After launching the Portal High School Hall of Fame with six honorees last year, the committee will induct seven additional Hall of Fame members with a public ceremony at 4 p.m. Saturday in the Portal Middle High School media center.
Portal High’s Hall of Fame is not limited to athletes – although they dominate this year’s list – and can also include alumni of the historic Willow Hill School from the years before integration, said Jennifer Yates, secretary of the Portal High School Hall of Fame Committee.
But all of the 2019 inductees graduated from Portal High School. Three are living, while four are being honored posthumously.
“It’s not just sports,” said Yates. “Our bylaws, basically, say that we are to recognize and honor past high school graduates of Portal High and Willow Hill, Willow Hill being a community school before it merged with Portal High, who have distinguished themselves in academics, athletics and-or extracurricular activities, and also as adults have continued to be positive role models for the youth of today.”
The 4 p.m. ceremony in the media center will precede the Panthers’ Senior Night basketball games in the PMHS gym against the Jenkins County War Eagles. The girls’ game will start at 6 p.m., followed by Senior Night activities and then the boys’ game around 7:30.
Several, but not all, of the 2019 inductees-to-be had basketball connections. Several, but not all, went on to careers as teachers, school administrators or coaches.
Living inductees
Charles Huff, Class of 1981, who has made football his career, will be one of the living inductees. After his performance for Portal High earned him a spot on the team at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, Huff went on to play a few seasons in the NFL, first for the San Francisco 49ers and then for the Atlanta Falcons. Huff has coached in several college football programs and as of the 2018 season is defensive backs coach at Alabama A&M.
Former Portal Mayor Larry W. Motes, Class of 1966, is also becoming a Hall of Fame member in his lifetime. After graduation, Motes joined the Army and served in the Vietnam War and later, with the Georgia National Guard, in Operation Desert Storm. He has operated several businesses and also worked as a mail carrier in Portal for more than 30 years. Motes served on Portal City Council 1998-2004, and then as mayor until 2016.
As mayor, Motes secured a grant of more than $400,000 to help build Portal’s sewer system, which Yates said was instrumental in the Board of Education’s decision to build the current Portal Middle High School building, completed less than 10 years ago.
Harvey Williams Sr., Class of 1975, operates Harvey’s Paint & Body Shop in Portal and has served as an assistant coach with the high school’s varsity basketball program since 2006, working with Coach Jeff Brannen. While playing for the Panthers in his student years, Williams was voted Best Defensive Player and Most Valuable Player and then went to Brewton-Parker College.
Posthumous inductees
The late John Donald Akins, Class of 1957, played basketball for Portal High when the Panther boys finished second in the state his senior year, Yates said. After college, Akins worked as an educator in several school systems, including back at Portal High, where he was a counselor and assistant basketball coach and then principal for a few years.
Similarly, the late Viola Stewart Brack, Class of 1948, played basketball when the Portal girls won their district and competed at the state level her senior year. But Brack made her most enduring contribution to Portal High when she returned after college and taught for 40-plus years. History was her main subject.
The late James Ralph Miller, Class of 1955, played basketball for Portal High and then for Stetson University in Florida, where he attained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He was named Stetson’s Outstanding Athlete in 1959. Miller made his career in Florida, teaching for years at Crescent City High School and then serving as principal at other schools, including Flagler Palm Coast High School, and as an assistant superintendent.
Another posthumous inductee will be the late Edward Motes, PHS Class of 1972. He helped form Portal High’s first Booster Club, serving as its first president, and “helped with numerous renovations, baseball field, football field, locker rooms, things like that,” Yates said. Edward Motes had played both basketball and baseball while a student, and became active as a booster while his children were in school.
“Anyone who would like to attend is welcome to attend,” said Yates, who added that the committee’s application process for Hall of Fame nominations is open year-round
The application is available on the school’s website, https://pmhs.bullochschools.org, and nominations now will be for the 2020 induction.