Record-setting coach and Gaston College alumnus Leonard Hamilton to be inducted into NJCAA Hall of Fame

One of Gaston College's most accomplished alumni will be honored for his athletic accomplishments this summer in Charlotte by the National Junior College Athletic Association.

Leonard Hamilton, who was a racial pioneer for the school when he played basketball there from 1966 to 1968, will be a member of the third annual NJCAA Foundation Hall of Fame class.

He and four others will be honored on Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. at Hilton Charlotte University Place in Charlotte.

"We are so proud of coach Hamilton," Gaston College president Dr. John Hauser said. "He means so much to our college and our athletic program."

The NJCAA Hall of Fame seeks to honor individuals who have paved the way for opportunities at the two-year level – athletically and professionally - and those who have been pioneers throughout the history of the association.

Inductees to the NJCAA Hall of Fame include administrators, coaches, student-athletes and meritorious contributors and influencers.

At this year's event, Hamilton will be honored with fellow inductees Nolan Richardson, Brittney Reese, Kirby Puckett and Bruce Arena along with Champion Award winners, the Difference Maker Award winner and the NJCAA's three annual individual student-athlete awards – the Betty Jo Graber Female Student-Athlete of the Year, the David Rowlands Male Student-Athlete of the Year, and the Lea Plarski Award for sportsmanship, leadership, community service, academic excellence, and athletic ability.

Tickets for the event are $125 for attendees and registration is required to attend. To register and to learn more regarding the NJCAA Foundation Awards event, visit: https://njcaa.networkforgood.com/events/55125-2023-njcaa-foundation-awards-event

Hamilton, the winningest coach in the history of Florida State men's basketball and the fifth all-time winningest coach in Atlantic Coast Conference history, has been a college head coach for 33 years. He began his coaching career as an assistant at Austin Peay State University and at the University of Kentucky. He began his head coaching career at Oklahoma State and later coached at the University of Miami, for the NBA's Washington Wizards and at Florida State.

A native of Gastonia, Hamilton played baseball, basketball and football at the city's old all-African-American Highland High School. He then became one of the first two African-American athletes in Gaston College history when he played for the school in the 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons. He also helped Gaston College advance to its first NJCAA national tournament competition when it participated in the 1968 NJCAA Region 10 playoffs.

He scored 971 points in his two-year career, highlighted by a single-game, school-record 54-point effort during his senior season.

After a standout two-year career at UT-Martin from 1969 to 1971, Hamilton began his coaching career.

At Miami, he helped the Hurricanes to the greatest single-season turnaround in Big East history. Picked to finish at the bottom of the Big East Conference standings, Hamilton guided the Hurricanes to a fifth-place finish and a berth in the National Invitational Tournament in 1995 for that school's first postseason appearance in 31 years.

At Florida State, his Seminoles are the fourth-winningest overall program in the ACC since the 2005-06 season, he's the first Florida State coach to guide the school to nine consecutive postseason appearances, his 2012 ACC tournament championship was the first in school history and the first for an African-American coach in ACC history and in 2020 his team won the school's first ACC regular season championship.

Hamilton has won UPI National Coach of the Year (1995), Big East Coach of the Year (1995, 1999), ACC Coach of the Year (2009, 2012, 2020) and the prestigious Ben Jobe Award (2021). The only coach to be named coach of the year in both the Big East and ACC, Hamilton's teams have made the Sweet 16 four times and the Elite Eight once.

Joining Hamilton in induction are championship-winning basketball coach Richardson, U.S. Olympic track star Reese, multi-time major league baseball All-Star Puckett and championship-winning soccer coach Arena.