Fab 5 to be inducted into Blue Devils Sports Hall of Fame

2021 inductees include Lady Devils coach, elite former players

By BILLY WOODS

WM School District

Tickets for the West Memphis Sports Hall of Fame ceremony on September 23 at 7 p.m. at the Academies of West Memphis cafeteria are now on sale.

Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at the West Memphis School District’s administrative office on South Avalon. Tables for 8 can be purchased for $200. Tables for 6 can be purchased for $150.

The 2020 Hall of Fame ceremony and banquet were scratched due to the Covid pandemic.

The sixth class of inductees this year will include Lady Devils basketball head coach Shelia Burns, former boys alltime great point guard Mark Mangum, multi-sport star Tyrone Bullins, golf great Jordan Payne and football and track star William Franklin.

Burns served as Lady Devils head coach for 24 years and is the school’s all-time leader in wins. Her teams won 10 conference championships and her 2002-03 team won the state title.

Burns had two other teams reach the state title game.

She came to West Memphis in 1994-95 to serve as

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an assistant coach to Bobby Ashley. She was named head coach the next year.

Mangum starred on two straight Blue Devil basketball state championships under head coach Larry Bray. He broke Stanley Andrews’ single-season assist record in 2003-04 and held the record until Cavin Paige broke the mark in the 2018-19 season.

After helping the Blue Devils to state championships in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons, Mangum went on to win national championships at two colleges, rst at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith and then a Division II national title.

Bullins was a two-time allstate football player for the Blue Devils in 1987 and ‘88 and he was an all-state selection in basketball his senior season. He also starred for head coach Joe Nooner’s track and eld squad.

A two-way star in football, he was named to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s All-Decade team of the 1980s as a defensive player.

Payne was a multi-time allstate performer in golf. His senior year Payne won the coveted triple crown of high school golf, taking rst place in the Class 5A state tournament, the Overall state tournament and the Junior Boys summer championship.

Payne signed with the University of Arkansas out of high school, but wound up starring for the University of Memphis after transferring. He has played professionally in several tours, including the PGA.

Franklin was a terror as a defensive lineman early in the Grafton Moore era in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. He signed out of high school with the University of Central Arkansas, where he starred on several Bears teams that competed for the NAIA national championship.

Franklin also starred as a thrower for Nooner’s Blue Devil track and eld teams.

Photos courtesy of WMSD

Headlining the West Memphis Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2021 is legendary girls basketball coach Sheila Burns.

Multi-sport star for the Blue Devils Tyrone Bullins.