Alexandria City Public Schools inducts six athletes to hall of fame

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Alexandria City Public Schools inducts six athletes to hall of fame
An ACPS Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony (Courtesy Photo)
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By Alexa Epitropoulos | aepitropoulos@alextimes.com

Alexandria City Public Schools inducted six athletes into its Athletic Hall of Fame at a ceremony held Friday evening.

The Athletic Hall of Fame, which is in its fourth year, inducted six former ACPS student athletes. At the ceremony, ACPS also honored two basketball coaches.

The athletes honored included former T.C. Williams High School basketball player Michael Horton, former basketball player and teacher Ardelia Hunter, multi-talented athlete Ron Lambert, former basketball player Daymond Jackson, renowned T.C. Williams distance runner Dwight Stephens and football and rowing standout Bob Stumpf. 

Horton, a basketball player who scored 1,600 points during his time on the T.C. Williams team, remains the school’s all-time leading scorer. He was the first team all-state selection during his senior year, was named to the All-Northern Region Team two times and was selected to three all-district teams during his career at T.C. After graduating from high school, Horton attended Alleghany Community College and became the top-rated point guard in the U.S. He played basketball for the University of Cincinnati and, after college, returned to Alexandria and now works at ACPS.

Hunter, a trailblazer in women’s high school sports, was a standout player on the women’s basketball team at Parker-Gray, a segregated school. She served as an elementary school teacher for ACPS and later became an assistant principal and then a principal. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education from Virginia State College. 

Lambert, who lettered in four sports his senior year, played varsity basketball for three seasons and served as captain of the football team, all while playing baseball and track. He attended Memphis State University on a football scholarship and also played on the Memphis State basketball team. He transferred to Rio Grande University later and was a three-time all-conference selectee in basketball, being named to the All-America Team in 1974. He was inducted into the Rio Grande University Hall of Fame in 1992.

Jackson was a first team all-met and first team all-state selection in 1995 and graduated as the second leading scorer in T.C. Williams basketball history. He averaged 28.5 points per game during his senior year and was selected as the Basketball Player of the Year by the Alexandria Sportman’s Club. Jackson also ran track and placed third in the region for the high jump in 1995. He played collegiate basketball for John Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas for four years.

Stephens was a standout distance runner, winning the 1979 Northern Region and Virginia cross-country titles, the 1980 state indoor title at 3200 meters and the 1980 state outdoor title at 3200 meters. He ran the fourth fastest time in the history of the Burke Lake course in the Northern Region cross-country championship and set a record in the two-mile run at the state outdoor track and field championships, which has stood for 37 years. He had a successful collegiate career at Pennsylvania State University.

Stumpf was a three-year varsity oarsman and two-way starter and co-captain of the 1969 Northern Virginia champion football team. During his sophomore and senior year, his boats won the prestigious Stotesbury Cup. He won the U.S. National Championship as captain of the crew team in his senior year. After high school, he rowed at the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a gold medal at the Eastern Sprints and a bronze medal at the 1971 National Collegiate Championships. He spent 23 years as a naval aviator and flew 22 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and commanded the Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron. 

The hall of fame honored two coaches in addition to student athletes, including Albert E. Doran, who mentored local athletes from 1938 until he retired in 1970. He coached basketball, football, track, baseball and served as the first director of athletics at George Washington High School. He was named supervisor of athletics for ACPS in 1953, a position he held until he retired.

Jimmy Worden, a native Alexandrian who led the T.C. Williams boys varsity team to five district titles and the girls varsity team to a district tournament title, was also honored. He received the Alexandria Sportamsn’s Club Coach of the Year award three times and was recognized as district coach of the year by the Washington Post five times.

The ACPS Athletic Hall of Fame has inducted 36 athletes since it started in 2014 and seven others have been honored, including famed T.C. Williams football coaches Herman Boone and Bill Yoast, a 1971 State Championship football team and a student from the segregated Parker-Gray High School who coached football for the Olympics.

 

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