Mustang Sports Hall of Fame grows

Five new members inducted into MHS Sports Hall of Fame

By Stan Moss
Contributing Writer

Three athletes, one coach and one team were added to the roll of the Mustang High School Sports Hall of Fame at the second annual induction ceremony, held Saturday night at the Mustang Events Center.

The selection committee for the Hall of Fame added five new members after a year-long search.  Football Coach Charles Carpenter, multi-sport star Toby Daugherty, Olympic weightlifter Shane Hamman, three-sport star James Garner, and the undefeated 1984 state champion volleyball team.

Athletics Director Robert Foreman welcomed the crowd with a few brief remarks, then turned it over to Mustang native Toby Rowland, the play-by-play voice of the Oklahoma Sooners football and basketball broadcast team.

Carpenter oversaw the football program from 1973-1992, coaching Mustang to a 126-89 record with nine playoff appearances. In Carpenter’s tenure, Mustang grew from a Class 2A country school with a graduating class of under 100 to being the fourth-largest high school in Oklahoma, making their presence felt more and more in Class 6A.

Daugherty, a 1981 Mustang graduate, was an all-state football player, state champion wrestler, and earned national championships in Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. He also placed fourth in the state in the shot put. Daugherty played college football at the University of Central Oklahoma, where he has already been inducted into the school’s hall of fame. Daugherty was a member of the 1982 UCO national championship team.

Hamman is a two-time Olympian, competing as a weightlifter in the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 games in Athens, Greece. In 2000, Hamman placed 10th, and in 2004 the 1990 Mustang grad placed seventh. The nine-time national champion broke 27 American records in his illustrious career, which began as a powerlifter before he made the switch to weightlifting in 1996.

Garner, aside from being an amazing athlete, holds the distinction of being Mustang High School’s first varsity quarterback, taking snaps under center in 1968, the first season that Mustang had a football team.  He was an all-conference quarterback, the Oklahoman’s Little All-City Player of the Year in baseball in 1970, and averaged 16 points in basketball on a team that had 18 straight wins, a school record that stood until 2015. After high school, Garner went on to be a world-class professional fast-pitch softball player, winning a world championship in 1978 and being named to the all-world team.

The 1984 volleyball team was introduced by their coach, 2018 hall of fame inductee Dr. Linda Lacy.  The team went 45-0 on their way to the state championship, and produced four all-staters, Darlene Justik, Marianne Denton, Mandy Smith and Stephanie Nowicki. The rest of the team included were Terri Triplet, Abbie Ritter, Angie Terrett, Heidi Long, Shellie Siebold, Terri Pyle, Jill Stitler, and Cindy Maddux.