Who are the 6 inductees to the Polk County Sports Hall of Fame for 2024?
Rick Wilson has done it all in Polk County, from being a standout football lineman at Bartow High School to currently serving on the Polk County Board of County Commissioners.
In between, he racked up more than 205 races under his belt as a NASCAR driver. For that, he is one of six people who will be inducted into the 2024 Polk County Sports Hall of Fame in June.
In football, Wilson was an All-County and All-State selection in 1971. In 1976, he earned his first racing win in Auburndale. He’d eventually win at Bristol and Dover, was handpicked by Richard Petty to steer his car at the Daytona 500, as well as compete in more than 200 top-tier stock car races.
He walked away from motorsports in 1998 and returned to Bartow. He was elected to the Polk County Board of County Commissioners in 2018. Since then, he has served as both the chairman and the vice chairman of the board.
All six will be inducted into the Polk County Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Polk County All-Sports Awards event on June 18 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. For tickets, call Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing at 863-551-4750.
Here are the other five Hall of Fame inductees, in alphabetical order.
Chad Barnhardt
Barnhardt was the starting quarterback on the football team and the starting catcher on the Lake Wales High School 1993 state championship baseball team and was drafted in the eighth round by the Boston Red Sox. But he walked away from his baseball career for an opportunity to play college football.
Three years later, he was a part of history as the first starting quarterback for the University of South Florida Bulls. In two seasons with USF, he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 27 touchdowns, while leading the team to a 13-0 starting record.
He’d eventually return to Lake Wales as baseball and football coach. He left the school in 2005 to work with the Bulls' football team before coming back to Polk County as the offensive coordinator for Webber International. Today, he is the regional president for SouthState Bank.
William Bullock
He is one of the winningest coaches in Polk County baseball history with more 600 career wins.
William “Bull” Bullock wasn’t a one sport wonder, though. With more than 10 years of high school wrestling under his belt, and a quarter century of football coaching behind him, he has success in other places. Still, that 51 years involved in Florida baseball is a record very few can match.
He was the original baseball coach at Lake Region High School. Bullock guided the Eagle Lake Baseball Association, coordinated the state and regional Special Olympics while at Lake Region, and helped guide the Senior Games.
Hall of Fame 2023: Sikes, Richard, Pearce, McGriff to be enshrined in Polk County Sports Hall of Fame
2022 High School Sports: Polk County All Sports Awards
Mike Cobb
Since 1974, Mike Cobb has likely written about anything sports-related.
Cobb, who is from Indianapolis, arrived at Florida Southern College as a baseball player. Cobb, a pitcher, competed on the program's first two national championship teams in 1971 and 1972.
Cobb graduated in 1974 and joined The Ledger, and he never left. He has 15,000 stories under his belt and has earned 30 state and national writing awards, including the Florida Sports Writers Association's prestigious Shelby Strother Award in 2002.
A series of articles he-authored in the paper became the book, "Spurrier: The No. 1 Gator” in 1996. He also co-authored Bobby Bowden articles.
He still contributes to The Ledger as a freelancer today.
Alvin Pearsall Sr.
Pearsall won more than 300 games as a high school basketball coach at Bartow, including an FHSAA state title with Bartow and a FIAA state title with Roosevelt. In eight seasons with Bartow, his squads took eight district titles, six regional titles and four section titles.
A Lake Wales native, he was the oldest of 11 children. After graduating from high school in 1947, the exceptional athlete earned a scholarship as a walk-on at Florida Normal College, now Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens. He turned down an offer to play in the Cincinnati Reds farm system, and would begin his teaching and coaching career, eventually returning to Polk County.
In 1968, he was Polk County’s first Black head basketball coach following school integration. He also coached nationally ranked AAU teams. Pearsall is also a member of the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches Court of Legends Hall of Fame.
George Tinsley
George Tinsley isn’t a native of Polk County. But his contributions to the community through sports have impacted the path of many Central Florida athletes.
The Louisville, Kentucky, native was a two-time Division II All-American basketball player, a three-time national champion at Kentucky Wesleyan and alternate on the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team. He was drafted and played in the American Basketball League from 1969-72; his last stop was with the Miami Floridians.
Now a successful businessman who resides in Winter Haven, he has served on many boards in the area, including at Polk State College, 100 Black Men of America, various Chambers of Commerce, the Boys & Girls Club of Winter Haven and Amateur Athletic Union. And he dedicates his time to area youth as a mentor, basketball coach and speaker.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk County Sports Hall of Fame announces 2024 induction class
