On May 9, the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton North Raleigh was bustling with sports celebrities and fans, all of whom had come for the induction of eight renowned North Carolina sports figures into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.
The inductees join a panoply of sports champions, 281 in all, who have brought fame and honor to North Carolina and continue to do so. Information and mementoes from their careers are on display in the North Carolina Museum of History at 5 East Edenton Street in Raleigh.
Wilt Browning, five-time Sports Writer of the Year in North Carolina, is a former sports editor and columnist for the Greensboro News-Record. He was the first major league beat writer for the Atlanta Journal where he sparked a nationwide watch when he wrote the first story reporting that Hank Aaron had set his sites on the Babe Ruth home run record. A member of the South Atlantic League Hall of Fame, he is writing books in retirement (seven to date).