Family and friends gathered, stories were told, and memories were shared Saturday evening as three new members joined the Cherokee County Hall of Fame.

Jack Green, B.T. Law, and Eddy Norris comprised the Class of 2010, which was formally honored at a banquet in the Gadsden State-Cherokee Chamber of Commerce Room.

The first honoree of the night was Green, who was a three-time All-State football honorable mention from 1938-40 at Centre High School. He went on to play football at the University of Alabama, where he was a Second Team All-SEC selection in 1945 at guard. Green helped the Crimson Tide capture the 1945 Southeastern Conference and national championships.

After graduating, Green had a coaching career that spanned five decades, with most of those at Gadsden High School. He finished his coaching career at Sand Rock in the late 1970s. He died in 1996.

Accepting on Green's behalf was former Gadsden High player David Beddingfield. Etowah County District Judge Wayne Owen, another of Green's former Gadsden High players, presented Green into the Hall.

Green recognized Beddingfield and several other players in attendance whom Green coached at Gadsden High.

“They’re here because they are the legacy of Coach Green,” Owen said. “He certainly was, first and foremost, a teacher. Everybody’s got their own teaching method, and his was not be the heavy. He learned he could hire assistant coaches to do the dirty work, and he would always be the one who would put his arm around your shoulders and give you a bit of encouragement.

“I think Coach Green would be happy to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Emotionally, you wouldn’t know it. As far as a person keeping a low profile, he very much did that throughout his life.”

Beddingfield described Green as an authority figure when he played football for him in the 1960s.

“He was the type person you looked up to naturally. He was the type person you knew was in charge, and you knew he cared about you as a person. He was the head football coach, and his word was never questioned. He was a great guy. He had a great sense of humor. He never told me that he loved me, but you knew that he did. If you were around him at all, you knew he cared a lot about you.”

The next honoree was Law, who was a standout football and basketball player in the late 1960s. His major accomplishments include a First Team All-State football selection at tight end in 1968 and a First Team All-State basketball selection in 1969.

As a 6-foot-5 defensive end/tight end for the Warriors in 1967, Law helped lead Cherokee County to a 9-1-1 record and the school’s first ever playoff appearance.

As a man in the post for the Warrior basketball team, Law led Cherokee County to a 26-6 record his junior year. The Warriors followed that season up with a 29-1 season and Class 3A state runner-up.

Law also played in the 1969 Alabama North-South All-Star game, in which he earned the Most Valuable Lineman award. He went on to play football at Auburn University, where he was a teammate of 1972 Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan.

Law was presented into the Hall by his football coach at Cherokee County, Bobby Joe Johnson.

“I don’t know who coined the words gentle giant, but B.T. Law was that person,” Johnson said. “I never heard him say anything to a coach but ‘yes sir’ or ‘no sir.’ He is one great person, and I want you to know they don’t make many more like B.T. Law anymore. We’re talking about a nice guy who was one heck of a football player, one heck of a basketball player, and, if we would have had a baseball team, he’d would have been a great baseball player.”

Law said he knew early on in his life, he wanted to be an athlete. He said he did everything he could to make that happen.

“When the coaches told me to do something, I’d say yes, because I wanted to be an athlete,” Law said. “I wanted to be the best athlete that ever come to Cherokee County, and I know I wasn’t that, but just to be mentioned here and come in with this class I think is a great honor.

“They say timing is everything, and I came along at a great time. We had some good athletes in my class and some good athletes in the class before me. We had good athletes in the class behind me. Coach Johnson and Coach (Gerald) Cardin knew how to put people where they needed to be. It turned our athletic program around, and that’s one of the reasons I’m here tonight -- the good teammates I had, and the good coaches I had.”

The final honoree of the night was Norris, a standout basketball and football performer at Sand Rock in the early 1980s.

In basketball, the 6-6 Norris averaged 20.1 points and 15.5 rebounds per game. He still ranks in the top five in three state rebounding categories: second in most rebounds in a single game (31); third in most rebounds in a career (1,318); and fifth in most rebounds in a season (567).

Those numbers on the court helped Norris, an all-state selection his senior year, earn a spot on the 1982 Alabama North-South All-Star game.

Norris also helped guide the Wildcat football program to prominence. As a senior quarterback, Norris led the 1981 Sand Rock team to a 10-2 record and a berth in the state playoffs. The Wildcats’ season ended at Goodwater in a 21-0 loss. Norris finished the year by passing for over 1,300 yards and had over 1,000 yards on the ground.

Norris went on to play basketball at Snead State Community College under coach John Kitchens. After two years at Snead, Norris went on to finish his basketball career at Montevallo (1984-86) and earned his education degree. While at Montevallo, Norris received the Neal Shirley Award as the most outstanding student-athlete. He also received the team’s MVP award in 1986.

Norris came back to Sand Rock in 1990 to teach and coach, where he remained through last spring. He guided various sports at Sand Rock to prominence, including basketball, baseball, football, track and youth soccer. Norris recently moved to Albertville, where he took an assistant coaching position at Albertville High School.

Kitchens presented Norris into the Hall.

“You can characterize him as being very dedicated at whatever he was doing,” Kitchens said of Norris. “I’ve coached 44 years, and in those 44 years I don’t think I’ve had one any more dedicated than Eddy. He didn’t just go out and show it. He did it by working. I don’t think there’s anybody any more deserving to receive this honor than Eddy Norris. I’m so proud of him. It always makes a coach feel good when you see one of your players go on and succeed.”

Norris said having the right attitude helped him throughout his athletic career, and it still serves him in coaching others today.

“The right attitude can help us change things we didn’t think could be changed. We need to have that in order to be successful,” Norris said. “Nothing good comes easy. For me, there were three things that helped out: one was hard work, two was a term I just thought of, stick-to-it-iveness, and three was common sense.

“The reason I wanted to work hard was I wanted to do my best. I feel like God deserved my best. I felt my teammates deserved my best. I know I lot of times I tell our kids the difference between being ordinary and extrordinary is that little extra effort. Sometimes you have to do more than is required. I tried my best to do common things uncommonly good. It’s the little things that make the difference. The third thing I mentioned was common sense. I wasn’t always the best athlete on the floor, but I could always play harder and I could play smarter. No matter what we are or what we do, we just need to do our best, and at the end, we don’t feel bad about it.”

The Hall of Fame committee also recognized several current Cherokee County area standout coaches and players who were in attendance. Those recognized were Cherokee County football coach Tripp Curry, Cedar Bluff track and field coaches Mark Mitchell and Joe Carpenter, Piedmont football coach Steve Smith, and former Cherokee County quarterback and Jacksonville State signee Coty Blanchard.

Curry and Smith led their respective teams to their first football state championships in 2009, a year in which Blanchard earned Mr. Football, the state’s highest football honor. Mitchell and Carpenter guided Cedar Bluff’s boys and girls to their fourth consecutive state titles last season.