Hall of Fame announces 2011 class

This year's primary honorees at the North Augusta Sports Hall of Fame's induction banquet are to be Beth McKie Meyer, Jim Bush, Sammy Twiggs and the entire 1961 North Augusta High School football team.

Meyer and the football team are featured in this week's Star, and plans are to have the spotlight on Bush and Twiggs next week.

The annual event is set for Feb. 11 at the Wesley Center (Grace United Methodist Church), starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at the Arts and Heritage Center of North Augusta.

Beth McKie Meyer

Meyer, now known largely as a teacher at North Augusta Elementary School, started her high-school career at Hanahan High School in Charleston as a freshman guard on the basketball team, averaging 14 points per game and being named to the all-conference team. She also played tennis and started on the 1974 state-champion volleyball team.

Following a family move to North Augusta, her prep career came to include a two-time Aiken County scoring title, all-county selections, all-conference selections and MVP status in basketball and tennis. As a sophomore, she set the single-game basketball scoring record (34 points) against Dreher and then broke the record as a junior (scoring 39) against Blackville-Hilda. She totaled 1,215 points in a prep career that ended in her junior year. As a junior averaging 23.4 points per game, she was selected as an all-state performer.

In 1978, she bypassed her senior year to accept a full scholarship to Augusta College (now Augusta State University).

As a starter from 1978-81, she averaged 20.4 points per game, en route to 1,836 career points - a record that stood for 16 years and was set before three-point shooting was introduced to college basketball.

She was an All State/Conference selection all four years in Augusta, and still holds the following records: career field goals (783), field-goal attempts at (1,591, including 49-percent shooting from the field), season free throws at (88.3 percent) and career free throws at (84.9 percent).

Following college, she became a teacher and has been at the task for 31 years. School roles have also been at North Augusta High (coaching varsity softball, tennis and junior-varsity basketball), Paul Knox Middle (basketball) and Jackson Middle (volleyball and basketball).

For more than a decade, she has coached recreation-league teams (boys and girls alike) in North Augusta. She and her husband, Rick Meyer, are members of First Baptist Church of North Augusta, as are their three children - Trey, Sarah and Kay - all of whom were honor students who played basketball for the Yellow Jackets.

1961 NAHS football team

The 1961 Yellow Jackets, with Cally Gault as head coach and Steve Griffin and Mike Smith as captains, were champions of the Sand Hills Conference and won the state AA title, with a record of 12-1 overall and 6-0 at home.

Results included a 20-0 opening win at home Sept. 1, 1961, against Butler, followed by the season's only loss - 21-9 at Richmond Academy, Sept. 8.

Following games were Sept. 15, 19-18 vs. Aquinas; Sept. 22, 14-7 at Orangeburg; Sept. 29, 34-0 vs. Clinton; Oct. 6, 33-6 at Langley-Bath-Clearwater; Oct. 13, 25-12 at Union; and 31-12 vs. Camden (for the Jackets' homecoming).

Results through the rest of the season were Oct. 27, 12-6 vs. Eau Claire; Nov. 3, 20-14 at Greenville; Nov. 10, 26-12 at Aiken; Nov. 17, 34-13 at Beaufort; and Nov. 23, for a 19-0 rematch against Clinton. It was North Augusta's second time to win the state title.

Heading into the championship game, North Augusta's leading rushers were Craig Baynham (995 yards), Gene Williams (719) and Sandy Smith (687 yards). In the championship game, Williams bagged two touchdowns and Baynham racked up one. Baynham, by the game's end, had a season total of 1,079 yards and had become the first-ever Jacket to exceed 1,000 rushing yards in a season.

Gault, with Jim Buist, Ray Burris and Webster Grayson as his assistants, was named as South Carolina's Coach of the Year.

Baynham, Williams and offensive guard Sonny Anderson each earned all-state designations.

Gene Williams and Craig Baynham shared honors as the North Augusta Star Most Outstanding Player. Sonny Anderson was named as the A.L. Metz Best Blocker, and Jimmy Day bagged the Frank Rogers Sportsmanship Award.

Bobby Stillwell (who was the starting quarterback until suffering a broken arm during the season's fourth week) took the top scholastic honor, and Harold Warlick was named as "most valuable scrub."