Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission

1099 Gum Branch Road / P.O. Box 207

Jacksonville, NC 28540

Phone (910) 347-3141

Fax (910) 347-4705

Ray Durham - Over the course of a 32-year career in high school coaching in North Carolina, Ray Durham earned the respect of his peers and the players he worked with.  Durham, a member of the North Carolina Coaches Association Hall of Fame, spent 26 years as a head football coach, showing the leadership and enjoying the success that earned him coaching stints in the East-West All-Star Game in 1977, the North-South All-Star Game in 1979 and the Shrine Bowl Game in 1984.  Durham’s greatest run of success on the field came in 11 seasons at Jacksonville High School when he compiled a 114-23-1 record.  In 10 seasons from 1978 to 1987, Durham guided the Cardinals to nine playoff seasons and two state 4-A championship game births.  His 1982 team capped a 14-0 season with a 15-6 triumph over Greensboro Page in the title game.  He was named the 4-A high school football coach of the year that season.   Durham added another championship to the Jacksonville trophy case when he served as coach of the 1987 golf team that took the state 4-A title.   After brief periods away from coaching wrapped around a coaching stint at Rocky Mount, Durham returned to the Jacksonville High School football sideline for one season in 2004.  He took a team that won just one game the year before to a 9-4 record and the eastern 4-A playoff semifinals.  In addition to being in the NCCA Hall of Fame, Durham has served on the association’s board of directors as well as its president and vice president.  Durham has also served on the board of directors of the North Carolina Athletic Directors association. 

Leander Green - As a wishbone quarterback, Leander green put Jacksonville High school’s football program into the 4-A playoff picture and directed potent offenses for Pat Dye’s program at East Carolina University.   Green was a tremendous two-way threat at quarterback – with speed and quickness well suited to run the option as well as a strong passing arm.  He led the Cardinals to their first state 4-A playoff appearances in the 1974 and 1975 seasons earning All-State honors as well as a spot on North Carolina’s Shrine Bowl team as a senior in 1975.

Green enjoyed a stellar high school career, earning letters all three years in football, basketball and baseball while, at the same time, earning entrance into the National Honor Society.  Success followed Green to ECU, where he was a three-year starter and letterman running Dye’s offense.  As a junior in 1978, he quarterbacked the Pirates to victory in the Independence Bowl, and in his senior season, he helped the Pirates field the NCAA’s No. 1 rushing offense, No. 2 total offense and No. 3 scoring offense.  Along the way, he set what was then an ECU season record for total offense with 1,714 yards.  He was named East Carolina’s Outstanding Offensive Player and the Outstanding Senior Award winner for 1979.  Green was inducted into the East Carolina University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.

Roosevelt Sanders - Amateur boxing has held a place of prominence in the Olympics and the U.S. Marine Corps, and Roosevelt Sanders has contributed to its history in both venues.  He excelled as an athlete, earning All-Marine and Armed Forces championships, as well as a coach, contributing to the amateur success of two men who eventually became world heavyweight boxing champions.  He earned national coach of the year honors in 1984 and 1997, and was inducted into the USA Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.  “Coach Sanders took me under his wing and encouraged my work ethic and my boxing skills,” said former world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, who was a silver medalist in the 1984 Olympics Games for a US team coached by Sanders and Pat Nappy.  “He never tried to change my style, but rather studied what I did and enhanced those abilities.”  Sanders learned what it took to succeed early, earning a place on the All-Marine Boxing team from 1960-64. In 1961, he won an Armed Forces championship.  He passed those lessons on to others when he entered the coaching profession and carved a niche.  Sanders was the head coach for the All-Marine boxing team from 1988-2000, working with the likes of future heavyweight greats Leon Spinks - who won the world title from Muhammad Ali – and Ken Norton.  Other Marine boxers who shined in the amateur ranks under Sanders’ tutelage include Sergio Reyes, J.R. Williamson, Jeffery McCracken and Eddie Donaldson.  Sanders’ reputation as a coach earned him coaching positions with the National USA Boxing team from 1986-90 and the US Olympic Teams in 1976, 1984 and 1992.  One of his All-Marine products, Spinks, captured a gold medal in the ’76 games.  In addition to his coaching duties, Sanders has served on the board of directors for USA Boxing.