NFL star, SC champions will visit Rock Hill for alma mater HOF induction
The markings on the right side of the white board in Northwestern track and field coach Calvin Hudgins’ office — the ones that mark the accomplishments of Angelina Blackmon — can’t be erased. Literally.
The marker ink that has permanently dried to the board seems to hold some symbolism: It’s not likely that anyone will ever do what Blackmon did two decades ago, Hudgins said.
Blackmon and several other Northwestern High School legends, including a recently retired NFL star, will be under one roof next week when they’re inducted into their alma mater’s athletic Hall of Fame. The event will take place at halftime of the Northwestern-Rock Hill boys’ basketball game on Tuesday, which tips off at 7:30 p.m.
In total, five former Trojan athletes will be inducted: Blackmon (Class of 2004), Benjamin Watson (1999), Benjie Young (1992), Brandon Hudgins (2005) and Tom Sparks (began work here in 1984).
Northwestern High School athletic director Jimmy Duncan said he put together a committee of former Hall of Fame inductees, who met multiple times over the past several months and ultimately voted on the group.
“We had over 100 nominees for this year’s class,” Duncan, who began as athletic director at Northwestern in January 2020, told The Herald earlier this week. “I mean, it’s unreal, the history that I started to learn from these meetings and going through these individual stories and pasts.”
Northwestern’s inaugural Hall of Fame class was inducted in 2008, featuring track coach Bob Jenkins and football player Jeff Burris among others. The school inducted classes in 2009-13 and 2015 — but hasn’t had another class until this year (considered 2020).
“It kind of gives me goosebumps now just thinking about the rich tradition and history that Northwestern has, and being able to hear first-hand accounts of that,” Duncan said. “Not just going through and seeing old trophies and banners and patches, but hearing from coaches and players and teammates that were a part of these stories — it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to do as an athletic director.”
Meet the inductees below.
Benjamin Watson, football
Watson moved to Rock Hill when he was in the 10th grade in 1996 and attended Northwestern High School. After making a name in a town that would later call itself Football City, USA, the tight end played college football at Duke for one year and then transferred to Georgia, where he majored in finance and spent the 2001-03 seasons.
He was later selected by the New England Patriots as the 32nd pick in the 2004 draft and spent six successful seasons there. In the next decade, he’d make his way around the league — competing for the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens before spending his last season with the Patriots in 2019 and retiring.
Watson is one of seven players from Northwestern High to spend multiple years in the NFL, a list that boasts the likes of Rick Sanford, Jeff Burris, Derek Ross, Johnathan Joseph, Cordarrelle Patterson and Mason Rudolph. He finished his career with 547 catches for 6,058 yards and 44 touchdowns. Watson has remained active in retirement, embarking on new ventures, including starting a podcast he hosts with his wife, Kristen, where they discuss everything from raising their seven children, to their Christian faith, and more.
Angelina Blackmon, XC and track
According to a former assistant coach and fellow 2020 Hall of Fame inductee, Benjie Young, Blackmon is the “G.O.A.T. of this class.”
The four-year Trojan broke several school track and cross-country records while she ran in Rock Hill, including winning 11 gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal across all her years and events. She won two individual track state titles each in the 1600, 3200 and 4x400 and one in the 4x800; two team track and field state championships (2003 and 2004) and two individual cross country state championships (2000, 2001).
Blackmon went on to run at North Carolina State University, where she won an ACC title in the 800 at the 2008 ACC Indoor Championships. Her sister, Tiayonna, followed in her footsteps four years later when Tiayonna joined Angelina (who was then a redshirt senior) at NCSU in the 2008-09 season.
Benjie Young, football
Young was a monster as a Trojan: The linebacker was voted the team’s Defensive MVP his senior year and was a two-time All-Region selection and a Shrine Bowl selection. After that, he became a three-year contributor at the University of South Carolina, where he was voted the team’s defensive player of the year.
Young rose to prominence as a football player, but he also was quite the high school track and field athlete: He was an all-region shotput selection and all-state in the 4x100 event. He also coached for a while — having a hand in Northwestern football’s 1997 state championship and two girls’ track team championships.
Tom Sparks, baseball
Sparks more commonly goes by “Dr. Sparks” now.
The now-associate athletic director, who served as interim athletic director immediately before Duncan began his tenure in January 2020, is one of the most decorated baseball players to step foot on Northwestern’s campus, even if he didn’t graduate from the school: The left-handed pitcher and Signal Mountain, Tenn., native earned his spot in the UT-Chattanooga Baseball Hall of Fame and the Chattanooga/Hamilton County Hall of Fame, and later spent time in the Braves’ farm system from 1973 to 1976.
After his baseball career, he went into education and was successful there, too. He began as a math teacher and baseball coach in Chattanooga before moving in 1984 to Rock Hill, where he taught and simultaneously earned a master’s degree from Winthrop. He accepted an assistant superintendent position in Lexington School District 3 in 2003 and even became a superintendent at Orangeburg County Consolidated School District 4 in 2009 before coming back to Northwestern High in 2010.
Brandon Hudgins, xc and track
Hudgins remains in Northwestern track and cross country lore for what he’s done — and is still doing — on and off the track.
Hudgins, who’s the son of the aforementioned Northwestern cross country and track and field coach of 24 years, Calvin, has a remarkable resume: He ran a 4:16 in the 1600 to win a South Carolina state title as a senior. After graduating from Northwestern, he ran at Winthrop for two years, graduated, and then ran another two years as a graduate student at App State, where he notched personal bests in multiple events. In 2015, he became the 448th American to break 4:00 in the mile at the Sir Walter Miler event in Raleigh.
But his accomplishments alone don’t tell Hudgins’ full story.
Hudgins has granulomatosis with polyangiitis (commonly referred to as “GPA”), a rare autoimmune disease that affects blood vessels that can prompt a variety of health problems. His running career took a scary pause in his final two years at Winthrop while fighting off some of the disease’s consequences — hearing loss, breathing problems, Bell’s Palsy and a deviated septum — and he endured consistent chemotherapy treatments and surgery before the age of 23.
He’s had more health issues since then, including two relapses in 2013 and 2014, but he’s still running and fighting to raise awareness and funds for his disease as a leader of the Victory Over Vasculitis campaign, hoping to use his personal experience and educational background to affect as many patients living with vasculitis as possible.
Hudgins will be honored on Tuesday but will not be present at the event.
When and where?
When? Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Where? Northwestern High School main gym.
Tickets? You can purchase tickets ahead of time online at NorthwesternTrojans.org/event-tickets. Due to COVID-19 protocols, Northwestern can only allow the gym to 25% capacity. Mask-wearing and social distancing will be enforced, Duncan said.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 12:55 PM.
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