Deion Sanders, Other Sports Greats Joining Hall of Fame

The Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame will induct five new members at their ninth annual induction and award ceremony on Saturday at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. Coaches, general managers, athletic directors and athletes are inducted into the Hall.

The class of 2013 includes:

• Ronald Bradley – a multisport athlete at Avondale High School and the University of Georgia, he retired from coaching in 2010 as one of the all-time winningest boys basketball coaches in the country.
• Steve Lundquist – voted America’s top breaststroker of the century by US Swimming, he was the first swimmer to break two minutes in the 200-yard breaststroke. He won the Olympic Gold Medal in both the 100-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter medley relay at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
• Earl Mann – named “Mr. Atlanta Baseball,” he served as GM, president and then owner of the Atlanta Crackers beginning in 1933. Mann helped fashion the Crackers into what was known as “the Yankees of the Minor Leagues” and helped bring the Braves to Atlanta.
• Dr. Homer Ricer – former Georgia Tech Athletic Director, he developed the acclaimed “Total Person Concept” in the 1980s which he used to help athletes excel on and off the field. “Total Person Concept” has served as the model for more than 170 schools. He also helped transform Georgia Tech’s campus in preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games.
• Deion Sanders – became the only man to play in both a Super Bowl and a World Series having played four years with the Atlanta Braves and 14 years in the NFL, the first five of which for the Atlanta Falcons. He also became the first player to hit a major league home run and score a touchdown in the NFL in the same week. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

Other awards include:

2013 Community Service Award
Wayne Hogan  – Associate Athletic Director, Georgia Tech

2013 Star of the Year
Norcross High School – First high school in GHSA history to win football, boys basketball, and girls basketball state championships in the same academic year.

The evening’s festivities start with a reception at 6 p.m., a silent auction and a parade of past inductees, and concludes with the awards and induction ceremony at 7 p.m. Tickets are still available to the public for $25 and can be ordered online at the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame website. For group ticket information, contact Larry Winter at 770-714-2246. Additional information is available at the Hall of Fame's Facebook page.

The first 400 tickets will get “Leadership Fitness” by book Dr Homer Rice and all ticket holders will get souvenir poster of the ASHOF Class of 2013

Winters said this is the third year the ceremony is being held at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. "The Roswell Arts Center is an intimate facility that lows us to do an awards event that everybody can enjoy," he said.

"What we have done is gone to more of a theater environment. So that way we can also have a $25 or less expensive ticket if people want to come," Winters said.

The center is set up with productions in mind, and has the audio-visual equipment needed for the event, another plus for using it. It's convenient, too, as many of the inductees live in the North Fulton-East Cobb area, as do many volunteers.

The Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame mission is to honor Atlanta sports heroes, remember great moments in Atlanta Sports history, and preserve the past from which future generations can learn and take pride.