the triple jump and held the nation's top ranking in the event that season. She was Baylor's first female athlete to become a member of a U.S. National team, competing in the 1998 Goodwill Games and continued her success as a member of the 1999 World Championship team that competed in Seville, Spain.
Smith was also a force within the Big 12, sweeping the league's indoor and outdoor triple jump titles in 1998 and again in 1999. Her winning mark of 46-1 1/4 at the 1999 Big 12 meet still stands as the Baylor school record. With four conference titles to her credit, she is tied for fourth all-time at Baylor. Smith has spent the past seven seasons as an assistant coach on the Baylor track and field staff. She becomes the fourth member of coach Todd Harbour's staff to be inducted into the Baylor Athletic Hall of Fame, following Clyde Hart (1983), Harbour (1992), and fellow assistant coach Danny Brabham. Smith and her husband, Rodney, have two children.
Cobb, the 2009 Wall of Honor recipient, lettered for coach Bill Henderson's Baylor basketball teams in 1947-48, 1948-49 and 1949-50, all of which earned Southwest Conference titles. The Bears' 1947-48 team won a school-record 24 games and was the NCAA runner-up, while the 1949-50 team also reached the NCAA Final Four. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Baylor in 1950 and his master's in 1955, Cobb began a highly successful 37-year career in education, first as a teacher and coach, later as an administrator. After working as a teacher/basketball coach in the Mineral Wells (1950-52), Beaumont (1952-54) and Galena Park (1954-60) ISDs, Cobb moved into school administration with the Galena Park ISD in 1960. He was the district's business manager (1960-66) and assistant superintendent (1966-70) before serving as the district's Superintendent from 1970-87.
A founding director and vice chairman of the board at Woodforest National Bank from 1980 through 1986, Cobb worked as the Chairman of the Board and CEO of the bank from 1986 through 1990, and served as bank's chairman of the board since 1991. Named the 1980 Galena Park Man of the Year, Cobb has been recognized by the YMCA as its 1990 Greater Houston Area Volunteer of the Year and just last year received the Clyde M. Speed Award for Community Service. A member of the First Baptist Church in Galena Park, he has served God by teaching the adult men's Sunday school class for over 35 years and chaired the church's building fund committee. His wife, Bobbie, is a Baylor graduate, as are his children, Gerald and Catherine, and his five grandchildren have all attended Baylor, too.
The Hall of Fame selection committee includes three members from both the Baylor "B" Association and Baylor Alumni Association, as well as three Hall of Fame members and one athletic department representative. Per Hall of Fame bylaws, only selection committee members are eligible to nominate individuals for the Hall of Fame and all nominees stay in the selection pool for three years.
For further information on the Hall of Fame, contact the "B" Association at 254.710.3045.
