Cherokee County Sports Hall of Fame member, Coach Eugene Weatherly, will be among 12 inductees recognized on Monday, March 17th Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame banquet in Montgomery. 

Weatherly, now deceased, was selected in the “Old Timer” category. After a stint in the Army in World War II, he returned to graduate from Gadsden’s Carver High School in 1948 where he served as captain of the football and basketball teams.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Alabama State and his masters from Georgia State.

After college he was hired in Cherokee County in 1953 at Hatcher High School where he became not only the first coach in school history but also remained as the only coach the school ever had. He was named Coach of the Year by the Northeastern Interscholastic Athletic Association twice (1961 and 1968).

His 1961 boys basketball team went undefeated before losing in the state finals and his football teams won district titles in 1961 and 1967. He coached Anniston’s Cobb Avenue High School basketball team from 1971-74, then ended his coaching career with 21 years at the Georgia School for the Deaf. His 1990 team won the Mason-Dixon basketball tournament.

Other nominees include football coaches Mike Battles and Larry Morris, administrators Richard “Dickie” Brown and James “Jim” Garner, girls basketball coaches Donnie Roberts and Mike Smith, boys basketball coaches Major Lane, Alvin Moore and Tony Stallworth, volleyball coach Nancy Shoquist, and contributor Dr. James “Jimmy” Robinson.