Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame

A pioneer in women’s high school sports, Class of 2022 inductee Andrea Cozart began coaching at High Point Central before there were varsity sports for women. A native of Bailey, NC, where she played on a basketball team that won 100 consecutive games, Cozart graduated from East Carolina University in 1965. She then went on to a stellar 30-year coaching career from 1967-1997. While primarily a woman’s tennis and men and women’s swimming coach, she also coached women’s basketball on an “interim” basis from 1983-1986, posting a 67-3 record and a state runner-up finish in 1985, and was named conference Coach of the Year three times. Cozart played in an East-West All-Star basketball game in 1961, then coached the West team in the 1986 NCHSCA All-Star game. As a tennis coach, her teams won 15 conference championships, an NCHSAA state title in 1976, and produced five individual state champions. Her greatest accomplishments came in the sport of swimming. During nine years as a head coach from 1987-1995, her women’s teams posted a 92-5 dual meet record with 45 consecutive wins. Her men’s teams were 91-6 with 47 consecutive dual meet wins. Cozart coached 14 individual NCHSAA state champions and three teams were state runners-up. During her coaching career, her teams never had a losing record. Cozart was inducted into the NCHSAA HOF in 2003 and the High Point Central inaugural HOF Class of 2013.

2010 Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Don Corbett coached men’s basketball at North Carolina A&T State for 14 seasons, from 1979-80 to 1992-93, and compiled a record of 254-145. Corbett is second on the list of all-time wins at A&T, trailing only Cal Irvin. Corbett’s Aggies won 20 or more games six times, peaking at 26-3 in 1987-88. His teams won seven straight Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament championships, from 1982-88. The Aggies finished first in the regular season seven times and five times won both the regular season and tournament titles. North Carolina A&T, under the direction of Coach Corbett, shares the NCAA record with the University of Kentucky for consecutive conference tournament championships at seven.

Class of 2011 Guilford County Sports Fall of Fame inductee Joey Cheek, a Dudley High School graduate, burst onto the speed skating scene in 2002, winning an Olympic bronze medal in the 1,000 meters at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Cheek took his performance to a higher level at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy where he won the silver medal in the 1,000 and won the gold medal in the 500. Cheek’s Olympic peers chose him to carry the U.S. flag in the closing ceremonies and he was awarded the US Olympic Committee Spirit Award. Cheek is the winner of 20 international World Cup and World Championship medals. Cheek is the co-founder and president of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness of the crisis in Darfur, Sudan and for those efforts received the Inaugural Heisman Trophy Humanitarian Award and was named to the Time 100 Most Influential People in 2006. A 2011 graduate of Princeton University, Cheek is the founder of www.dailyhouse.com.

The basketball court at High Point Central is named in Kenny Carter’s honor following a 24-year coaching career in which his girls teams compiled an overall record of 573-125 and won five NCHSAA state titles (1993, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002). The Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 inductee's resume also includes 14 conference championships, 15 tournament championships and 10 undefeated seasons in conference play. He was selected as the North Carolina Associated Press Coach of the Year in 1997 and 2002 and the Nike WBCA District 3 Coach of the Year in 2010. Carter was also a four-year starting infielder at High Point College, where he earned All-Carolinas Conference honors twice and was a NAIA second-team All-America in 1982. The team finished second in the country, and he was named to the all-tournament team at the 1979 NAIA National Championships.

A native of Chapel Hill, Thomas Bynum made his mark in Guilford County as a longtime athletics trainer at North Carolina A&T. He earned an undergraduate degree and master’s degree in sports medicine from A&T, where he was a four-year starter in basketball, Bynum served in the U.S. Army before returning to Greensboro in the mid-1960s. He began his career at A&T as the school's athletics trainer in 1968, serving until his retirement in 2000. During his career, “Mr. B's” reputation spread far and wide. He served as an athletics trainer in the Pan-African Games in 1971 as well as the U.S. Olympic Committee. In 1973 he was selected by the Amateur Athletic Union to be a trainer in Germany, Africa and Russia. In 1973 he was the trainer for the USA National Junior Track and Field team. Two years later, he was named a Sports’ Festival trainer and worked in Venezuela, Africa, France, China, Poland and Germany. He was the head AAU trainer in 1976 in Russia, West Germany and Canada. Bynum was one of 24 athletics trainers selected to work the Summer Olympic Games in 1984 and was named to the Olympic Training Advisory Board. He was chosen to be a trainer for the Summer Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta. Bynum was inducted into the A&T Hall of Fame in 2000. The Sports Medicine Room in the Corbett Sports Center is named and dedicated in his honor. Thomas Bynum passed away in 2020.

If you have ever watched a sporting event in Greensboro such as the ACC men's or women's basketball tournaments, USA Figure Skating, USA Gymnastics, USA Track and Field, NCAA Division III soccer or golf championships, or the Public Links golf tournament, to name just a few, you can thank Marc Bush. Since 1993 Marc has been part of the Tournament Hosts of Greensboro and been a tireless worker to bring a multitude of events to Greensboro. He has also served as president of the Greensboro Sports Commission, been a member of the Board of Directors of the Greensboro Sports Council, and was General Chairman of the 2017 Wyndham golf tournament. Marc is a graduate of Grimsley, where he played football and baseball, and from UNC Chapel Hill. He has been actively involved in the economic and sports development of this area for decades and has served as the president of the Greensboro Sports Foundation and curator of the ACC Hall of Champions.

A member of the Class of 2022, Kim Burroughs competed in baseball while a student at Fred T. Foard High School and with American Legion Post 48 in Hickory. He played soccer during his junior and senior years at UNC Pembroke, graduating in 1977. Post-college, he played for the Morganton Albion and Greensboro Reunited soccer clubs. He earned a graduate degree at UNC Greensboro in 1988. Burroughs began his coaching career with the ’75 Greensboro Bucs (1987-1989), then moved to Women’s Classic with the various Greensboro Twisters teams between 1995-2009. He was named Girls Classic Coach of the Year in 2004. Burroughs coached at East Burke and Greensboro Smith high schools before moving to Greensboro Day School. He began as a middle school art teacher in 1988 but found his true calling coaching women’s soccer in his third year. Since 1991, Burroughs' teams have won over 425 matches, had three nationally ranked seasons (No. 7 in 1997, No. 2 in 1998, and No. 16 in 2005), won 12 NC Independent School state championships, including six consecutive titles from 1995-2000, and 23 conference championships. He has been honored as Conference Coach of the Year eight times, NC Coach of the Year four times, NC Regional Coach of the Year five times and the South Region National Coach of the Year three times. In 2004, the NSCAA honored him as National Coach of the Year among private schools. He has coached in two All-Star games. Burroughs received the 2005 Art Alumnus Award from UNCG and, in 2017, the Hendrix Teaching Award at Greensboro Day School.

A member of the inaugural 2005 class of the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame, Marge Burns was a top amateur golfer who was born in Orlando but raised in Greensboro. Burns began playing golf as teenager and was a 1946 graduate of UNC Greensboro. Burns dominated mid-South amateur golf for two decades winning six Women’s Carolinas titles, 10 North Carolina state championships, and the Eastern Amateur title. Burns received the Teague Award as top female athlete in the Carolinas five times. Burns became a teaching professional in the 1970s and was named 1976 LPGA Teacher of the Year. Burns is a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame and the UNC Greensboro Athletics Hall of Fame.

Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame Classs of 2010 inductee Joseph M. Bryan, a well-known Greensboro businessman and philanthropist, was a sports enthusiast and particularly skilled as a fisherman and a target shooter. Bryan supported a wide range of sporting venues in Greensboro and was particularly known for his love of golf. He was an early member of the Augusta National Golf Club. The Greensboro Jaycees approached Bryan in 1937 to assist in guaranteeing the purse of the first Greater Greensboro Open PGA Tournament, which took place in 1938. Bryan later became Honorary General Chairman for the golf tournament, now known as the Wyndham Championship. In 1971, the City of Greensboro named Bryan Park, a new municipal golf complex, in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Bryan. Bryan was instrumental in adding the Bryan Park Soccer Complex to the facility which is regarded as one of the finest in the country. Fishing and shooting were also among Bryan’s favorite pastimes. Bryan particularly liked to salmon fish in Canada and was an award-winning marlin fisherman. Whether in the United States or in Europe, he could be found among the world’s elite shooters.

Wilt Browning’s career spanned more than 40 years as a writer, columnist, sports editor and publicity director for two teams in the NFL. Along the way, Wilt was the Braves beat writer for the Atlanta Constitution, publicity director for the Baltimore Colts and Atlanta Falcons, sports editor and then columnist for the News & Record for 20 years and sports editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times. Browning was a multiple North Carolina Sports Writer of the Year and authored several popular books. Browning was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.