Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission

1099 Gum Branch Road / P.O. Box 207

Jacksonville, NC 28540

Phone (910) 347-3141

Fax (910) 347-4705

Gid Johnson, a successful coach in football, baseball and track at Georgetown High School and Jacksonville High School. He began his coaching career at Georgetown High School in 1953 and then moved to Jacksonville High School in 1966 after Georgetown was closed. He was influential in the transition during integration of the school system. In 1984 he retired.  His Georgetown team won the North Carolina High School Athletic Conference State 2-A football championship in 1955, which was Onslow County’s first state football title for any school.  He was a member of the Jacksonville staff that produced the second state football title for Onslow County. That came in 1982 with the win by Jacksonville High School over Greensboro Page and captured the State’s 4-A championship. 

Tyrone Willingham, a three–sport star at Jacksonville High School from 1970-1972.  He was outstanding at football, basketball and baseball. In football, he set passing records for yards in a game that stood for 15 years and TDs in a game that stood for 20 years.  He played football and baseball at Michigan State.   Beginning in 1977, his 18 seasons as assistant coach included Michigan State, Central Michigan, NC State, Rice and Stanford in the college ranks and then the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL.  He became head coach at Stanford in 1995, compiling a 44-36-1 record and taking the Stanford Cardinal to four bowl games, including the Rose Bowl following the 1999 season.  He was named head coach at Notre Dame on Jan. 1, 2002.

Jackie Humphrey Tompkins, track and field athlete at Jacksonville High who went on to stand out at Eastern Kentucky University and earn a place on the 1988 US Olympic team that competed in Seoul, Korea. She set US Olympic Trials record in the 100-meter hurdles as part of that team. During her tenure at Eastern Kentucky University, she was a six time All-American, a member of the All-Time All-OVC Women’s Track and Cross Country Team. At her graduation, she held the records at her school for the 100 meter hurtled and 55-meter hurdle. She ranked second in the world as a member of the indoor 4X55 Meter Shuttle Hurdle relay Tem and held the record for Indoor Long Jump

David Dunaway, Jacksonville High football and track athlete in early 1960s who played wide receiver at Duke and earned All-ACC honors in 1966.  At Jacksonville High School, he helped win runner-up finishes in the state championships as a junior and senior. In 1962, he tied state records to win the 100- and 200- yard dashes and tied for first (getting third place) in the high jump.  In 1963, he accounted for all of Jacksonville’s 17 points, setting state records to win the 100, 220, and the high jump.  After his career at Duke, he was drafted in the second round by the Green Bay Packers in 1967 and played two seasons in the NFL with the Packers, Atlanta Falcons and the New York Giants.

Bobby Simpson, well-known supporter of Jacksonville and Onslow County high school athletics.  A standout three-sports athlete at Jacksonville High in the early 1950s, his career was cut short by an automobile accident in 1953 that left him paralyzed.  He was active with civic groups in the community and continued to support JHS sports- whether in was helping an athlete get equipment to organizing buses until his death in 1992.  He was named Community Man of the Year in 1992. Jacksonville High School’s football field was named in his honor, and the City created the Bobby Simpson Memorial Award in 1993 to honor persons whose work has enhanced the lives of those with disabilities.