(ESU) 4 people with ties to Emporia will be inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame Sunday.
Former Olpe girls basketball Coach Jesse Nelson will be inducted. He retired in 2021 after a 44-year coaching career in which he went 951-111 and won four state championships.
Former Emporia State Basketball player Emily Bloss Carpenter, who was the 2001 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball National Player of the Year, and Tara Holloway Churchill, who was the 2000 NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball National Player of the Year, will also be inducted.
Former NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer will also be inducted. He competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2005 to 2020, driving for Richard Childress Racing for eight years, Michael Waltrip Racing for four years, HScott Motorsports for one year, and Stewart-Haas Racing for four years. Bowyer won the 2008 Nationwide Series championship driving for RCR.
The other inductees are:
Topeka native and Negro Leagues Baseball All-Star, Elwood “Bingo” Demoss.
Fifteen-year NFL veteran and Pitt State All-American Kendall Gammon from Rose Hill.
Writer, historian, researcher, and creator of the term “sabermetrics” Bill James.
Professional groundskeeper for more than seven decades including for the Kansas City Royals and over fifty Super Bowls, George Toma from Kansas City.
Eighteen-time NCAA bowling championship coach Gordon Vadakin from Wichita.
Former University of Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams.
