Navarro College Bulldog Hall of Fame adds five in 2022
Aug. 8—Navarro College's Bulldog Hall of Fame will induct five members of its Class of 2022 during special ceremonies Saturday, Sept. 17 at The Cook Education Center on the Corsicana campus.
Football's Michael Montgomery and J'Marcus Webb, baseball's Austin Pruitt, soccer's Mandy Gomez Fortner and Navarro's first-ever NJCAA Team Champion, the 1989 football team, will be honored during an 11 a.m. luncheon.
They also will be recognized at halftime of Saturday's 7 p.m. Southwest Junior College Football Conference game against Northeastern Oklahoma A&M at Community National Bank and Trust Stadium.
Bulldog Hall of Fame membership swells to 27 with its third class since the 2019 inaugural.
Montgomery, a sixth-round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, spent eight years in professional football (2005-12), including the first six with the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings when he compiled 122 tackles, five sacks and an interception. The former NJCAA First-Team All-American from Center, Tx, played two seasons for coach Chuck Lawrence (2002-04) and made 131 career tackles with six sacks for NC. Before his junior season, Montgomery transferred to Texas A&M University where he recorded 121 tackles and seven sacks in a two-year career and earned First-Team All Big XII honors
Webb, a seventh-round selection of the Chicago Bears in the 2010 NFL Draft, made 73 starts among 95 games over a nine-year pro career with the Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins. Webb transferred here in 2007 from The University of Texas and helped coach Ray Woodard's Bulldogs to a 9-3 record, the SWJCFC Championship, a Pilgrims Pride Bowl victory over Georgia Military and the No. 4 ranking in the final NJCAA Poll. The NJCAA First-Team All-American and All-SWJCFC tackle led NC to 37.9 points and 407.6 yards per game
Pruitt (5-1, 0.81) led coach Whoa Dill's Bulldogs to the 2011 Alpine Bank JUCO World Series Championship in Grand Junction, Co. The sophomore righthander led NC in starts, innings pitched and strikeouts at the tournament. He threw a complete-game six hitter to beat Iowa Western in Game 2, and started the 6-4, 10-inning championship win over Central Arizona. Pruitt, a ninth-round selection of the Tampa Bay Rays, made the 40-man roster in 2016 and the opening day roster in 2017. While pitching five seasons with Tampa Bay, Houston, Miami and Oakland, Pruitt has compiled a 12-9 record with five saves, spanning a total of 93 major league games that include 10 starts and 32 finishes.
Gomez Fortner is Navarro's first two-time, NJCAA first-team All-American in women's soccer (2004 and 2005). She led the Bulldogs to a 30-8-1 record and the first two of the program's five consecutive NJCAA National Tournament appearances. The former Mesquite Poteet High School and Dallas Baptist University midfielder ranks among Navarro's top four in single-season and career goal scoring and assists. Gomez Fortner served five years as women's head soccer coach at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie (2011-15) after spending three years as an assistant there,
The 1989 Navarro Bulldog football team celebrated the school's first-ever NJCAA Team Championship when it capped a 10-0 season with a 41-17 Mid-America Bowl victory over Ellsworth, Ia., at Tulsa, Ok. Led by NJCAA and Bulldog Hall of Fame coach, Bob McElroy, the Bulldogs set single-season records for rushing defense and total defense enroute to four shutouts during the regular season.
