In Memoriam 2024: Sports

Steve Sloan

Vanderbilt football coach

Steve Sloan had the biggest smile at Alabama’s homecoming.

It was Oct. 28, 2000, and the University of Central Florida was cashing its check as the predicted patsy for the Crimson Tide’s homecoming game. It was a dreadful season for the Tide. A preseason ranking of No. 3 didn’t matter much, as Alabama limped into the game at 3-4. But surely they’d win against the Golden Knights, right?

UCF — where Sloan was the athletic director — had other plans, with a late field goal securing a 40-38 win. I was in the press box, working for Alabama’s Sports Information Department, and looked over into the box where visiting administrators sat to see Sloan with a grin the width of the Black Warrior River, pumping his fist and glad-handing colleagues. It was a good homecoming indeed for Sloan, who’d quarterbacked Alabama to a 10-1 record in 1964 backing up for an injured Joe Namath.

In Nashville, Sloan — a native of Cleveland, Tenn. — is remembered as the Vanderbilt coach who led the Commodores to a 7-3-2 record in 1974 (and a respectable 5-6 the year before), which included a 6-6 tie in the Peach Bowl, Vandy’s first bowl appearance since 1955 and at a time when making a bowl game was actually an accomplishment. Sloan left West End to coach at Texas Tech and later had stints at Ole Miss and Duke. Sloan came back to Vandy as Watson Brown’s offensive coordinator in 1990. That came after a short stint as Alabama’s athletic director. After his single year on Brown’s staff, he’d return to administration, serving as AD at North Texas, UCF and UT-Chattanooga.

Steve Sloan died April 14 in Orlando, Fla. He was 79. —J.R. Lind

Pat Johnson

Groundbreaking Belmont tennis player 

A Nashville native, Pat Johnson had a unique tennis career at Belmont University. Her roots in tennis dated back to her days at the former West End High, where she mastered the sport and went on to win a couple of city titles at Centennial Sportsplex. She enrolled at Belmont, where she met Warren Johnson, a standout basketball player for the Bruins. The two were married before Pat completed her studies at the school.

After working in an accounting position at GMAC for 32 years, Pat decided to return to Belmont to complete her accounting degree. She earned a spot on the school’s tennis team at age 59, becoming the oldest active athlete in the NCAA. Pat would play No. 4 singles for the Bruins as a member of the Belmont women’s tennis team, earning five match victories before going on to earn her degree in 1993. Pat also went on to run the Music City Marathon in 2001, and she completed multiple half-marathons as well.

Along with her son Jeff and daughter-in-law Renee, Pat established an endowed scholarship for every sport at Belmont, including cheerleading. Her first scholarship — the Johnson-Rotella Women’s Tennis Endowed Scholarship — was in honor of her mother. The Johnson family also played a key role in the tennis facility at Belmont’s Crockett Center for Athletic Excellence. The tennis team lounge is named in Pat’s honor. Pat and Warren Johnson each received the Chaney Memorial Award for their dedication, service and generosity toward Belmont Athletics. —John Glennon

Bill Ligon

Trailblazing Vanderbilt basketball player

Being the second person to do something often amounts to being no more than a footnote — the spotlight shines on the first. The honor of being the first Black basketball player at Vanderbilt went to Perry Wallace in 1967. The second? Bill Ligon, who was a freshman during the 1971-72 season. Ligon died in June at age 72.

But Bill Ligon is more than a footnote. The Middle Tennessee native played high school ball at Union High in Gallatin, with his last season coming before integration. In the final game, Ligon’s team faced all-white Gallatin High for the district championship, won by Gallatin. Ligon and Gallatin High star Ed Sherlin had secretly begun a friendship in the weeks before and embraced after the game. It set a tone for unity in the community and became the basis for a book called  More Than Rivals, which was released in 2016.

In his first varsity season at Vanderbilt, Ligon averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds as a sophomore. (Freshmen weren’t allowed to play on the varsity team in those days.) Those would be his best stats, as the school began bringing in more nationally ranked players and he lost some playing time. 

He was drafted into the NBA by the Detroit Pistons in 1974. After playing one season, Ligon returned to Gallatin to practice law. —Kevin Spain

Chazan Page

TSU athlete, teammate, leader

Tennessee State University student-athlete Chazan Page, a former Lipscomb Academy football standout, was killed in a hit-and-run in April at age 20.

Page, a Nashville native, was a senior offensive lineman on TSU’s football team alongside his brother Chandon. During his career with the Tigers, Page played in 28 games, including all 11 in each of the two seasons prior to his death. TSU athletic director Mikki Allen described Page as someone who “helped bring out the best in others with his outstanding leadership on and off the field, positive attitude, and genuine care for the people around him.” —Logan Butts

Chrissie Herring

Belmont athlete and record-setter

Chrissie Herring ranks among the best women’s basketball players in Belmont University history. She set numerous records at the school and led the Bruins to national prominence in the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics. She first attended Springfield High, earning Tennessean All-Midstate honors during the 1989-90 season. Chrissie was a member of the Springfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2020.

During her career at Belmont, Chrissie led the Bruins to a 116-25 record. The team earned national rankings on an annual basis and advanced to the final eight of the NAIA tournament three times. In 1994, Chrissie led Belmont to a 32-3 record. The Bruins averaged 92 points per game that season and won by an average margin of nearly 24 points per game. A forward, Chrissie was a two-time NAIA All-America selection, two-time Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference player of the year and the 1993 NAIA District 24 player of the year. She is Belmont’s all-time leader in scoring (2,450 points) and rebounding (1,233). Chrissie is the only player in Belmont history to total more than 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. In 1996, Belmont retired Chrissie’s No. 40 jersey. Six years later, she was inducted into the Belmont Athletic Hall of Fame.

She died in June at age 51. —John Glennon

Mike O’Neil

Hockey referee, community leader

People often remember their youth sports coaches. Those volunteers who guide them, teach them sportsmanship and life lessons about working together. But we often forget those other volunteers: the officials. They teach us lessons too, and are as essential to youth sports as the coaches and managers. And it’s a tough job. No one likes a ref. You get yelled at by everybody, and you can’t hide on the bench. Half the people are going to be mad at every decision. But still, they come out. They give up their time — for little or no money — to help our kids learn the game and learn about life.

Mike O’Neil, who died June 2,  was one of those people. One of those thankless helpers we ask to help our kids and probably give too hard a time to anyway. O’Neil was a USA Hockey official for a quarter-century, earning his card when he moved to Nashville, which coincidentally was when the Nashville Predators debuted.

There weren’t a lot of certified hockey officials in Nashville at the time — there still aren’t. Hockey is one of the few sports where being an official requires a pre-existing skill, and knowing the rulebook front to back is of little use if you can’t skate. Because of this dearth, O’Neil officiated everything: rec, high school, college club and even Predators scrimmages. He eventually became certified as an off-ice official for the NHL.

So critical was he to Nashville’s hockey community that the Greater Nashville Area Scholastic Hockey league named its all-star game trophy for him. Parents and players say they breathed sighs of relief when they saw O’Neil had the whistle for their game, because he’d call it straight down the middle. And he kept playing hockey too. His family would enter adult tournaments and often ice a team of nothing-but-O’Neils.

O’Neil was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and kept officiating during his treatment, unable to stay off the ice and away from the game he loved. —J.R. Lind

Mike Purcell

Coach, leader, winner

Tennessee lost one of the best high school coaches in the history of the state — of any sport — when legendary Brentwood soccer coach Mike Purcell died in October at age 73. The longtime coach, who retired in June, won 366 games and five state championships during 22 seasons at the helm of the Brentwood boys’ program. Two of his Brentwood teams, the 2008 and 2023 squads, even ended their seasons atop the national high school soccer rankings.

The Father Ryan alum also spent eight seasons as the Brentwood girls’ soccer head coach, winning approximately 90 more games with that program. In the consistently competitive Williamson County region, Brentwood often came out on top under Purcell. He was the architect of one of the best programs in the state. —Logan Butts