Last year for the second year in a row the selection committee for the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame have denied one of the greatest athletes to ever lace up their shoes in the triad area be nominated in 2 time football All American Tripp Welborne.
It was with great honor that Keith Brown a Grimsley Alumni Class of 1987 had nominated Sullivan Anthony Welborne III otherwise known as Tripp Welborne Page Alumni Class of 1987 to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame.
It is time that people really know about one of the greatest all around athletes in Guilford County get the recognition he deserves. This will be a short bio of his high school days but will show you just how impressive he was as an athlete.
During his 3 years at Page High School the football team in 85 and 86 won the state football championship, and Tripp Welborne had a combined record in 3 years of football at 41-1-1 . He was selected to be a east west all star athlete in both football and basketball his senior year in 1987. He chose to play in the basketball all star game because it would be his last hurrah at playing the sport on a competitive level.He also was nominated to play in the North-South All Star football game between North Carolina and South Carolina which was a huge honor back in the 80's.
picture shows Tripp on the right #3
Now on to the big leagues of Tripp Welborne's football career. His college choice was the Michigan Wolverines where during his time in college he was awarded 2-time All American in 1989 and 1990. Sports Illustrated had a cover called "Greatest Wolverines of All Time" CLICKHERE , and guess who was one of the defensive backs picked as one of the greatest in wolverine's storied football history none other than Tripp Welborne.
Even going back to his high school days Tripp Welborne was a great punt returner as well. How do I know that it is because I was the one on the other side of ball punting to Tripp Welborne going back to our days at junior high school at Aycock and Kiser then on to our days of playing against each other at one of the best high school rivalries in the state of North Carolina in Grimsley Whirlies and Page Pirates.
Here is a quick bio of college days at Michigan from the Bentley Historical Library on Michigan Athletics CLICKHERE, and here is the bio:
Hard-hitting defensive back who also handled punt returns for the Wolverines. The Greensboro, NC., native was a two-time consensus All-American selection. Welborne recorded 238 tackles in his three years in the defensive secondary and returned 67 punts for 773 yards. During his senior year (1990), Welborne set a single-season record for punt return yardage with 455. Welborne moved from wide receiver to defensive back after his freshman year and intercepted nine passes during his career. Played on three Big Ten championship teams. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings.
Now that the nomination is turned in to the Greensboro Sports Commission we will see what happens next but this nomination should get a resounding 100% yes vote because I will go on record as saying that Tripp Welborne was probably one of the greatest all around athletes to ever play sports in Guilford County History.
Now we are on to year 3 in the nomination process and we can see that the 2010 nomination class has been done and here is a post over at greensborosports.com CLICKHERE to see who was headed to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame. You can see that they left off Tripp Welborne for the second year in a row. Will he be denied this year in 2011?
UPDATE
Here is a complete bio of Tripp Welborne's High School Career at Page High School from the years of 1985 to 1987 with football being a fall sport in his senior year of 1986
-NC vs SC All-Star football (1986 Shrine Bowl)
-NC Football State Champs '84 & '85
-1st team All-State '85 & '86 ('86...selected in 2 positions WR & DB - only one other player in state history had accomplished this... "Choo Choo Justice")
-1986 NC Player of the Year (Football)
-1986 Guilford County Player of the Year (Football)
-1986 Parade All American (ranked #1 WR in nation)
-1986 Shrine Bowl (NC vs SC All-Star football)
-1987 East -West All-Star Football game (selected but did not participate)
-1987 1st team All-State (Basketball)
-1987 Guilford County Player of the Year (Basketball)
-1987 McDonalds All American basketball nominee
-1987 East-West Basketball All-Star game
We will see what happens next week at the Greensboro Grasshoppers game where they will announce the Class of 2011 and hopefully we will see Tripp Welborne in this class .
3 comments:
Well said, Keith. I haven't seen him in years, but he was a great guy, as well. And if I remember correctly, he was well rounded, involved in Page student council, a great student, and, I believe, was even nominated for the Morehead scholarship.
Jane Ritchie Potter, Grimsley Class of '87
Life Long Wolverine Fan,
As a life long University of Michigan football fan I just wanted to post a few words about Mr. Tripp Welbourne. He is one of if not the all-time great safeties in all of college football. He redefined the position along with his special teams punt returning skills. He stared on a talent laden team and won many awards for his efforts. He, along with tailback Tyrone Wheatly will forever be my all-time favorites! Thank-you Tripp for what you brought to the game and it was a priviledge to witness you play the game I love for the team I love! 2 Time All-American!!
thanks jane for the comment.I also have a video where it shows tripp doing a local psa for not doing drugs back in the day. He was a all around great guy and enjoyed playing against him on the field back in the day.
His career at Michigan was incredible as well because please tell me how many local citizens were actually 2 time all americans.
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