The 2010 class of the Robeson County Sports Hall of Fame’s was inducted during a banquet on April 18 at UNC Pembroke.

The second class of inductees, including two from St. Pauls, featured six incredible stories of athletic and personal accomplishments.

Master of Ceremonies for the R.A. Jeffries Distributing Co. Banquet was William Freeman, who called the class “nothing short of miraculous.”

There was Lee Vernon McNeill, “one of the fastest humans on earth for two years,” Freeman said. McNeill was a football and track star at St. Pauls High School. On the track, McNeill won both the 100 and 200-meter North Carolina high school state championships in 1984.

He was a three-time all-American at ECU and a member of the 1988 Olympic team in Seoul, South Korea. He ran against and defeated legends like Carl Lewis along the way

The late Robert ‘Greasy’ Graham, of St. Pauls, is an icon in sports history for his tireless work over 40 years as a youth sports volunteer. “It all starts at the youth sports level,” Freeman said, and Graham represents the ideal of the individual who helps young people play the game that he loved.

He was inducted as a “special contributor” to Robeson County sports. His wife Lynn McCulloch Graham accepted the award.

The other inductees were:

Hampton ‘Hamp’ Coleman, baseball player from Red Springs is probably the most successful baseball pitcher ever from the Robeson County.

Pauline Bullard Locklear of the Prospect community was “a trailblazing basketball player in the early 1950s,” Freeman said. She attended Pfieffer College as its team’s starting forward during the 1951-52 and 1952-53 seasons. She was the first female Lumbee athlete to play collegiately somewhere other than at UNCP and broke an important color barrier doing it.

Roy Vaughn is arguably the most successful coach in Robeson County history at tiny Maxton High School. A “juggernaut,” Freeman said, coach Vaughn won state championships in basketball in 1974 and football in 1975.

Ruffin McNeill of Lumberton was named head football coach at ECU on January 21. He was a three-sport star at Lumberton High School and an outstanding football player at ECU and co-captain for two years.

Speaking on behalf of the class of 2010, Ruffin McNeill thanked the Sport Hall of Fame saying, “this was a class act.”

“We’re all honored, privileged and blessed to receive this prestigious award,” McNeill said. “Nothing surprises me about Robeson County, where everything is first class. Thank you.”