Three Former Alabama Standouts to be Inducted into Alabama Sports Hall of Fame

Former Alabama football quarterback Jay Barker and men’s basketball players Derrick McKey and Ennis Whatley will be three of eight inducted into the State of Alabama Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday night, the organization has announced.

Barker quarterbacked the Crimson Tide to the 1992 National Championship and is the winningest quarterback (by percentage) in school history with a .934 winning percentage. He won the 1994 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and was named the SEC Player of the Year that same season.

Barker played briefly in the NFL for the Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots and Carolina Panthers.  He also played for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League; and finished his career with the Birmingham Thunderbolts of the XFL.

On the hardwood, McKey was considered by many as one of the best players on one of Alabama’s finest teams, leading the 1986-87 squad to a 26-4 overall record, a 16-2 mark in SEC play and an Associated Press final ranking of No. 9 in the nation. The Tide earned a trip to the 1987 Sweet 16, which was later vacated by the NCAA.

McKey, a native of Meridian, Miss., earned All-America honors during the 1986-87 campaign in which he averaged 18.6 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.  He was named the 1987 SEC Player of the Year and was a member of the Gold Medal USA Team at the 1986 FIBA World Championship.

During his three-year career at The Capstone, McKey helped lead the Crimson Tide to a pair of SEC regular season titles along with the 1987 SEC Tournament championship. He finished with 1,231 points (12.4 ppg) and 643 rebounds (6.5 rpg).

McKey was a first-round draft pick by the Seattle Supersonics in 1987 (ninth overall) and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team (1988).  For two consecutive years, he was selected to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team (1995 and 1996).  He played in the NBA from 1987-2002 for the Sonics, Indiana Pacers, and the Philadelphia 76ers.  For his career, he had 10,266 points, 4,387 rebounds, and 2,254 assists.

Meanwhile, Whatley needed just two seasons in Tuscaloosa to be recognized as one of the top players in the nation, earning 1983 All-America honors. That season, he averaged 15.2 points and 6.9 assists per game as he helped the Tide to an appearance in the NCAA Tournament and reach SEC Tournament championship game.

Whatley finished the 1982-83 campaign with 220 assists, which still ranks as the second-most assists in a single season, while his assists per game average is third in the Alabama record books. The Birmingham, Ala., native is still the program’s career leader in assist average with 6.32 assists per game.

The Kansas City Kings made Whatley the 13^th overall pick in the first round of the 1983 NBA Draft, but he was traded that same day to the Chicago Bulls. In all, Whatley’s career spanned 10 seasons and he played for six teams, including the 1991-92 Western Conference Champion Portland Trailblazers that lost Bulls in six games in the 1992 NBA Finals.

McKey and Whatley become the 11^th and 12^th former Alabama basketball players or coach to earn a spot on the state’s Hall of Fame. They are joined by fellow former players James “Lindy” Hood (class of 1990), Leon Douglas (class of 1996), T.R. Dunn (class of 1997), Jerry Harper (class of 2001), Wendell Hudson (class of 2001), Reggie King (class of 2004), Buck Johnson (class of 2007) and Robert Horry (class of 2010), while former Alabama basketball coaches Wimp Sanderson (class of 1990) and C.M. Newton (class of 1993) also have been enshrined.

Other members of the ASHOF Class of 2015 include: Chris Gray (football), Evander Holyfield (boxing), Bobby Hunt (football), Tom Neville (football) and Tony Richardson (football).

In addition to the former Crimson Tide athletes being honored, legendary broadcaster Tom Roberts will be recognized with The Mel Allen Award, which was created to honor media members in the state who have made a lifetime contribution to sports through their work as a media member.  The award is named after 1974 Hall of Fame Inductee Mel Allen from Birmingham who was known as the “Voice of the New York Yankees” for two decades.

Roberts worked for WVTM NBC 13 from 1972 to 1991 as a producer, assignment editor, assistant news director and news and sports anchor/reporter and as news director. A graduate of the University of Alabama, he started his 36 year career with the University in 1979, gathering scores for the late John Forney and Doug Layton during radio broadcasts of Crimson Tide games.  In 1994 he became the VP of Broadcasting for the Alabama Sports Network.  He became the Director of Broadcasting for the Crimson Tide Sports Network from 1998 until his retirement earlier this year.