BUIES CREEK – Five former Camel greats will be inducted this winter into the Campbell Athletics Hall of Fame. Pat Brogden (women’s tennis), Jerry Brooks (wrestling), John Crooks (golf), Bev Shepard Marley (volleyball) and Dale Steele (football) will be enshrined on Saturday, Jan. 18 during ceremonies on campus.
Induction ceremonies will be held at 11:00 a.m. at the Oscar Harris Student Union, followed by recognition of the 2025 Hall of Fame class at halftime of the 2:00 p.m. men’s basketball game vs. Monmouth at Gore Arena.
Tickets to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony are available for purchase by the general public. Admission, which includes the ceremony and buffet meal, is $35, while a ticket to the basketball game may be added on for an additional $10. Tickets may be purchased online HERE.
Pat Brogden, ’78 was named Campbell’s outstanding female athlete following her senior season when she lost only once (due to an injury) in combined singles and doubles play. Born in Rockingham, she was raised in Goldsboro, where she won multiple city and county tennis titles. After earning her radiologic technology degree at Johnston Tech, Brogden transferred to Campbell and was Coach Frances Lloyd’s top singles player in each of her three seasons. She finished third in the 1977 AIAW state tournament and was ranked among the top 10 players in North Carolina in singles and in the top five in mixed doubles.
Following graduation, Brogden began a three-decade teaching and coaching career, first at Ane Chesnutt Junior High in Fayetteville, then moved to Carnage GT Magnet middle school in Raleigh before retiring in 2008.
A self-taught, cross-handed, left-handed golfer, over the last 40 years she has won a record seven Carolinas Golf Association North Carolina Senior championships, plus the 2024 NC Super Senior Championship. Her 18 overall titles stand third all-time in CGA women’s history. She also has seven NCWGA senior titles, and a record six Eastern U.S. Senior Championships. In 2021, Brogden won the North & South Super Senior Women’s Championship at Pinehurst. On top of it all, she is a three-time cancer survivor.
Jerry Brooks, ‘95 went 39-7 as a senior, won the Carolina Open, and became just the second national qualifier in Campbell’s NCAA Division I wrestling history after he won the Eastern Regional. A two-time North Carolina state champion at East Gaston High School, Brooks followed his cousin Mario McCorkle to Campbell and its wrestling program in 1991. Brooks won 64 bouts in his career, which stood sixth in program history at the time of his graduation. As a senior, he set a school record with 17 pins and won 39 matches, a mark that still stands second in Campbell’s record books 30 years later. Named Campbell’s outstanding male athlete in 1995, Brooks led CU to a 36-14 dual record in his final three seasons on the varsity team.
After graduating with a degree in sports management with a concentration in business, he coached wrestling at Mount Holly Middle School (1995-98) and North Raleigh Christian Academy (2015-16) and served as an assistant football coach at East Gaston High School (’95-98). Now employed as a financial entrepreneur, Brooks was inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
John Crooks was named head men’s golf coach in the summer of 1990 and added women’s head coaching responsibilities one year later. Now in his 35th year in charge of the Campbell men’s golf program and 34th as head coach of the CU women, Crooks has been named league coach of the year 23 times in his tenure. His teams have combined to earn 36 NCAA post-season trips, including 15-straight team or individual berths, plus five national championship appearances. His teams have won 161 tournaments and with 100 career tournament titles, Crooks trails only Dan Brooks of Duke (143) on the all-time coaching victories list among Division I women’s coaches. He has guided his teams to 27 league titles, including 19 on the women’s side and eight in men’s competition.
One of the top collegiate golf coaches in the country, the Winston-Salem, N.C., native was inducted into the National Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January 2006. Coach Crooks has directed 210 golfers to all-conference honors during his tenure and 367 individuals to all-academic honors. He has recruited and developed 27 conference golfers of the year and 15 conference freshmen of the year. He has mentored dozens of professionals, including PGA Tour members Brad Fritsch and David Mathis and current DP World Tour top 10 Jesper Svensson. Seven Camels over the last six seasons have gone on to play in PGA or European sanctioned tours. Crooks played collegiately at the University of Houston under legendary coach Dave Williams. He won the 1967 United States Golf Association Junior Amateur Championship and the 2001 North & South Senior Amateur Championship.
Bev Shepard Marley, ’91 is the first Campbell volleyball player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. She joined the Camel program in just its third varsity season in 1987 and proceeded to play in every match and set over the next four years. She established school records for career and single-season assists – marks that still rank among the top 15 in program history more than three decades later. During her junior season, she helped lead the Camels to their first-ever winning season and Big South tournament final, while earning all-tournament honors. She earned All-Academic honors from the AVCA all four years and graduated Cum Laude in 1991 with a B.S. in physical education and minor in Spanish.
After teaching middle school for one year, she returned to Buies Creek to serve as head volleyball coach from 1992-93. Marley then returned to her native Onslow County where her teaching and coaching career stretched for nearly three decades. Over 19 seasons as head volleyball coach at Southwest Onslow High School, Marley led her teams to the state playoffs nine times and was named league coach of the year on six occasions. She also served as head girls basketball coach for 17 seasons and guided her teams to seven district titles and 13 state playoff berths, including a state runner-up finish in 2010. Marley earned coach of the year recognition seven times on the hardwood. Her volleyball and basketball teams combined to win 432 games against only 319 losses. In addition, she also coached track & field. Since 2015, she has served as a NFHS volleyball official and remains involved in education as a part-time elementary school physical education teacher.
Dale Steele was the architect of the rebirth of the Campbell football program. Named head coach on June 15, 2006, of a program that had been dormant since 1950, Steele built the coaching staff and oversaw Campbell’s first six recruiting classes on the NCAA Division I level. Under Steele’s guidance, the Camels produced 33 All-Pioneer Football League performers from 2008-12 and 192 PFL Academic Honor Roll members. The team led the PFL – and ranked among the nation’s top 20 programs – in rushing for three-straight years from 2009-11. In 2011, Campbell won five-consecutive games and finished with the program’s first overall (6-5) and conference (5-3) winning records.
The son of a high school coach and a 1976 graduate of the University of South Carolina, where he played on both the offensive and defensive line, Steele began a collegiate coaching career that lasted more than 45 years in 1977 as a graduate assistant at Ball State. Among the many accomplishments his teams produced were five bowl games – including four during two stints on the staff at East Carolina, as well as back-to-back NCAA FCS National titles in 2016 and 2017 while serving as Director of Football Administration at James Madison.
A 35-year member of the American Football Coaches Association, Steele served as FCS representative on the NCAA Football Issues Committee, as well as a voting member on the FCS Coaches Poll and All-America selection committee. Now retired from coaching, he remains involved in the game as an advisory and team host for the Myrtle Beach Bowl.
Following the induction of Brogden, Brooks, Crooks, Marley and Steele this winter, membership in the Hall of Fame, which began recognizing Campbell athletic greats in 1984, will include 96 honorees.
Campbell Athletics Hall of Fame Members:
1984
Gaylord Perry
Jim Perry
1985
Fred Emmerson
Richard Murphy
1986
Earl Smith
Bob Vernon
1987
Cal Koonce
Len Maness
1988
Jim Bromley
Jay Overton
Don Prince
Dr. Mike Reidy
1989
Archie Brigman
Jim Gurkin
Dr. Don Laird
1990
Sam Brewer
Rob Cole
George “Buck” Hardee
1991
Howard Auman
Walter Deal
1992
George Graybill
Charles Koonce
Bruce Shelley
Don Whaley
Billy Williams
1993
Ronda Mueller Langdon
Billy Mason
James Sessoms
Gary Woodward
1994
Wayne Dale
Marion Hargrove
1995
Hank Currin
Fred McCall
Fred Whitfield
1996
Sam Bishop
Antionette Matthews Carr
Horace “Bones” McKinney
1997
James “Catfish” Cole
John T. Johnson
1998
Ollie Harrell
Frances Lloyd
1999
Ken Faulkner
Regina McKeithan Wadsworth
2000
Dave Amsler
Wendell Carr
2001
Betty Jo Clary
Hargrove B. Davis (posthumously)
Clarence Grier
2002
Bob Etheridge
Gary Hobgood
Bill Holleman
Carl Ivarsson
James Nisbet
Tammy Brown Tew
2003
Barry Howard
Danny Roberts
Dr. Pete Wish
2004
Willard B. Harris
Leanne Plum Mann
Orville Peterson
2005
Bobby Bowie
Janet Wooten
Captain Eugene “Red” McDaniel
2006
David Doyle
John Marshbanks
2007
Denelle Hicks
Maria Maldonado
Ernie White
2009
Juha Miettinen
2010
Toni Siikala
Joe Spinks
2011
Brad Childress
Denise Ford Shipman
2012
Sam Staggers
2015
Brad Fritsch
Kylie Pratt
Bill Young
2017
Bob Burke
Anthony Cox
Wanda Watkins
2022
Marshall Lovett
2023
April Cromartie
Jerry Hartman
Heather Lee Magill
John Payne
Brittany Stanley Lee
2024
Rodrigo Cagide
Barbara Foxx
Earl Stephenson
Erin Switalski
Cordell Wise
2025
Pat Brogden
Jerry Brooks
John Crooks
Bev Shepard Marley
Dale Steele
