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Tickets are still available for the Tullahoma Sports Council 2026 Hall of Fame ceremonies to be held this coming Saturday evening.

The nominees will be inducted at the Annual Tullahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet to be held on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 at the D.W. Wilson Community Center, located at 501 N. Collins St. L&H Distributing and First Bank will be the title sponsors for the event with Tullahoma Department of Parks and Recreation taking a significant role in additional sponsorship and support. The eventful evening will begin with a reception and social hour at 5 p.m. The induction ceremony with reserved seating will begin at 7 p.m.

Sponsorship opportunities are available and are being filled quickly. Members of the sports council will be reaching out to the community to fill the remaining sponsorship spots. Tickets for the evening’s festivities will be provided to the inductees and their families and remaining seats will be limited and offered to the public. For information on how to become a sponsor or for tickets, please contact the Tullahoma Sports Council at tullahomasportscouncil@gmail.com.

The 2026 slate of inductees includes:

•  The 1980 THS Men’s State Champion Golf Team. Members of the team include Scott Copeland, Clay Usleton, Brent Richardson and Bill Zebick. The team won the tournament with a combined score of 615.

•  Maurice Shaw, a 1986 graduate of Tullahoma High School, set and broke multiple rushing records as a running back for the Wildcats. Shaw surpassed the records set by his first coach, the late Frank Mullins which had stood since 1956. Shaw went on to play football for and graduate from Ole Miss. After graduating Ole Miss, Shaw chose to forego a possible professional career and return to Tullahoma where he is a Football and Track coach for Tullahoma High School.

•  Milner Russell Carden, affectionately known as Coach Carden originally came to Tullahoma with his new bride, Martha after an honorable discharge from the Navy and graduating MTSU in 1957. Coach Carden served as the football coach, track coach, cross country coach and an educator at East Junior High School/Middle School and then at Tullahoma High School teaching economics and history. Coach Carden was also instrumental in bringing Grider Stadium to Tullahoma and retired from the Tullahoma City School system in 1987. He passed from this life in 2015 and is survived by his wife Martha and daughter Beth Carden Watson.

•  David Hess is a 2015 graduate of Tullahoma High School and has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles, Miami Marlins, and Tampa Bay Rays. Hess played baseball at Tullahoma High School in Tullahoma, Tennessee. As a senior, he had a 8–1 win–loss record with a 1.91 earned run average (ERA) along with batting .393 with eight home runs. After high school, he enrolled at Tennessee Technological University and played college baseball for the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. In 2014, his junior year, he pitched to a 9-3 record with a 3.24 ERA in 16 starts. On October 13, 2021, Hess announced via Twitter that he would undergo chemotherapy after doctors discovered a cancerous tumor in his chest. On Jan. 28, 2022, Hess was “cured” and cleared for baseball activities. However, on May 27, 2023, Hess announced that his cancer had returned and that he would begin chemotherapy again. David took to social media on Feb. 27 to announce that his last PET scan showed no signs of cancer. “The devil can scrap but the lord has won,” said Hess on his X social media account. “We got scan results showing no evidence of disease and for the first time since this whole journey started we can officially say currently I’m cancer-free!” David is currently a pitcher for the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He and his devoted wife Devin live in Greenville, SC.

•  Gary Barfield, former Motlow softball coach and current Tullahoma High School head coach has been inducted into the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association Hall of Fame. Barfield graduated from Tullahoma in 1987, where he was a three-year letterman in football, basketball and baseball. Following his time as a Wildcat, Barfield signed to Columbia State on a baseball and basketball scholarship. After one season in Columbia, he elected to transfer to Motlow to play baseball for then-head coach Don Rhoton. Following a year in Lynchburg and becoming a Motlow graduate, Barfield played his final two years of eligibility at the University of Tennessee at Martin. As a team captain at UT-Martin, Barfield helped lead the Skyhawks to one of the most successful years in school history. In fact, Barfield is still in the UT-Martin record books, for hitting the most home runs in a single game, three, in a win against Christian Brothers in 1991. After his playing days, Barfield came back to serve as an assistant coach for the Bucks’ baseball team, serving on Rhoton’s staff. In the summer of 1997, he was then hired to take over the Lady Bucks’ softball program. In his time at Motlow, Barfield led the Lady Bucks to regular-season TCCAA softball championships in 2003 and 2006. Those same seasons, he was selected as the conference’s coach of the year. The Lady Bucks also finished as state runner-up in 10 other seasons and were consistently ranked in the NJCAA Top 20. The 2001 Motlow squad set a school record with 58 wins on the year. That same team also led the NJCAA in home runs, hitting 109 on the season. In 14 seasons at the helm of the Motlow softball program, Barfield compiled an overall record of 526-233. Included in those marks was the program’s lone TCCAA Championship in 2009. That same season also saw the Lady Bucks make it into the National Junior College Athletic Association, the program’s only appearance in the tournament. Barfield also served as athletic director at Motlow State Community College, before stepping down from both positions in 2011. Even before taking over, Barfield had a connection to the Lady Bucks softball program. His father, George Barfield, a former grounds department employee at Motlow, built the Lady Bucks’ field in the early 1990s. According to Barfield, that close-knit relationship is what made the Motlow program unique. Barfield and his wife, Tracy, have two daughters, Aly and Katie, both of whom spent an ample amount of time around the Lady Bucks softball players.

•  Estelle Williams Duff, graduated Tullahoma High School in 1989 as the TSSAA Ladies State Champion in the 300 Meter Low Hurdles with a time of 45.50. She is a mother of four and lives and works in Nashville.

In addition to the aforementioned inductees, the Sports Council will recognize the 2025 TMSAA State Champion in the Shot Put, Price Harden. Price is an eighth grader at West Middle School and set the record with a throw of 44.5 feet.