12 athletes, 3 teams into Cabarrus Hall of Fame

The ceremony to enshrine 12 people and three teams will be held Saturday, Oct. 27, at 5 p.m. at the Boys and Girls Club of Cabarrus County. Admission is free.

“These are outstanding people who made positive impacts and some are still making positive impacts on our communities even beyond the athletic field,” said William “Andy” Andrews, a member of the hall board of directors. “Everyone should be proud of the teams and people being honored.”

The teams are all state champions: the 1946 Kannapolis American Legion team; the 1968 Logan Tigers; and the 1971 Northwest Cabarrus 3-A state champion baseball team.

Still coaching

Tolonda Rose Simmons, the women’s basketball coach at Hickory Ridge High, was an outstanding basketball play for the A.L. Brown Wonders, graduating in 1985. She went on to play for the Charlotte 49ers before becoming a teacher and coach.

As a senior, the Wonders won the South Piedmont Conference title with a 16-0 league record. She was the team’s Most Valuable Player.

Simmons was the head coach at Barber-Scotia College and later an assistant for Charlotte, Winthrop and Providence Day High School (two state titles there)

After a year at Concord Middle, she became the head coach for Hickory Ridge’s women’s basketball team. The Ragin’ Bulls have thrived under her leadership. Hickory Ridge was 31-1 in 2017, losing in the closing seconds to Northern Guilford in the state 3-A title game. In 2018, her team finished 28-1, falling to Audrey Kell in the state 4-A quarter finals.

High scorer

Brenda Thompson Helms, a 1958 graduate of A.L. Brown, set the South Piedmont Conference single game scoring record.

In 1958 as a senior, Helms led A.L. Brown to a 20-2 record and the WNCHSAA State title. She averaged 37 points per game and set the SPC record with 82 against Albemarle. That season she had games with 54, 50, 47, 47, 46, 46, 46, 45, 43 and 37 points.

Helms played in the 1958 East-West All Star game. She later went to work for Bank of America, retiring in 2005.

Cousins into the hall

Two cousins, Kenneth “Ken” Argo and the late Donald Eugene “Don” Argo from Kannapolis are going into the hall this year. Ken starred in football, baseball and track. He was named a national High School All-American in football in 1951. He was also senior class president at A.L. Brown in the 1952, the first year the school was open.

Don Argo was an outstanding football and baseball player. He was named to the All-State football team in 1953 and to the Shrine Bowl. He also played for the 1954 Wonders baseball team that won the 1954 WNCHSAA title.

Three-time champion coach

Bruce Hardin, a Chase High and Appalachian State graduate, led the A.L. Brown Wonders to the 3-A football state championships in 1989 and 1997. He was named NCHSAA Coach of the Year in 1997 and was the association’s Athletic Director of the Year in 1999.

Hardin compiled a record of 332 wins and 110 losses during his football coaching career that also included a stint at Providence Day, which he won a state independent schools title. His teams won 17 conference titles and were runner-up in the state three times. He was also an assistant coach at The Citadel and the U.S. Military Academy.

Big leaguers

Three 2018 inductees made it to the Major Leagues, two as players and one as a scout.

The late William Fred Chapman graduated from J.W. Cannon High School in 1934, where he was a standout in football, basketball and baseball.

After a year at Wingate, he signed with the Washington Senators and played 14 seasons in the minor leagues in the Senators, Philadelphia Athletics, Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox organizations.

He was promoted to the Athletics in 1939 and played their through 1941. In 76 games, he batted .193. His big league days were cut short by World War II. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1942-46. He came home to play in the minors again through 1953.

His minor state were 1568 games, 5736 at bats, 1603 hits and a batting average of .279. He later coached the Kannapolis Post 115 American Legion team and worked as a foreman in Cannon Mills Plant 1 in the Dye Department for many years.

Dixie Upright attended J.W. Cannon High School in the 1940s when the school didn’t field a baseball team due to World War II. He left for the U.S. Army in 1943 and served through the end of the war.

Back home, Upright played semi-pro baseball before signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947. He posted outstanding seasons with the Pirates and White Sox minor league teams before getting called up to the St. Louis Browns.

In his debut, April 18, 1953, Upright hit a home run off future hall of famer Bob Lemon. His big league career only lasted nine games as a pinch hitter. He had a batting average of .250.

Upright’s best season was 1958 when he hit .343 with 17 home runs and 116 RBI for the Amarillo Gold Sox. In 12 years in the minors, he played in 1327 games, batted 4815 times with 1498 hits, 141 home runs and a batting average of .311.

John G. Pare, a graduate of Miami Senior High in 1938, played in the Florida State League before signing with the Concord Weavers in Class D baseball. In 1939-40, he caught 1672 consecutive innings for the Weavers.

Pare signed with the Baltimore Orioles, then in the AAA International League, and was hitting .375 when he came down with a severe case of the flu. He never fully recovered.

With his playing days over, Pare became a minor manager and later a Major League scout for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox.

Daughter of a Hall of Famer

Audrey Lee Smith Bost, a 1998 graduate of Concord High, starred in basketball, volleyball and softball for the Spiders.

Bost, the daughter of retired Coach EZ Smith III, was selected to the All-Cabarrus County and the All-Piedmont basketball teams for three straight seasons. She was all-conference in volleyball two seasons and three seasons in softball.

Her many honors included being named the 1997-98 Cabarrus County Female Athlete of the Year.

Bost, a graduate of N.C. State University, is now the Dean of Students at Vance High School.

From Kannapolis to the NFL

 Tracy Illya Johnson only played one year at A.L. Brown, but had a major impact on the Wonders’ state 3-A runner-up football season in 1985.

Johnson, who was born in Concord, helped the Wonders to a 13-1 season, scoring 19 touchdowns and rushing for 732 yards. He played in the East-West All-Star Game.

Later as a fullback for Clemson, Johnson was a leader on the team that went to four straight bowl games, including the 35-10 win over Penn State in 1987 Florida Citrus Bowl. He scored three TDs for the Tigers in that game.

Johnson went on to play eight season in the NFL, spending time with the Houston Oilers, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He and his wife, Stephanie, now own and operate a clothing manufacturing company in Duluth, Georgia.

A leader at Wake Forest

Kenneth A. Moser, a 1960 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School, starred in basketball, baseball and football. He led the conference in scoring in basketball his senior season. He also pitched and played first base for the Concord Post 51 baseball.

Moser went to Wake Forest, where he played freshman basketball and ran cross country.

After being freshman class president, he continued in student leadership roles and was the senior class president in 1965. He went on to get his law degree from Wake Forest.

Moser, who retired after 42 years practicing law, has been active in many civic organizations and with Wake Forest.

Golden Gloves champion

James Clary Phillips might be best known around Concord for singing in the St. James Lutheran Church choir for 40 years or acting with The Old Courthouse Theatre for 10 years, but back in the day he was champion boxer.

Phillips started boxing at the Boys Club in 1948 in the Flyweight (98 lbs.) and worked his way up to Bantamweight (112 lbs.). He won Junior Flyweight Golden Gloves Championship in Burlington in 1949 and won the main event at the Polio Drive Benefits Fight in 1950.

He earned an invite to the summer training program with the U.S. Marine Corps in 1950, but it was interrupted by the Korean War. He went to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard. After the war, he returned to Concord High and graduated.

He finished his boxing career in 1964 as the runner-up in the North Carolina/South Carolina Open Division 112 lbs. for the North Carolina Golden Gloves Tournament.

His OCT acting career also included a best actor’s award.