July 31, 2001

ACC Commissioner John Swofford has been selected for induction into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association's Hall of Fame. He will be one of seven people inducted in a banquet next spring.

Swofford has been the ACC's Commissioner since 1997 and was the University of North Carolina athletics director from 1980-97.

Swofford has been and continues to be supportive of high school athletics. While at UNC, he made the school's athletic facilities available for use in 15 of the state's high school championships.

Recently, the NCAA lifted a ban that kept college football games off television on Friday nights. Swofford has been very outspoken in his opposition to the NCAA's change in stance on this issue. Realizing that the Friday night TV games will hurt high school football attendance, and thus have the potential to have a crippling effect on high school athletic budgets, Swofford and the ACC have asked the NCAA to reinstate the ban.

Swofford is a native of North Wilkesboro, where he was a two-time all-state football player and three-sport MVP at Wilkes Central High School.

In college, Swofford played quarterback and defensive back for North Carolina from 1969 to 1971. The 1970 team went to the Peach Bowl and the 1971 team won the school's first-ever outright ACC title and appeared in the Gator Bowl.

Also selected to the Hall of Fame were Tom Northington of Greensboro, Jack Groce of Boone, Walter Rogers of Roxboro, Wally Shelton of Mount Airy, Morris Walker of West Jefferson and Herb Young of Cary.

The Greensboro News & Record contributed to this story.