PORTSMOUTH, Va.—Veteran golf professional Curtis Strange and former basketball star Dell Curry highlight the 2004 class of inductees into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Strange, a two-time U. S. Open champion, and Curry, whose career spanned 16 years in the National Basketball Association, will be enshrined with five others who have had outstanding careers on the Virginia sports scene.

The others are:
Chuck Boone, long-time coach and athletic administrator at the University of Richmond
William Fuller, a four-time Pro Bowl selection in the National Football League
Russ Potts, a pioneer and vibrant force in sports marketing
Hope Spivey, a former U. S. Olympic gymnast
J. R. Wilburn, a record-setting pass receiver with the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers

The seven will be inducted during the Hall’s annual awards dinner in Portsmouth on April 24, 2004.

Tickets for the dinner are $60 and are available through the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, P. O. Box 370, Portsmouth, Virginia, 23705.

Strange, a native of Virginia Beach, joined the PGA Tour in 1977 after winning the NCAA championship while playing for Wake Forest University. He went on to win 21 tournament events and was named the PGA player of the year in 1988.

That same season, he won his first U. S. Open title, beating Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff. The next summer, he became the first to win back-to-back Opens since Ben Hogan in 1951 when he prevailed by a stroke over three others.

Strange played on five Ryder Cup teams (compiling a 6-12-2 record) and was captain of the 2001 team. He, along with European captain Sam Torrance, was credited with bringing sportsmanship and camaraderie back to the matches. He was the tour’s leading money winner three times, and since 1997 he has been the color analyst for ABC television. He will join his father, the late Tom Strange, in the Hall.

Curry, a native of Harrisonburg, starred at Virginia Tech and was a first round draft pick in 1986 by the Utah Jazz of the NBA. Two years later, he was the first player chosen by the expansion Charlotte Hornets and became the Hornets all-time leading scorer with 9,839 points.

He also played with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Toronto Raptors and finished his NBA run with a total of 12,670 points.

In 1993-94, Curry won the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. The next season, he averaged 13.6 points per game to lead the non-starters in scoring. He ranks ninth in all-time 3-point shooting percentage.

Boone came to the University of Richmond after being a prep standout in Covington. He lettered for three seasons in baseball (as a catcher) and football (center/linebacker) for the Spiders. He was drafted by a professional football team, but opted for baseball.

He spent six years as a player and coach in the New York Yankees organization and then returned to UR where he served for 28 years as baseball coach and athletic director.

Boone was one of the founders of the Colonial Athletic Association and Executive Director of the Yankee Conference. For 15 years, he held high administrative positions in the NCAA, serving on the executive committee and chairing the Division I-AA football committee. Earlier this year, he received the 22nd NACDA/NIT Athletic Director’s Award.

Fuller, a native of Chesapeake, was a two-time All-American as a defensive lineman at the University of North Carolina. He was a finalist for both the Lombardi and Outland Trophies. He was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Stars of the U. S. Football League in 1984.

Two years later, with the consolidation of the pro leagues, Fuller began a 13-year run in the NFL with the Houston Oilers, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Diego Chargers. He was named to the Pro Bowl four times, three of them consecutively, between 1994 and 1996. He was a three-time winner of the Mackey Award, just the second person to win the award in both the AFC and NFC.

Fuller ranked 15th on the NFL’s all-time sack list with 111 career sacks.

Potts, now a member of the Virginia State Senate, began his career in sports as a writer and then sports editor of the Winchester Star. In 1972, he became the nation’s first Sports Promotion Director at the University of Maryland where he created the first corporate partners program in college athletics.

He served as Athletic Director at Southern Methodist University from 1979-81 and was vice-president of public relations for the Chicago White Sox in 1981-82.
He founded Sports Productions, Inc. in Dallas and later formed Russ Potts Sports Productions in Virginia. He promoted 695 events and set numerous collegiate and professional attendance records with his marketing innovations. Included in those promotions were the Game of the Century matching Georgetown with Patrick Ewing against the University of Virginia and Ralph Sampson and the first basketball meeting of Louisville and Kentucky in 1983.

Spivey, a native of Suffolk, competed in gymnastics on the national and international level for 11 years, capping her career as a member of the U. S. Olympic team that finished 4th in the 1988 Games.

Prior to that, she had an outstanding career at the University of Georgia from 1991-94 when the Bulldogs won four Southeastern Conference championships. In 1991, she was named the top collegiate gymnast in the U. S. after finishing first in the all-around, vault and floor exercises. In a 10-year span, she had 27 perfect scores of 10.

Spivey was a member of the U. S. gymnastic teams that won the Pan-American Games championship in 1987. In college, she was an 11-time All-American and 5-time national champion.

Wilburn, a native of Portsmouth and long-time Richmond resident, was a wide receiver and tight end in the NFL for seven years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers. He held the Steelers’ single-game reception record with 12 catches for 31 years.

He was a three-year letterman in two sports at the University of South Carolina from 1963-65. He was the leading scorer on the track and field team while competing in the javelin, long jump, triple jump, and high jump. In football, he set school records for career pass catches and career reception yardage.

In 1965, he was named the male Athlete of the Year for the state of South Carolina and was second in the voting for Atlantic Coast Conference Athlete of the Year.