Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

RALEIGH – Former Ahoskie High School standout Timmy Newsome, whose “star power” continued at Winston-Salem State University and with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, has earned his rightful place in the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Newsome, a 1976 graduate of Ahoskie High, was inducted on April 22 during a banquet held at the Raleigh Convention Center. Other inductees for the Hall of Fame Class of 2022 were Luke Appling, Missouri Arledge, Ronnie Barnes, Henry Bibby, Dan Brooks, Torry Holt, Sam Mills, Dave Robbins, and Tom Suiter. Muggsy Bogues was inducted as part of the Hall of Fame Class of 2001.

“I’m honored and humbled by the selection for induction into a hall of fame that includes Michael Jordan and Dean Smith,” said Newsome in an earlier interview with the R-C News-Herald. “Growing up in Ahoskie, my thought process was always focused on a career in business and not sports. My decision to attend Winston-Salem State University was made to keep my parents from having to pay for my education, and playing football allowed me to do that.

“As the first athlete from Hertford County to be selected to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is somewhat surreal, considering the great athletes to come from here. I certainly hope I’m not the last,” Newsome added.

At last week’s induction ceremony, Newsome referenced himself as a “lucky man,” noting the other athletes in his family.

“In the early 1940s, my father, [the now late Louis E. Newsome] who played football at St. Paul’s College in Virginia, told me so many stories about his playing days,” Newsome remarked. He called himself a 60-minute man. That’s a player who never leaves the field once the game starts.”

Another family member, Kenneth Newsome, received a basketball scholarship to the university of Indiana in 1964.

“Although I was very young when he went to college, his Robert L. Vann School exploits in Ahoskie and Hertford County are legendary,” Timmy Newsome noted.

The family’s legacy continued with C.G. Newsome, who was a standout football player at Ahoskie High School. In 1968, he received a scholarship to Duke University, earning a Doctorate in Divinity, and later served as president of Shaw University.

“He [C.G. Newsome] is currently a Board of Trustee member of the James B. Duke Endowment and has a players’ plaza named in his honor adjacent to Wallace-Wade Stadium,” Timmy Newsome said.

And while on the subject of Shaw University, Timmy Newsome mentioned that was the alma mater of his now late mother, Dr. Dimple M. Newsome.

“She served as chairperson of the Board of Trustees [at Shaw] for a long time,” Newsome said proudly.

Another family member, Curtis Newsome, also played football at Ahoskie High School then at Hampton University. He is a practicing dentist in Charlotte.

Timmy Newsome’s oldest brother, Mark, played high school football and ran track.

“He got offers from a lot of colleges, I think, as he would never open the letters,” Timmy Newsome recalled. “He would look at the heading and toss them in the trash. He has an MBA and owns a successful technology company with a focus on the public sector.”

Timmy Newsome’s other two siblings, brother, Louis, and sister, Candyce, were also standout athletes.

“Louis played football and basketball in high school and played one year of freshman football at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” he said. “[Louis] graduated with the degree in pharmacy and is now the vice chair of the UNC Pharmacy Foundation.

“Candyce played high school basketball, was in the band, and excelled academically,” he continued. “She received an academic scholarship to attend Shaw University and played basketball and was also in the band. In 1976, the Shaw University women’s basketball team won the NAIA national championship. Graduating with honors with a degree in biology, she attended Meharry Medical College and got her master’s in health administration. In 1991, Candyce was inducted into the Shaw University Sports Hall of Fame.”

Timmy Newsome also mentioned Winston-Salem State’s legendary football coach Bill Hayes and Dr. Elva Jones, still the chair of the Computer Science Department at WSSU, as people who had a great impact on his life. Another playing a major role was Gil Brandt, the Director of Player Personnel for the Dallas Cowboys.

“After my rookie year in Dallas, Gil asked me what I was going to do during the [football] offseason,” Newsome recalled. “I said I’m trained to be a computer programmer and that’s what I would like to do. So, he found me a job working for a company that sold computer software to financial institutions. I’m celebrating 30 years in information technology this year.”

In closing, Newsome said he proudly accepts induction into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in memory of his late sister, Mavola Newsome-Phuse, who taught Special Education for 30 years in the Raleigh area before dying of Lupus just under 10 years ago.

Timmy Newsome’s illustrious Ahoskie High School career was studded with all-conference honors in football, basketball and baseball. He was selected team captain in football and basketball. However, it was football where he excelled. He played on teams that went 32-5-1 during a three-year period, and as captain of the defense as a senior, that unit yielded only 32 points with eight of those games being shutouts.

In 1974, the team, coached by the now late Daryl Allen, was a finalist in the State 3A Championship game vs. Jamestown Ragsdale High School. The Cougars finished that season with a 13-1 record.

He concluded his high school career by playing in the then-annual North-South All-Star Football Classic in Greenville. His team was coached by Jimmy Addison from Edenton Holmes High School, and Newsome was the only two-way performer in that game, playing running back and safety.

In the spring of 1976, Newsome accepted an athletic scholarship from Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) as a running back. With Newsome as a key player, WSSU achieved back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in 1977 and 1978 with its number one NCAA Division II (D-II) national ranking.

Newsome earned Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Offensive Player of the Year honors three consecutive years. Additionally, he earned All-American (1978 and 1979) and National Player of the Year honors his junior year where he finished second in the nation in rushing for D-II.

He ended his collegiate career as the all-time leading rusher in CIAA history. Averaging only 16 carries a game during his four-year career, Newsome rushed for 3,843 yards (6.1 yards per carry) and 38 touchdowns. He was the CIAA’s leading rusher and scorer in 1977, 1978 and 1979.

The Dallas Cowboys selected Newsome (6’1” and 235 lbs.) in the 6th round in the 1980 draft. As one of the strongest Cowboys team members, Newsome played three different positions – running back, fullback and tight end.

Scoring 30 touchdowns running and receiving, Newsome enjoyed a nine-year career with the Cowboys, finishing as the ninth leading receiver in the team’s history. He was named to the Dallas Cowboys Weekly Newspaper’s all-decade team (1980-1989).

In the spring of 1991, two years removed from pro football, Newsome founded Newtec Business Solutions. Now in its 31^st year, the company’s specialties continue to include securely merging voice and data, network integration and managed services, with an emphasis on security focused cloud-based solutions, database design and implementation, unified endpoint management, and implementations for Microsoft Dynamic 365 and Microsoft 365 (SharePoint).