UAM To Add Six To Sports Hall Of Fame (8/29/11)

MONTICELLO, AR — A record-setting quarterback, a national decathlon champion and a game-breaking halfback highlight the class of 2011 selected for induction to the University of Arkansas at Monticello Sports Hall of Fame.
            Cory Allred, who passed and ran for 7,988 yards in just two seasons as the Boll Weevils’ starting quarterback, headlines the 2011 class. Joining Allred are Greg Culp, the 1982 NAIA national decathlon champion, assistant football and head baseball coach Harold Steelman, basketball standout Becky Brown, all-conference halfback Russell Bulloch, and the late Tommy Scifres, a two-way lineman on three-straight conference championship teams.
            Buddy Carson, a member of the famed “Wandering Weevil” football team in 1940 and 1941, will receive the Boll Weevil Spirit Award for his contributions to UAM athletics.
            Allred transferred to UAM in 2003 from Antelope Valley Community College in California and shattered both the UAM and Gulf South Conference record books in his first season. Allred set a GSC single season total offense record with 4,267 yards and was named the league’s offensive player of the year while earning second team All-America honors from d2football.com.
            On November 8, 2003, Allred put on one of the most brilliant individual displays in school or conference history in a 55-50 overtime win over Henderson State. Allred passed for 426 yards and six touchdowns and ran for 60 yards and two scores to account for 486 yards and a staggering eight touchdowns.
            As a senior in 2004, Allred accounted for 3,721 total yards to finish his Boll Weevil career with 7,070 yards passing and 918 yards rushing. He was a finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy presented annually to the outstanding player in NCAA Division II.
            Greg Culp was one of the most versatile athletes in school history, earning All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference and NAIA All-America recognition. As a sophomore, Culp earned all-conference honors in both the decathlon and the 110-meter high hurdles. As a junior, Culp was even better, winning the decathlon at the University of Kentucky Relays, placing fourth at the Florida State Relays, and winning the AIC decathlon championship. Culp established a then-Arkansas collegiate record (all divisions) for the decathlon by scoring 7,465 points at a meet at Harding University. He capped his UAM career by winning the 1982 NAIA national decathlon title and only an injury the next year prevented him from attending the 1984 Olympic Trials.
            Russell Bulloch was lightning in a bottle for the Boll Weevil football team in the early 1950s. Bulloch was the backfield star of the 1953 team that won the first AIC championship in any sport in school history. The ’53 Weevils posted a 7-2 record for Coach Jim Benton while Bulloch earned All-AIC honors as a halfback while also returning kicks and punts and playing defensive back in the era of one-platoon football.
            Bulloch returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown against Southern State (now SAU) in 1952 and averaged 20.1 yards a return that season. In 1953 Bulloch rushed for 121 yards on just 14 carries in a 19-7 win over the College of the Ozarks and gained 115 yards on just 9 carries, including a 70-yard TD scamper, in a 31-14 win over Southern State that clinched the ’53 league title.
            Becky Brown (Becky Jones in her playing days) scored 1,276 points as a member of the Cotton Blossoms basketball team from 1984 to 1988 and still ranks 12th in career scoring. Jones played in 118 games for the Blossoms and was part of UAM teams that won 84 games and the 1987 AIC championship.
            For the past 20 years, Brown has coached girls basketball at Star City High School, compiling a career record of 550 wins and 117 losses to make her one of the most successful prep coaches in the Arkansas high school ranks. Her Star City teams have won 13 conference championships, eight regional championships and made 19 consecutive appearances in the state tournament, reaching the Final Four three times and earning two runner-up finishes.
            Brown has coached the East in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star Game five times. She is a four-time Southeast Arkansas Coach of the Year and in 2001 was named both the Arkansas High School Coaches Association and National Federation Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
            Harold Steelman was an assistant football coach on Jimmy “Red” Parker’s staff at UAM (then Arkansas A&M) from 1962 to 1965 and served three seasons as head baseball coach. Steelman is best known in Arkansas sporting circles as a member of the University of Arkansas’ “25 Little Pigs” who captured the 1954 Southwest Conference football championship.
            Steelman lettered for the Razorbacks as a lineman in 1954 and 1955 before beginning his coaching career at Arkansas High School in Texarkana. Steelman followed Parker to The Citadel and served as an assistant there as well as at Louisiana-Monroe. Steelman was head coach at Arkansas Tech from 1980 to 1985 and managed War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for 13 years before retiring in 1999.
            During Steelman’s coaching tenure at UAM, the Boll Weevils won conference football championships in 1963 and 1965 and back-to-back league baseball titles in 1963-64.
            The late Tommy Scifres was one of the AIC’s best two-way linemen on the league’s best team. Scifres lettered three years (1955, ’56 and ’57) and earned All-AIC honors in 1957 as a tackle. During Scifres’ playing career, the Boll Weevils posted records of 7-2, 7-1-1, and 9-2 while winning three consecutive AIC championships under head coach Convoy Leslie.
            Scifres was part of a Boll Weevil defensive line that allowed one touchdown or less to 21 opponents over a three-year period and recorded six shutouts.
            Buddy Carson was a halfback and quarterback on the 1940 and ’41 “Wandering Weevil” teams that traveled the country from coast to coast, garnering national publicity as the Marx Brothers of college football. A retired businessman living in Monticello, the 90-year-old Carson is an avid supporter of Boll Weevil athletics, particularly the football team.

Cory Allred	Wandering Weevil Buddy Carson	Greg Culp	Russell Bulloch
Becky Brown	Harold Steelman	Tommy Scifres	Buddy Carson