Due to health concerns and the need for social distancing because of the coronavirus COVID-19, all events for the 2020 spring semester have been cancelled.
TIFTON—Descriptions of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College contributor and volunteer assistant softball coach Winfred “Vic” Vickers touch on his wide range of talents which included “teacher, bus driver, mechanic, and cook.” Those talents have now earned him a posthumous selection as a member of the Class of 2020 in the ABAC Athletics Hall of Fame on April 3.
ABAC Athletics Director Alan Kramer said the 2020 class also includes the 2002 women’s state championship basketball team, tennis player German Dalmagro, three-sport letterman Clayt Hurst, softball player Lee Davis Watson, soccer standout Nikita Morris, tennis player, coach, and contributor Margaret Treadway, contributor and volunteer assistant softball coach Jimmy Spurlin, and Director of Public Relations Emeritus and “Voice of ABAC” Mike Chason.
Tickets to the 6 p.m. dinner on April 3 in ABAC’s Gressette Gym are $40 per person. Tickets can be purchased from the ABAC Athletics Office at (229) 391-4930 or online at https://athletics.abac.edu/inside/hof/2020_Hall_of_Fame_Banquet . The deadline to purchase tickets is March 27. There will be no tickets sold at the event.
Vickers was the husband of ABAC Softball Coach Ellen Vickers, who was selected for the Hall of Fame in 2009. Mr. Vickers gave freely of his time to assist the softball program as an unpaid volunteer assistant coach from 1988 through 1994. The Golden Fillies won the state championship in six of those seven years and captured a national title in 1991. In 1994, the team rolled to a school record 58-4 record. Mr. Vickers was a longtime employee of the Department of Transportation. He passed away in 2016.
“Mr. Vickers was so much more than a coach,” former ABAC player Edy Tillman Leverette said. “He was a teacher, friend, supporter, fan, bus driver, water boy, mechanic, team manager, and cook.
“Most importantly, he was a father-figure to all of us, serving as our surrogate father while many of us were miles away from our natural fathers. He was the first one to brag on you when you had done something right and true to his character, he was also the first one to let you know when he was disappointed with your performance.”
The 1991 national championship represented the first national title in any sport for a women’s intercollegiate athletics’ team at ABAC. Lake City (Fla.) Community College had dominated women’s softball up that point, winning six of the previous eight titles. The Golden Fillies ended that run, and both Vickers were instrumental in the success of the team.
“Mr. Vickers was real and true,” Leverette said. “You never had to guess how he felt about things. I have always appreciated how he never sugarcoated discussing the difficult topics with a player.”
The Athletics Hall of Fame dinner is a part of the 2020 ABAC Homecoming celebration. For more information on Homecoming, interested persons can visit the ABAC web site at www.abac.edu/homecoming.
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