Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame set for 19th induction class Sunday

The Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame will induct five members for its 2026 class this weekend.

Among the sports figures being inducted this year is longtime Laney basketball coach and current athletic director Fred Lynch. Surfing standout Bill Curry, a Hoggard graduate, will also be inducted.

Three days of events for this year's induction class began with a luncheon on Friday, May 15, at the Wilmington Convention Center, with its fundraiser golf tournament set for Saturday morning at Wilmington Municipal Golf Course.

On Sunday, a reception and auction will start at 5 p.m. at the convention center, with dinner and the induction ceremony at 6. Click here for more information.

SEE THE 2025 INDUCTEES Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame set for 18th induction class Sunday

Fred Lynch

If you’ve been around Wilmington high school athletics for any significant period of time, you're likely quite familiar with the name Fred Lynch.

The Laney athletic director has served in various roles at Wilmington’s largest public high school for 46 years, joining the school just three years after it opened in 1976. While he started out as an assistant junior varsity coach in basketball and football, Lynch would become an unforgettable figure as the leader of the Bucs boys basketball program for 28 years, leading the team to a 426-242 record, winning six conference championships, the Eastern Regional title and a state championship appearance in 1999.

Lynch served as an assistant coach during Michael Jordan’s tenure at the school and has been interviewed for multiple documentaries about ‘His Airness’, including the hugely popular ‘Last Dance’ documentary from ESPN.

Lynch, now 72, has spent 50 years in high school athletics in New Hanover County, 46 coming at Laney High School. He was the first black athletic director in New Hanover County history.

Bill Curry

The world of surfing holds a special place in the hearts of Port City residents, and there is perhaps nobody in state history who accomplished more on the waves than Bill Curry.

Curry’s rise in the surfing world began along the shores of Wrightsville Beach before turning into one of the most accomplished careers by a North Carolina surfer. The Hoggard High School graduate broke through in 1979 with an East Coast Longboard Championship, then made state surfing history a year later by becoming the first North Carolinian to win the Men’s Division Eastern Surfing Championship.

Over the next decade, Curry became a fixture on the national surfing scene. He posted a top-five finish at the 1981 U.S. Amateur Surfing Championships, collected multiple Iron Surfer Awards and, in 1982, stood out as one of the top performers at both the East Coast and U.S. Surfing Championships.

His success eventually carried on to the international stage. Curry competed for Team USA in Puerto Rico in 1988, earning a third-place finish in Open Longboard competition, and later won both the Longboard and Senior Longboard divisions while representing the United States Surfing Federation in 1993. His career later earned him induction into the East Coast Surfing Legends Hall of Fame in 2004.

Ron Musselman

Long before pitching under the bright lights of Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays stadiums, Ron Musselman was building a reputation in Wilmington.

At Hoggard, Musselman emerged as one of the area’s top pitchers and played a key role on the Vikings’ 1972 state championship team. His success continued at Louisburg College, where he went a combined 20-5 across two seasons, earned back-to-back all-conference honors and helped lead the Hurricanes to the Junior College World Series in 1975.

From there, Musselman took his game to Clemson University and continued to dominate against ACC competition. He again posted a 20-5 record over two seasons, earned all-conference recognition twice and helped guide the Tigers to consecutive College World Series appearances. His four shutouts in a single season still stand among the best pitching marks in program history.

After being drafted three times, Musselman reached the majors with the Seattle Mariners in 1982, then spent time with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1984 and 1985. Across 48 major league appearances, he compiled a 4-2 record with a 3.73 ERA.

Tamera Young

Long before she spent more than a decade in the WNBA, Tamera Young was dominating gyms across Wilmington.

At Laney High School, Young developed into one of the top girls basketball players to come through the area in the early 2000s. By the time her career ended, she had scored more than 1,500 points, pulled down nearly 800 rebounds and done enough to have her No. 11 jersey retired by the Buccaneers. She earned all-conference honors three straight seasons and was twice named Mideastern Conference Player of the Year.

Her game only expanded at James Madison University, where Young became one of the most decorated players in program history. During her senior season in 2008, she averaged 20.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game while leading the CAA in both categories. That same year, she earned conference player of the year honors and helped rewrite the school record book, finishing her career atop several major categories, including scoring average, steals and consecutive double-digit scoring performances.

Young closed her college career with 2,121 points across 127 appearances for the Dukes before becoming the eighth overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Atlanta Dream.

After one season in Atlanta, Young spent the bulk of her WNBA career with the Chicago Sky, helping guide the franchise to multiple Eastern Conference semifinal appearances and a trip to the WNBA Finals in 2014. She later finished her playing career with the Las Vegas Aces and returned to Chicago in 2024 as an assistant coach.

Even then, basketball continued taking Young around the world. Her professional career included stops in Israel, China, Brazil and Turkey, turning a standout Wilmington career into an international one.

Ed Wilson

For nearly three decades, Ed Wilson became a familiar figure on Wilmington’s youth baseball fields, shaping generations of young players through the city’s growing Little League scene.

When the Winter Park Optimist Little League launched in 1956, Wilson was there from the beginning. Over the following years, he turned the Hanover Center squad into one of the area’s most successful youth programs, piling up 15 league championships, 10 county titles and two state championships.

His teams became especially known for consistency. During one remarkable stretch, Hanover Center won 50 consecutive games, a mark believed to be a world record at the time and one that stood for more than six decades.

But beyond the trophies and records, Wilson’s lasting influence came through the countless young athletes he coached and mentored across Wilmington before his death on Jan. 6, 2016.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 2026 Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame class