The Southern Arkansas University Department of Athletics will add eight new individual members to its 20th Sports Hall of Fame Class.
The new members will be formally inducted during a ceremony at 6:30 tonight in the Grand Hall of the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The class will also be publicly introduced at halftime of Saturday’s Homecoming football game between the Muleriders and Oklahoma Baptist.
The 2023 Southern Arkansas University Sports Hall of Fame Class is comprised of eight former student-athletes, one who also coached at the university.
They include the following:
Jerry Chandler – A native of Atlanta, Texas, Jerry Chandler burst onto the track and field scene in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference earning all-conference outdoor honors as a member of SAU’s speedy 4×400 relay team during his true freshman season of 1986. Chandler qualified for the NAIA Outdoor T&F National Championship, his first as an individual, and earned a seventh-place finish in the 400m.
Charles Jones – A native of Banks, Arkansas, Jones arrived on campus for the 1963-64 season. By the time he graduated, he was an All-AIC First Team performance on the hardwood with an All-AIC First Team performance on the diamond after a senior season of 1967 resulted in five more wins behind 41 strikeouts in 55 innings of work.
Maddie (Dow) Ray – A native of Bonham, Texas, Dow’s journey in Magnolia began as a true freshman in 2014.Individually, she was was a four-time all-region honoree, concluded her illustrious career at the top of a dozen career statistical records at Southern Arkansas including batting average (.363), on-base percentage (.522), hits (244), home runs (74 – 7th All-Time Division II), RBIs (224), walks (175 – 5th All-Time Division II) and total bases (502). That production helped lead Southern Arkansas to 162 wins in four seasons, two GAC Tournament titles with Dow garnering MVP honors in 2016, two NCAA regional tournament appearances, the 2016 NCAA Central Region title and the program’s first-ever NCAA DII World Series berth in 2016.
Aharon Eggleston – A native of Las Vegas, Nevada, Eggleston’s presence in the lineup was a highly welcomed one in his first season of 2004. Over a 60-game slate, Eggleston produced a .431 average, a mark that ranked inside the top 30 nationally, with single-season program records in at bats (239), hits (103) and runs scored (87); a mark that also led the Gulf South Conference. As much of a threat as he was in the batter’s box, Eggleston was just as dangerous on the base paths. He nabbed a GSC-leading 37 bags and ranked inside the top 20 in NCAA Division II in steals per game which helped position him to an eighth-place ranking nationally in runs per game at nearly 1.5.
Maggie (Ross) Glover – A native of Waxahachie, Texas, she arrived at Southern Arkansas in 2006 and after four seasons, the Texan cemented herself as one of the top performers in program history and remains the gold standard in the program’s Rally Scoring Era. She became the first player in the program’s Rally Scoring Era to reach 1,000 career kills and 300 total blocks and remains one of just two Muleriders to notch those career totals. Glover was named a 2010 Daktronics All-South Region Second Team performer which followed an All-GSC First Team accolade; the first NCAA all-region selection and the first three-time all-conference honoree in program history.
Trevor Rucker – A native of nearby Prescott, Rucker was named the 2014 GAC Freshman of the Year. He was a first-team All-GAC outfielder and the league’s unanimous 2017 GAC Player of the Year, Rucker was the consensus Central Region Player of the Year, a first team All-American from Daktronics/D2CCA and the NCBWA with second team honors coming from Rawlings/ABCA and was a finalist for both the 2017 Tino Martinez DII Player of the Year Award and the 2017 Josh Willingham DII Most Valuable Player Award. Rucker was named the 2017 Natural State Baseball All-Arkansas Collegiate Player of the Year and capped his senior season as the 2016-17 GAC Male Athlete of the Year.
Tyler Sykora – A standout signal caller at Jessieville High School, Sykora was also impressive as a senior as he tossed for over 2,600 yards with 27 touchdowns in ten games. He once again was named an All-GAC quarterback, earned Team MVP honors from the Little Rock Touchdown Club, was a finalist for the Arkansas Star of Tomorrow award and garnered both the Auburn Smith Male Athlete of the Year honor as well as SAU’s Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. A two-time GAC All-Academic team honoree, Sykora was a candidate for the National Football Foundation’s (NFF) National Scholar-Athlete award.
Allen Gum –A native of Bentonville, Arkansas, Gum led the Muleriders on a dominant five-season run. Under Gum’s leadership, Southern Arkansas won 226 games (.769 – program-best career winning percentage), the third-most by any head coach in program history, and enjoyed 40 or more wins in all five seasons with a program-record 52 victories coming in 2009.
