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Dennis Scott, Ken Swilling Headline Tech Hall of Fame Class

Georgia Tech Hall of Fame

ATLANTA (June 19) – All-Americas Dennis Scott and Ken Swilling, who combined to make 1990 a special year in Georgia Tech athletics by leading their respective teams to the NCAA Final Four in basketball and the National Championship in football, headline the 2001 class of the Georgia Tech Athletic Hall of Fame, which will be inducted Sept. 8 at the annual Hall of Fame dinner at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

Scott (1987-90), a member of Tech’s famed “Lethal Weapon 3” team, and Swilling (1988-91), the free safety who keyed Tech’s 1990 defense, will be honored along with Tech’s all-time victory leader Doug Creek (1988-91) in baseball, all-America triple jumper Rich Thompson (1987-91), all-America golfer Bill Ploeger (1960-62), and undefeated diver Haskew Brantley (1942-43, 47-48).

Scott, named the Naismith National Player of the Year in 1990, also earned first-team all-America honors and was named the ACC Player of the Year. Averaging 21.4 points per game during his career, he still ranks fourth on the all-time Tech career list with 2,115 points. He scored an ACC-record 970 points during the 1989-90 season, leading the Yellow Jackets to the ACC championship and a school-record 28 victories. During his career, Tech went 50-29 with three NCAA tournament appearances and a 24-18 ACC mark.

He was named ACC Rookie of the Year in 1988, and set ACC records for three-point field goals in a game (11), season (137) and career (351). An NBA lottery pick who was drafted by Orlando in 1990, he is a 10-year NBA veteran now playing with Vancouver.

Swilling, a native of Toccoa, Ga., who followed in the footsteps of his cousins Pat and Darrell in attending Tech, was a consensus first-team all-America at free safety in 1990, when the Jackets went 11-0-1, defeated Nebraska in the Florida Citrus Bowl and won the UPI National Championship. He also was a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s top defensive back. A first-team all-ACC choice in 1989 and 1990, Swilling holds the Tech career record for tackles by a defensive back (267) and ranks fourth on the career interception list with 13. A three-year NFL player for Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Arizona, Swilling now lives in Toccoa.

Thompson, a three-year letterwinner from The Bronx, N.Y., earned all-America honors three times in the triple jump, and earned all-ACC honors seven times in the long jump and triple jump. He still holds school records in the indoor (52-11) and outdoor (53-7 1/4) triple jump, and also has the Tech record in the long jump (26-0). A 1991 graduate with a degree in management, Thompson finished seventh in the triple jump at the 1996 U.S. Olympic trials and was a member of the 1995 U.S. Pan American team. He currently lives in Atlanta and still competes in track and field while working as a technical recruiter with Aric Software & Design.

Creek managed to get through a four-year career without earning all-conference honors but did set an all-time Georgia Tech record with 41 victories, which still ranks second in ACC history. A team captain as a senior in 1991, the lefthander from Martinsburg, W.Va., also became Tech’s all-time leader in strikeouts (458) and innings pitched (472). He is one of two Tech pitchers to win 10 games in a season three times, pitched 16 complete games in four seasons and led the Jackets to the NCAA Tournament all four years. Still active in pro baseball, Creek has pitched in the major leagues for St. Louis and San Francisco, and now is on the roster for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Ploeger, a three-year letterwinner from Brunswick, Ga., was a 1962 honorable mention all-America by the Golf Coaches Association of America and a team captain. Since his graduation from Tech in 1963 with a degree in Industrial Management, he has won many amateur events, including the 1999 U.S. Senior Amateur. Ploeger, who has won three Georgia senior amateur titles, was named the 1999 Senior Player of the Year by the Georgia State Golf Association and was ranked the nation’s top amateur by Golf Digest. He is retired and currently lives in Columbus, Ga.

Brantley, from Birmingham, Ala., was a key member of Tech’s SEC Championship swimming and diving teams in 1942 and 1948, and never lost a diving competition in four years at Tech or in AAU competition, including the 1-meter and 3-meter events in both the Southeastern Intercollegiate and Southeastern AAU competitions in 1947. In between his four years at Tech, he served as a fighter pilot in World War II. After his graduation with an Industrial Management degree in 1948, Brantley went on to serve 18 years in the Georgia state legislature and is now retired in St. Simon’s Island, Ga.

The six inductees into Tech’s Sports Hall of Fame increase the number of former Tech athletes, coaches, administrators and announcers who have been so honored to 397.

Tickets to the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame Banquet are available at $65 each and may be purchased by contacting Barb Dockweiler in the Alexander-Tharpe Fund Office (404-894-6124), or by writing Georgia Tech Hall of Fame Banquet, Georgia Tech Athletic Association, 150 Bobby Dodd Way, Atlanta, Ga. 30332-0455.

The banquet will be held Friday, Sept. 8, at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, beginning with a reception at 7 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. and the awards program at 8:30 p.m. Tech hosts Florida State in football at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field, in a nationally televised game on ABC-TV.

The evening also will feature the announcement of Georgia Tech’s Greatest 25 Athletes of the Century, which is being compiled from fans voting online at Tech’s official athletics website, www.ramblinwreck.com.

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