Roger Jackson attacks the high hurdles.

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — A Rowan County football “game of the century” was played in 1970 between powerhouse squads from Boyden — soon to become Salisbury — and East Rowan.

East had forfeited one victory, but neither team had tasted defeat on the field when they collided head-on in November. It was a much-hyped contest that drew such a monumental crowd to Catawba College that old-timers still talk about it.

This was the Piedmont championship game in the old Western North Carolina High School Activities Association. East took a 7-0 lead on a touchdown pass from the familiar combination of CM Yates to Johnny Yarbrough, but East’s kickoff sailed deep to the wrong man. Roger Jackson may have been the best pure athlete of an era full of them and he returned the kickoff 60 yards to take away the Mustangs’ early momentum.

It wasn’t long before Jackson had put four touchdowns in the books, and Boyden owned an overwhelming 33-7 lead.

The final score was 40-19.

The remarkable thing about Jackson is football was only his second-best sport. Track and field was the arena where he became a legendary, record-shattering figure as a hurdler/sprinter/jumper. He was an eight-time WNCHSAA champion. In every meet, Boyden coach Pete Stout could count on Jackson to rule both hurdling events, help win a relay and place high in a jump.

The list of people who actually got to see Jackson, now 72, in action dwindles a bit every year now, but he was elected recently, and will be an important part of the latest Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame class that will be inducted at the Salisbury Civic Center on Aug. 9.

The Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame was started in 2001 by great men such as the late Horace Billings and the late Ed Dupree. The Class of 2025 will be the 23rd class as there were no elections during the COVID years.

The 2025 class is different than most classes that have preceded it in the sense that a wider range of sports are represented.

The class includes the second soccer player (Daniel Butner) to be elected. Butner was an All-America at Salisbury High, was the 2001 Gatorade Player of the Year for North Carolina and played at a high level in college at UNC Wilmington.

The class includes the first female golfer (Grace Yatawara) to be elected. Yatawara was a two-time individual NCHSAA champion, played at East Carolina University and was medalist and led her team to the gold medal in the 2019 South Asian Games, where she represented her father’s homeland of Sri Lanka.

The class includes a unique female athlete who was elected mostly because she is one of the nation’s best senior bowlers. Tracy Bradshaw Calfee has worn “USA” on her shirt in overseas competition, so there’s no logical argument against her being enshrined in her home county.

Bradshaw Calfee was a record-setting distance runner at South Rowan in the 1980s and competed as a cross country runner at UNC Wilmington. She also made the UNC Wilmington basketball team as a walk-on and became team captain before her career was over. She got serious about bowling after she finished her military career, and she’s been superb at it. She was elected to the North Carolina Bowling Hall of Fame last year.

Wrestling always has been under-represented in the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame, with only a few coaches elected, but Barry Justus, whose name is synonymous with Rowan County wrestling, gets the call with this class.

Justus is identified with East Rowan where he began coaching in 1989. He’s been a huge part of Rowan wrestling ever since. Justus’ 1996-97 East team was 23-1 and was state runner-up in 3A.

A member of the North Carolina chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, Justus has coached numerous individual state champs and Dutch Meyer Award winners (Rowan County Wrestlers of the Year). His coaching tree includes successful West Rowan coach Jonathan Brown.

There also will be some stars from the Big 3 sports in this HOF class.

Leonard Owens, a basketball star and Sam Moir Christmas Tournament MVP at Salisbury High in the late 1990s, put up fantastic numbers in his two years at Western Nebraska (Junior College), and then played two seasons for Division I UTEP. The 6-foot-6 Owens was a versatile defender. There was a season in the Western Athletic Conference where he finished in the top 10 in the league is assists and blocks, a highly unusual combination.

Owens went on to play pro ball, mostly in Mexico.

Sophilia Hipps, a tough and sweet-shooting basketball guard who still is the all-time leading scorer for the North Rowan girls program with 2,262 points, was elected. Hipps went on to star in college at South Carolina State, where she was a double-figure scorer four straight seasons (2006-10).

Cass Safrit, one of the all-time baseball players for West Rowan and Rowan County American Legion, was one of the two nominees elected from the “senior division” ballot that considers athletes from 50 or more years ago. Jackson was the other “senior.”

Safrit was an All-State player at West. He batted. 537 in 1969.

He played shortstop for three outstanding Joe Ferebee-coached Rowan County American Legion teams and put up some of the best numbers in program history. Rowan won the state title in 1969 and was runner-up in 1968 and 1970.

Safrit played college ball at Pfeiffer and was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 1972. He played in the minors from 1972-75.

Former Salisbury Post photographer Jon C. Lakey will be honored as the Horace Billings Award winner for lifetime contributions to sports in Rowan County. Lakey took thousands of photos of Rowan athletes for two decades, won countless statewide awards and always went above and beyond the call of duty.

Tom and Judy McDaniel will be honored with the Fred M. Evans Community Service Award. 

They are familiar faces at Salisbury Parks and Rec, and like Lakey, they always went above and beyond.  Tom served as a local official for many years. Judy has been a tireless volunteer. They have provided inspiration and mentoring for countless referees, coaches and players over the years.