Basketball. 

Standing at 6'11", Carl Crain '75 was a standout on the Father Ryan Boys Basketball Team. The center, who along with John Sneed '74 formed an imposing frontcourt, started two years for Father Ryan and led both teams deep into the playoffs. 

Carl attended Vanderbilt University after high school, where he played on the Commodores Basketball Team and distinguished himself as a student and friend to all. 

Basketball, Track & Field, Volleyball. 

Angela (Rohling) Gregory '98 was busy each season while at Father Ryan, starring for the Volleyball Team in the fall, Girls Basketball in the winter, and Track & Field during the spring.

During her senior season in Volleyball, Angela was not only the MVP of the team for Father Ryan, she was also the Division II Player of the Year and State Tournament MVP. She also accumulated numerous awards and accolades in Girls Basketball and Track & Field.

She continued her volleyball in career in college, playing Division I for Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH and leading the Musketeers to the Atlantic 10 Championship in 2001. An athlete for life, she continues to run marathons across the country. She has finished in the top-100 in the Boston and New York City Marathons in her Division and finished 1st in her Division in Nashville's Country Music Marathon.

Football. 

During his freshman year at Father Ryan, Jim Miller '82 won the city wrestling tournament and was voted “Outstanding Wrestler”. In his junior and senior years, he was the starting tailback on the football team and was selected All State Honors both years. During his senior year, he was voted NIL Offensive Player of the Year and broke school records for rushing yards and touchdowns.

Jim signed a full SEC four year scholarship to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He was a four year letterman starting at fullback his last three years.

Following college, Jim dedicated his career to teaching and coaching youth sports. After stints with Mount Juliet High School and Hendersonville High School, Jim returned to Father Ryan from 2002-2008 as an Assistant Football Coach, Assistant Wrestling Coach, and Head Freshman Wrestling Coach.

Golf, Tennis

Golfer Chris (Dacri) Wantz '88 has the distinct and deserved honor of being not only part of the first girls team to win a State Championship at Father Ryan, but of also being the first female State Champion at Father Ryan as an individual. 

In 1987, as a junior, Chris, along with her teammate Stephanie Gentry '87, led the Irish to a State Championship, crushing the competition by an astonishing 27 strokes as a duo 

In 1988, as a senior, Chris cemented her legacy by winning the individual State Title, rallying from two strokes back on the Tournament's final day to hoist the trophy.

Girls Basketball, Cross Country, and Wrestling Coach

For more than 35 years, John Gorham '54 wore the title of coach for six different sports at Father Ryan, and he excelled at all of them.

He began by taking over the Girls Basketball program in 1971, and within three years they were District Champs and by 1976 they were N.I.L. champs.

Cross Country needed a coach, so John took over the Girls program in 1976 and the Boys in 1978 and earned Coach of the Year honors.

He coached Freshmen Wrestling in the early 1980s and helped with freshmen football as well.

Since it was clear that he was wearing many a coach’s hat, and figuring that he had some time, and deciding that it might be easier to manage himself, he naturally became Athletic Director in 1981, holding the position for four years and seeing the Irish program win the All-Sports Trophy from the Tennessean several times during this tenure.

Teacher and Counselor.

From his earliest days as a student at Father Ryan, John Spore '64 was nicknamed “Doc.”

Name the sport and Doc Spore was part of it in important ways, not as an athlete, but as a manager, toting the tape and the towels, keeping up with the scorebook, unpacking the uniforms for every Irish team that competed, even managing concessions.

He was on the field at Vanderbilt for the 1963 Clinic Bowl and in the old gym with Willie Brown and Jesse Porter a week later for the historic first integrated game in the state.

His purple pride was always on display, so it was destined that he would be part of the Irish landscape always.  He returned to teach and became a guidance counselor, and he stayed close to sports, still a resource for every coach and administrator, still the manager of concessions for every game, and still taking tickets and cheering the Irish season after season and game after game.

For more than 50 years, Coach Spore has been part of the fabric of Irish life, and his contributions of time, resources, and love have had a lasting impact.

The goal was clear. In the first year of the new Division II competition, Father Ryan’s football players were committed to becoming the first State Champion of this new divisional era.

Twenty-three years had passed since the last football state crown, won by the Hall of Fame 1974 team, and despite coming close and fielding some outstanding teams, the Irish were still looking for that next title. Whether it was that commitment or the experience of the athletes or the coaching and presence of Father Ryan Hall of Famer Kurt Page '81, the Irish went undefeated, crushed Springfield to start the season, beat MBA by one in their regular season game, and topped Baylor in the semis to make the title game.  

MBA awaited in the match for the Clinic Bowl trophy and the State Championship. Under the lights at Vanderbilt’s Dudley Field on that crisp November night, the Irish took down the Big Red by the score of 10-7 and completed a 12-0 State Championship season.

The 1999 Irish Volleyball team’s strength was contagious, and Irish fans cheered them as they excelled at several top level volleyball tournaments and registered the only victory by a Tennessee team over powerhouse Brentwood High.  

Led by seven dedicated seniors – Lindsay Spence, Alison Zepezaueer, Amanda Murphy, Christina Whitley, Kristen Tessar, Katie Rowan, and Grace Wallace – the girls were clearly ready to claim that second state title.  

Hall of Fame Coach Jinx Cockerham had them prepped and the year-long push to the top level of the sport had earned them their chance.  In the final four of the state the team topped GPS in two tight games to reach the finals. 

The match with Briarcrest went the Irish’s way in convincing fashion and Father Ryan had its second State Championship trophy in volleyball. 

Basketball
Inducted: 2019

Willie Brown '65 broke the color barrier at Father Ryan in 1963, when he and Jesse Porter joined the basketball team. In 1965, Brown led the squad to a State Championship and went on to become the first African American to sign a grant with the Ohio Valley Conference.

Football
Inducted: 2019

Few folks have defined Father Ryan Athletics in the school's history more than Boots Donnelly. A true living legend, Boots began his career as an athlete, where in 1960 he was named All-City Quarterback by both The Tennessean and The Nashville Banner. That same year, he was the NIL's Player of the Year.

Football, Basketball
Inducted: 2019

A star for Father Ryan during the tough economic years of the Great Depression, Willie Geny '32 brought joy to a community that, like much of the country at the time, was struggling to make ends meet. Geny entered Vanderbilt in the fall of 1932, where he truly came of age as a gridiron star. He lettered in football for three years from 1933 to 1935 and was captain of the Commodore squad his final year. In 1985, he was inducted in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

Basketball, Softball, Volleyball
Inducted: 2019

A three-sport star, Kim Caughron Hulse '90 was a four-year varsity player on the Softball Team who was named Player of the Year in 1990, the MVP of the SCA Volleyball Tournament in 1990, and a three-year varsity player in Girls Basketball.

Basketball, Softball, Volleyball
Inducted: 2019

Lindsey Lynch Magness '95 was a three sport star at Father Ryan who won the 1993 State Championship in Volleyball with her teammates. That year, she was named both District and Region MVP. As 1st Team All Metro in softball and District All Team in basketball, Lindsey stayed busy year-round and left a lasting impact at Father Ryan. Her classmates bestowed the superlative of Most Athletic.

Baseball, Basketball, Football (1955-1983)
Inducted: 2019

Over a 27 year career – from 1955 to 1983 – Bill Derrick '48, blew the whistle, instructing athletes as head baseball coach, head football coach and head basketball coach over nearly three decades. A teacher on the court and in the classroom, he took advantage of the cozy confines of the old gym to spring his full court press to stifle virtually every team that traveled to Elliston Place. But his most valuable teaching moment came in 1963 when he announced “Open Tryouts” and selected Jesse Porter '64 and Willie Brown '65 for the team…the first two African-Americans to integrate sports in Nashville and this region. His courage as well as his coaching during this pivotal period changed our city and all its citizens.

Baseball (1926-1952)
Basketball (1925-1952)
Football (1925-1951)
Inducted: 2019

When Nashville Catholic School for Boys opened in 1925 it had three sports, football, basketball and baseball and one coach. From season to season, from field to court to diamond, Coach Leo Long led the Irish and the Panthers against the best in the region, and the Irish proved their mettle. He led the Irish to State Titles in basketball in 1927 and 1931 and a football State Championship in 1930. When golf was added as a sport, that became one of Coach Long’s teams too.  For the first quarter century of this school’s existence, Coach Leo Long was the constant at Father Ryan…in the chapel for daily Mass and on the field for daily athletic practice. There are a few names still spoken with deep respect in Tennessee athletic history. Coach Long is one of them.

Inducted: 2019

Named to the post in 1957 to succeed the memorable Father Francis Shea, Father James R. Hitchcock (later Monsignor) led a school whose students had distinguished themselves academically, had answered the call to serve in World War II in record numbers, and had led the path of social justice when in 1954 Father Ryan – along with Cathedral, its first home – integrated its classrooms, the first in the South to do so. But in the early 1960s, these Father Ryan students weren’t fully integrated into the school, a situation that gnawed at this intellectual, French-speaking, and caring priest. Working with Coach Bill Derrick, he led the call for integrating athletics in Tennessee, and made this monumental change happen. For his leadership in athletics and more importantly for his leadership in civil rights, we are proud to induct Monsignor James R. Hitchcock into the Athletics Hall of Fame.

Head Coach: Pat Simpson '74

The 1995 Softball Team claimed the first State Title in the sport for Father Ryan.