Four record-setting performers, including two in football and two in basketball, comprise the 2012-13 Class of the Jacksonville State University Athletic Hall of Fame.
Basketball’s Charles Burkett and Wayne Wigley and football’s Joe Kines and Rusty Fuller will be formally inducted on Friday, Nov. 22, the night before the Gamecocks’ home football regular-seasor finale against Southeast Missouri State.
Burkett is one of the best players to ever wear a Gamecock Basketball uniform and earned All-American honors in 1992. During his three-year career, he led the Gamecocks to an impressive 72-13, a pair of Gulf South Conference Championships and two berths into the NCAA Elite Eight. He became just the 15th player in JSU history to score 1,000 points and finished his career with 1,317 points in just three seasons.
Burkett was named the Gulf South Conference Player of the Year as a senior after averaging 18.4 points and 10.0 rebounds, helping the Gamecocks post a 28-2 record and advance to the Elite Eight in 1991-92. He earned All-GSC honors as a junior after finishing second in the league in scoring with 19.1 points per game and first in rebounding with 10.2.
Burkett averaged 9.2 points and seven rebounds in a sixth-man role during his first year at Jax State. He scored a career-high 37 points in JSU’s 102-80 win at Athens State during his junior season, while grabbing a career-best 21 rebounds in an 118-84 win over Campbellsville his senior year.
The Montgomery native ranks in the Top 15 in JSU basketball history in career scoring and in the Top 10 in career rebounding (769), field goal percentage (.571) and field goals made (515).
Fuller was a four-year letterman for Jacksonville State and helped the team to a pair of Gulf South Conference Championships and played for JSU Hall of Fame Coach Jim Fuller and posted a 32-10 record during his career.
Fuller ranks near the top in JSU’s receiving lists, finishing his career with 120 pass receptions, which ranked second on the school’s all-time list, an especially impressive feat coming from a tight end. He ranked fourth on the school’s career pass receiving yardage list with 1,404 yards and he set the school record with 17 career touchdown receptions in his career.
He earned All-Gulf South Conference honors in both 1982 and 1983. He had 17 catches for 189 yards as a senior and was named to the All-GSC squad. As a junior in 1982, he helped the Gamecocks post a 10-2 record and a GSC Championship by catching 38 passes for 427 yards and seven touchdowns to earn All-GSC honors.
In 1981 as a sophomore, he had 39 catches for 529 yards and eight touchdowns to help JSU to an 8-3 record and a GSC Championship. He finished with 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns during his freshman season. He had one of his best games in the 1981 NCAA playoffs, when he hauled in eight passes for 132 yards and a touchdown at Southwest Texas State.
Kines played football for Jacksonville State for three seasons from 1963-65 and won three-straight Alabama Collegiate Conference Championships with the Gamecocks. As a senior in 1965, he helped JSU post a 6-2 record in the first season under head coach Jim Blevins.
The Piedmont, Ala., native played for Hall of Fame coach Don Salls in 1963 and 1964, when the team posted back-to-back 4-4-1 records. Kines earned both his bachelors and masters degrees from Jacksonville State.
Kines began his coaching career at Jacksonville State, where he worked for Clarkie Mayfield from 1973-76. He was the Gamecocks’ defensive coordinator and assistant head coach in 1976, before moving to Clemons to be the linebackers coach from 1977-78. He then served as linebackers coach/defensive coordinator at Florida from 1979-84 under former JSU head coach Charley Pell and then at the University of Alabama under Ray Perkins from 1985-86.
Kines coached linebackers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League from 1987-90 prior to joining former JSU head coach Jack Crowe’s staff at Arkansas as defensive coordinator, where he posted a 3-6-1 record while serving as interim head coach during the 1992 season.
Kines also served as defensive coordinator at Arkansas (1993-94) and Georgia (1995-99) and was the linebackers coach at Florida State under Bobby Bowden from 2000-02. Kines was the defensive coordinator at Alabama from 2003-06 and served as the interim head coach for the Cimson Tide’s appearance in the 2006 Independence Bowl. He finished his coaching career as the defensive coordinator at Texas A&M in 2008-09 before his retirement.
Wigley played basketball at Jacksonville State and helped the Gamecocks win their fourth and fifth consecutive Alabama Collegiate Conference Championships in record-breaking fashion.
After playing two seasons at Snead State and earning Most Valuable Player honors in the Alabama Junior College Conference, Wigley signed with the Gamecocks and played his final two years for hall of fame coach Tom Roberson.
As a junior in 1968-69, he started all 24 games and averaged 12 points per game, despite sharing playing time with all-conference guards Gary Angel and Bill Brantely. He finished the season with 288 points and 103 rebounds, while hitting 84 of his 97 attempts from the free throw line to help JSU post a 19-5 record.
As a senior, he was selected Capatain and voted Most Valuable Player in the 1969-70 season, when he and teammate Danny Brian each set the school’s single-season scoring record with 509.
Wigley averaged 18.8 points and was named the Most Valuable Player on the All-Alabama Small College Team. He also scored a season-high 29 points in a 109-96 win over Samford and helped the Gamecocks win their fifth-straight ACC Championship with a school-record 22 wins to just five losses.
Wigley became the first player to be voted the Most Valuable Player at both the Junior College and Small College levels in the State of Alabama.
(jsugamecocksports.com)