Chesterfield Sports Hall of Fame announces inaugural class

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — The Chesterfield Sports Hall of Fame has announced its first ten members.

The Chesterfield Sports Hall of Fame initially intended to induct just five members into its inaugural class this year, but decided to include ten instead after receiving more than 40 nominations from community members.

The ten members of the inaugural Hall of Fame class are as follows:

• Dave Amsler is credited with bringing soccer to the Richmond area. Amsler mentored soccer players in Chesterfield County for 50 years and founded the Richmond Strikers in 1976, as well as FC Richmond Soccer Club in 1985.
• James Farrior is a former NFL defensive lineman who was drafted by the New York Jets with the eighth overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft. He went on to win two Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006 and 2009.
• Johnny Grubb played 16 seasons of professional baseball and won a World Series as a member of the Detroit Tigers in 1984.
• Denny Hamlin has been driving in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2006 and was named one of NASCAR’s 75 best drivers of all time .
• Ken Oxendine was one of the nation’s top nine high school football recruits as a senior at Thomas Dale High School before playing running back at Virginia Tech and being selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the 1998 NFL Draft. After playing two seasons for the Falcons, Oxendine joined the Los Angeles Xtreme of the original XFL, winning the league’s first and only championship in 2001.
• Bobby Wadkins won two Richmond city junior titles at Meadowbrook Country Club and competed in 715 PGA Tour events with six second-place finishes. He has since won four events on the Champions Tour, including a major title at the 2006 Senior Players Championship.
• Lanny Wadkins won four Richmond city junior titles at Meadowbrook Country Club and won 21 events on the PGA Tour, including the 1977 PGA Championship. He competed in the Ryder Cup eight times between 1977 and 1993 and coached the U.S. team in 1995.
• Lacey Waldrop led Florida State University to four NCAA softball tournament appearances and was the first player in the school’s history to be named Atlantic Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year twice in a row.
• Kellie Wells-Brinkley won all-district, all-region and all-state honors as a runner at James River High School. She went on to break the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference 100-meter hurdle indoor record at Hampton University and won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
• Vic Williams won a total of 213 games and seven Central Region titles as a head football coach for several teams across the Richmond area. He led Thomas Dale High School to the VHSL Group AAA Division 6 state football championship in 2009.

All inductees will have their names displayed at River City Sportsplex, located at 13030 Genito Road, and will be honored at a banquet on Thursday, Sept. 12, at the Perkinson Center for the Arts and Education in the Chester area.

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