The nation’s top wide receiver, the first volleyball inductee, a world champion barrel racer, an Olympian and several successful coaches in football, track and tennis are among the inductees in the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame’s 2025 Induction Class.
The 24th annual banquet is set for April 14 at the Abilene Convention Center. Tickets are $75 each, and tables of 8 can be purchased for $1,000, which includes admission to the VIP reception prior to the banquet. To order tickets, go online to bigcountryhalloffame.org or call the Museum at (325) 704-1759. The annual induction banquet is our only annual fundraiser and allows us the opportunity to serve the Big Country by honoring local athletic excellence.
The Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame will again award twelve $1,500 college scholarships to graduating senior athletes from the Big Country. Including this year, the Hall of Fame will have given out $160,000 in college scholarships.
The Hall of Fame Museum is open seven days a week in the Mall of Abilene, and admission is
free of charge.
This year’s class includes Calli Corley from Abilene High, Leslie Harrison from Anson and Stamford, James Washington from Stamford, Mickey Early from Rotan, Sam Harrell from Brownwood and Bill Grissom from Winters. Inducted posthumously as the Bill Hart Memorial Legends Award recipients are Fred Kniffen from Clyde and Julian “Tex” Robertson from Sweetwater.
The Pat Gerald Memorial Legacy Award recipient is the Hood family, which includes the late Don Hood and his sons Don D., Derek and Joel. Lastly, the late Ike Groce will be honored with the Big Country Impact Award.
Here is a brief bio of each inductee:
- Calli Corley was a three-sport athlete at Abilene High in volleyball, basketball and track. She was an all-state volleyball player and District MVP as a senior. Corley also earned all-district honors in basketball and is a two-time state qualifier in the 100-meter hurdles. In addition, she won the Bev Ball Award as the top female athlete at Abilene High. Corley then played volleyball for four years at TCU and still holds the TCU career record with 1,406 digs.
- Leslie Harrison grew up in Anson and still lives in Stamford. She is a six-time World Champion and two-time Reserve World Champion as an Amateur Select with the American Quarter Horse Association. She has won six National Barrel Horse Association Senior 1-D champion titles and seven championships in the Open category. She was a part of the only all girl rodeo team to make the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association finals.
- James Washington was a standout receiver on Stamford’s back-to-back state championship football teams in 2012 and 2013. He also played on the Bulldogs’ state runner-up basketball team. Washington had an outstanding career as a wide receiver at Oklahoma State, where he won the Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top receiver in 2017. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and played four seasons for the Steelers and briefly for the Dallas Cowboys.
- Mickey Early played football and ran track at Rotan. He was 9.6-secod 100-yard sprinter in the late 1960s, which was among the fastest times in the state. On the football field, he was a three-year starter at SMU, earning all-Southwest Conference honors as a defensive back. He signed a pro football contract with the Houston Oilers in 1978, but returned to
Rotan to begin a 41-year career in education as a principal and superintendent. - Sam Harrell played quarterback and defensive back for Gordon Wood at Brownwood before beginning a long coaching career around the state of Texas. He coached Ennis to three state championships in 2001, 2002 and 2004 before retiring in 2009 to fight MS. He returned to Brownwood as the Lions’ quarterback coach in 2012 before retiring after the 2024
season. His career record is 232-74. - Bill Grissom of Winters was the leading rusher at McMurry as a junior and senior in 1963 and 1964, and was among the survivors of the belly-landing plane crash involving the McMurry football team. He then began a 34-year career as a high school football coach, including head coaching stints at Hamlin, Breckenridge, Stanton, Colorado City and Coleman. As a football coach, Grissom won nine district championships and made 13 playoff appearances. As a track and field coach, he won seven district titles, two regional championships and two state championships at Hamlin in 1973 and 1974.
- The late Fred Kniffen was a state champion tennis player for the Clyde Bulldogs. He played tennis at Hardin-Simmons and is in HSU’s Hall of Fame. Kniffen was Abilene Cooper’s first tennis coach prior to moving to Tyler, where he started the tennis program at Tyler Junior College. While there, he won four junior college national championships and ran nationally renowned tennis camps for athletes from around the country.
- The late Julian “Tex” Robertson of Sweetwater was a member of the U.S. Olympic water polo team that won a bronze medal at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. He then founded the swim program at the University of Texas, where he trained 15 all-Americans, numerous Olympians and won 13 Southwest Conference championships. He also created Camp Longhorn, a youth summer camp with multiple locations in central Texas that is still in operation today.
- The late Don Hood won nine NAIA and NCAA Division II national championships in 11 years at Abilene Christian University. He was considered the nation’s premier pole vault coach, having trained Billy Olson and Brad Pursley, who are both members of the Big Country Athletic Hall of Fame. All three of Don’s sons graduated from Abilene High and ACU. Don D. was the head coach at Brownwood, ACU, LeTourneau and now Harding University in Arkansas. He won four outdoor national track and field championships as the head coach at ACU. Derek won two national titles as the cross country coach at ACU. Joel is currently the track coach at Jacksboro.
- The late Ike Groce is considered the “Father of Tennis in Abilene.” He came to Abilene in 1969 and was the junior high tennis coordinator for the Abilene Independent School District. Because of the foundation that Groce laid with youth tennis in Abilene, Cooper has won four state team titles, Abilene High has two state team titles and Wylie has won 14 state team titles. Groce was with the AISD from 1969-1976, and then moved to Brownwood High School, where he also began the tennis program and laid the framework for continued growth and success there. Later, Groce coached at Oklahoma State, where he won three consecutive Big 8 championships before his death in 1986