The Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame has selected its Class of 2022.

Leading the group of nine inductees is one of the biggest names all-time in Morgan County sports history. That’s Hartselle baseball coach William Booth.

In Booth’s 34 seasons as the Tigers’ head coach, his teams have won eight state championships and his career record stands at a mind-boggling 1,106-493.

“This is quite an honor. I’ve been fortunate to be able to do this for a long time and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Booth said. “A lot of great people have been part of our success over the years. This is also an honor for them.”

Joining Booth in the Class of 2022 are eight others from various sports. The list includes from track and field, Olympic silver medal winner David Albritton of Danville, from basketball and football Larry Tucker of West Morgan, from basketball Stuart Allen of Austin, Christy Thomaskutty of Brewer and David Ogle of Decatur and from football Mario Morris of Decatur, Greg Stewart of Austin and Cleveland Jarmon of Lakeside.

Thomaskutty and Morris were originally elected into the Class of 2020. Because of concerns with COVID, those inductions was postponed to 2021. Because of health concerns last May, Thomaskutty and Morris asked that their inductions be moved to 2022..
After so much success in Booth’s coaching career, one might be tempted to ask “Why did it take so long to honor Booth?” It’s not like his baseball program has been playing in the dark.

It goes back to the founding of the Hall of Fame in 1989. One of the rules for induction stated that for coaches to be eligible they had to be retired.

As it became evident that the 77-year-old Booth has no plans to ever retire, the rule was recently changed. Now an active coach can be inducted at age 60 with 25 years of coaching.

The Hall of Fame could call the rule change the “Booth Rule.” It’s not the first rule change associated with Booth.

More than once over the years the Alabama High School Athletic Association has had to go back and tighten up baseball rules where Booth found unintended loopholes that he would use. Booth himself jokingly calls those changes the “Booth Rules.”

“It wasn’t that we ever did anything illegal,” Booth said. “They just needed to do a better job writing their rules.”

The Morgan Sports Hall of Fame has long been about families with several father and son connections, cousins and even spouses. The Allen family joins the list with Stuart Allen joining his father the late Jack Allen, who was inducted in 1992.

“This really means a lot. It’s a great honor,” Allen said. “When you look at the other inductees in this class, I wonder why my name is even included. It’s a pretty select group.”