The Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame has announced its most recent classes and award recipients. That will include his three students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
UTC Administrator Laura Herron received the Betty Probasco Women’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Former men’s basketball head coach and former men’s basketball student-athlete Johnny Taylor will both be inducted into the Hall of Fame in March.
Laura Herron, Executive Associate Athletics Director and Senior Women Administrator, Compliance and Administration
Herron began her career at the University of Chattanooga as an assistant athletic trainer from 1994 to 2004 and added the title of senior female administrator in 1999. She was promoted to assistant director of athletics/SWA in 2003 and from her training room she moved to her office of compliance in 2004. She served as the department’s compliance officer for three years starting in 2004. In 2007, Herron moved into administration, where she was promoted to Senior Associate Athletic Director/SWA in July 2010, and in 2018 to Executive Associate Athletic Director/SWA.
She served as director and director of the UTC Compliance and Sports Medicine departments, served as the sports administrator for women’s basketball, softball, volleyball, and beach volleyball, oversaw student-athlete welfare, and served as the deputy Title IX coordinator for athletics. I am serving. She is also the Director of Game Day Operations for the sports she oversees, as well as the Tournament Director for the NCAA and Southern Conference postseason events.
She was praised across campus and the community for her efforts as Mocs Interim Director of Athletics from July 16, 2012 to April 24, 2013.
Herron, a native of Rising Fawn, Ga., worked as an athletic trainer for USA Softball for five years. From 1999 until 2003, she accompanied her national team to several international tournaments in San Diego, Hawaii and Canada. In the summer of 2000, she utilized her own athletic training skills in preparation for her Olympic gold medal-winning USA Softball team’s “Central Her Park to Sydney” tour of the United States. In 2001, Herron interned at the US Olympic Training Her Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Ron Shumate, Men’s Basketball Head Coach (1973-80)
Shumate led Chattanooga to the 1977 NCAA Division II National Championship title and guided Mock through the Division I era, where he was named National Coach of the Year.
He spent seven seasons at Chattanooga, four of them in Division II, with Chattanooga becoming the No. 1 team in the country in 1974, sitting at the top of the standings midway through the season, finishing runner-up in the 1976 DII Championship, and finishing runner-up in the 1976 DII Championship. In the end, he won the championship.
He had a career record of 139 wins and 61 losses in seven seasons, with five of those seasons winning 19 or more games. His 139 wins rank third all-time at Chattanooga, and his .695 winning percentage ranks second behind Murray Arnold.
He has coached student-athletes such as Wayne Golden, William Gordon, Walter “Moose” McGarry, Gary Stitch, and Herbert “Book” McCray. McGary, Gordon and Golden were all NBA draft picks, with McGary a two-time, one-time ABA pick.
After Chattanooga, he spent 16 seasons (1981-1997) at SE Missouri, compiling a 306-171 record and leading a program that transitioned to Division I.
He went 445-232 in 23 seasons in college. He had nine 20-win seasons, eight NCAA DII tournament appearances and two runner-up finishes.
Coach Shoemate lives in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee and continues to attend men’s basketball games at the Roundhouse. He is a member of his UTC Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 1991.
Johnny Taylor, men’s basketball student-athlete (1995-97)
Taylor, a Chattanooga native, led the Mox in one of the most memorable seasons of the Division I era.
The Howard School graduate was named the 1997 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year and led UTC to the Southern Conference Tournament title that year. With this win, the Mock earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16, the program’s top spot, after defeating high-seeded Georgia and Illinois.
He scored 1,070 career points in two seasons at Chattanooga.it’s number 11th Achieved the all-time record for points scored at UTC. He averaged 17.3 points per game from 1995 to 1997, which ranked fourth. He was two-time All-Southern Conference.
Taylor was selected 17th.th He was taken overall by the Orlando Magic and is the only player in school history to be selected in the first round of the National Basketball Association draft. He also played professionally for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and expanded his career overseas.
He retired in 2012 to serve as director of player development at VCU. He is currently an assistant coach with the Osceola Magic (formerly Lakeland Magic) of the NBA G League.
The ceremony will be held on March 11, 2024 at the Chattanooga Convention Center.