Union County Sports Hall of Fame inducts late founder

Union County Sports Hall of Fame board member Rod Mills speaks Saturday night during an induction ceremony for the organization's late founder, Randy Ross. (Matt Hutcheson/News-Times)
Union County Sports Hall of Fame board member Rod Mills speaks Saturday night during an induction ceremony for the organization's late founder, Randy Ross. (Matt Hutcheson/News-Times)

The Union County Sports Hall of Fame held an induction ceremony Saturday evening at the South Arkansas Arts Center for its newest honoree - the late Ralph Randall "Randy" Ross.

Ross, who died in April, was the founder of the county Hall of Fame and was inducted on the basis of "meritorious service" according to HOF board member Rod Mills.

The lobby at SAAC was decorated Saturday with portraits and information about each Hall of Fame inductee since 2011 alongside pictures of sports teams from various Union County schools, some of which no longer exist.

The ceremony honoring Ross featured presentations, organized by South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society curator Darrin Riley, focusing on previous HOF inductees and Ross himself, as well as words from Mills.

Mills credited Ross with being the impetus behind the Hall of Fame.

Ross grew up around sports, shadowing his coach father Ralph throughout his childhood and even later, when they coached together at Magnolia Junior High School.

He discovered a love for keeping statistics and records as a manager for the Magnolia High School basketball team as a high schooler and college student.

As an adult, he worked as a teacher, coach and for 19 years as a counselor at El Dorado High School.

He also continued involvement with sports including in the press boxes at EHS and Norphlet High School and through his son, Lee, who played baseball and football.

Starting in 1998, Ross penned books about local sports history including "50 Years of Norphlet Football: 1946-1996" and "The Almanac of El Dorado Football" and began collecting general history about local sports and memorabilia, according to the presentation about Ross.

The UCSHOF started in 2010 after Ross had a conversation with former state representative Bobby Newman about the Dallas County Sports Hall of Fame.

Ross gathered friends and acquaintances and formed an Advisory Board, which met for the first time in 2011 at the Norphlet United Methodist Church.

According to the presentation, Ross' research led to the discovery of some nearly-forgotten Union County sports stars, many of whom are now Hall of Fame members.

"Randy loved history and he loved exploring and doing research. If you knew Randy very well you knew that Randy loved to tell you what he had learned," Mills said.

"That's what made him such a good fit for the Union County Sports Hall of Fame, and it's what made it possible for our organization to remember the history of those men and women who played and competed and battled. A lot of that history was being swept over, would be lost forever - and that was very important to Randy," he continued.

The Meritorious Award, Mills said, is given to those local sports luminaries who "maybe didn't compete on the fields but did something that impacted young people or [local organizations]."

The award will also now be called the "Randy Ross Meritorious Service Award."

According to previous News-Times reporting, the Hall of Fame will continue to function with a 17-member advisory board with all of Union County represented. The Union County Sports Hall of Fame Museum, also Ross' brainchild, will continue to operate anytime the Gallery of History is open. It's located at 412 East Faulkner.

photo Ralph Randall Ross

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