HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (November 19, 2025) – One of the most diverse lineups in the history of the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame – ranging from the Olympics to Major League Baseball, the NFL to bowling – is announced today as the Class of 2026.
The new Hall of Famers will be enshrined at a banquet presented by Huntsville Hospital Sports and The Orthopaedic Center on Monday, April 13, 2026 at the Von Braun Center’s Saturn Ballroom.
Two of the 12 new inductees will join siblings in the Hall, both of whom played at Johnson High. They are former Grambling wide receiver Jeremy “Jerry” Gordon (brother Dwight Scales was inducted in 2025) and former Auburn All-America tackle and Green Bay Packer Donnie Humphrey (Gwen Humphrey, Class of 2022).
The other members are track standout and former Olympian Toyin Augustus, football official David Bell, sportswriters Mark Bechtel and Reggie Benson, Butler High basketball great Dee Cummings, ex-major leaguer Jeffrey Hammonds, former NFL standout and Alabama A&M head football coach Anthony Jones, UAH softball All-American Stephanie Pinto, Alabama A&M bowling star Whitney Smith Boggus
and former Johnson, Auburn and NFL linebacker and long-time coach
James Willis.
Along with the new inductees, the Hall will also present the Special Achievement award to David Lee, a former state champion wrestler and leader in the Huntsville wrestling community, particularly as the director of the AHSAA State Wrestling Championship, held here annually.
Toyin Augustus, a Grissom High graduate, attended Penn State and became the school’s first Olympian, competing for her native Nigeria in the 2008 Games in Beijing. She continues to compete in Masters track and owns twoworld records and won the world championship in her event last year.
Mark Bechtel, another of the four Grissom grads in this class, is Senior Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he hasworked for more than 25 years. He oversees the magazine’s coverage of the NBA and has written more than 1,000 articles.
David Bell, a high school official for more than 35 years, serves as the ASHAA’s State Football Coordinator of Officials and worked six state championship games. He was recently inducted into the Alabama Officials Hall of Fame.
Reggie Benson, a Prattville native and graduate of Troy State and Alabama A&M, was a prolific and widely respected sportswriter for The Huntsville Times for 23 years. His primary focus was the programs at local universities Alabama A&M and UAH.
Dee Cummings was an All-State player for Butler High’s memorable girls basketball team of the late 1990s that won three consecutive state titles (the team was the Hall’s Special Achievement honoree in 2023). She still owns
the state record for assists.
Jeremy “Jerry” Gordon was inducted into the Grambling State Hall of Fame last spring. He was the school’s all-time leading receiver when he graduated and first-team All-SWAC. He played pro football in the USFL and the Canadian League.
Jeffrey Hammonds, a New Jersey native who has made his home in Madison County for nearly 15 years, was an All-America at Stanford and played for the U.S. Olympic team in 1992. A first-round draft choice of the Orioles, he went on to have a 13-year major league career and selection to the 2000 NL All-Star team.
The late Donnie Humphrey was twice named first-team All-SEC, playing on Auburn’s 1983 SEC title team. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers and played three years in the NFL. At the time of his passing in 2014, he was a coach for a National Developmental Pro Football League team in California.
Anthony Jones ranks second behind the iconic Louis Crews as the winningest football coach in Alabama A&M history. He was 83-57 in 12 years with four division championships. He was an All-Conference tight end at Wichita State, then played five years in the NFL, winning a Super Bowl title with Washington.
Stephanie Pinto (now Boster) was All-City four times and All-State three times at Grissom, then continued her softball career at the University of Alabama in Huntsville as a three-time All-American. She was named the Gulf South Conference’s Player of the Decade and is in the GSC and UAH halls of fame.
Whitney Smith (now Boggus), another Grissom graduate and now a teacher at Buckhorn, played softball and basketball at Grissom, where she later served as girls basketball coach. She was a three-time All-America bowler at Alabama A&M and SWAC Bowler of the Year in 2007. In 2006, she led A&M to the NCAA championship game.
James Willis was first-team All-State for the Jaguars. He was an All-SEC linebacker at Auburn and drafted by Green Bay, playing seven years in the NFL. He then launched a coaching career that included stops at New Orleans, Auburn, Alabama, Temple and Texas Tech.
