University of North Carolina Athletics
CAR-O-LINES: Talbott Finally Gets Nod for Sports Hall of Fame
May 22, 2003 | Football
May 22, 2003
CAR-O-LINES
By Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
After over two decades, the wait is finally over for Danny Talbott.
It came Wednesday night when the multi-sport star was inducted into the state of North Carolina's Sports Hall of Fame.
Talbott's selection is certainly no shock. The surprising thing is that it has taken so long for him to be recognized. He was one of the Atlantic Coast Conference's most celebrated athletes when he starred in football and baseball at Carolina in the mid-1960's.
Joining him as one of this year's inductees was another Tar Heel athlete -- Sue Walsh, the most dominant female swimmer in ACC history.
The Hall of Fame annually inducts athletic figures who are either natives or residents of the state. It now includes 218 members.
This is the latest in a long array of honors Walsh has received since graduation in 1984. Earlier this year she was chosen as one of the ACC's top 10 female athletes in history. She is just the fourth swimmer to be named to the state's Hall of Fame.
While it was another big night for her, the evening really belonged to Talbott. Over a quarter of the ballroom at the North Raleigh Hilton was filled with raucous fans from his hometown of Rocky Mount.
"Those people have done so much for me over the years," said Talbott. "It was their enthusiasm for athletics that really got me started in sports.
"I'm just glad the Hall of Fame gave me a hotel room here tonight. I'd hate to be driving back to Rocky Mount on Highway 64 tonight."
During the 1960's, Talbott was the premier all-around athlete in North Carolina. He starred in football, basketball and baseball at Rocky Mount High School and then was a football and baseball standout at Carolina He was plagued by injuries during his football career here, but still was regarded as one of the ACC's top players.
An injury limited him to just two full football games as a sophomore in 1964. But the following season he led the ACC in total offense and scoring. Plus, he handled place-kicking and punting.
Against Georgia he ran and passed for 318 yards, breaking Charlie Justice's school record for total offense in a game. This came at a time before the wide-open offenses of today when teams regularly throw 35 or 40 passes a game and quarterbacks average 300 or 400 yards of offense.
He was the ACC Football Player of the Year and the league's Athlete of the Year.
In his senior season he led Carolina to a 21-0 win at Michigan, but suffered an ankle injury the following week at Notre Dame. That slowed him the rest of the year.
Talbott was perhaps even more sensational in baseball. As a senior he hit .395 and sparked the Tar Heels to the College World Series. The Sporting News named him a first-team All-America at first base.
After graduation he was the Most Valuable Player in football's East-West Shrine Game. He signed a baseball contract with the Baltimore Orioles. But, when the Washington Redskins acquired rights to him from San Francisco, he switched to pro football. He played three seasons as the backup to Sonny Jurgensen.
Walter Rabb, Carolina's longtime baseball coach, marveled at Talbott's athletic ability.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Danny would have been a major league baseball star if he had concentrated completely on that sport," Rabb once said. "And if he had played nothing but football, he could have had a long NFL career."
ut, Talbott grew up at a time when athletes weren't happy just playing one sport.
"It was our way of life," he said. "After the football season, we'd put away our cleats and began basketball. As soon as that ended we'd go to baseball."
No one made those transitions better than Talbott. During the 1962-63 school year he led Rocky Mount High to state 4-A championships in all three sports. No 4-A school, the highest level in the state, has accomplished that since Rocky Mount.
"High school kids almost always played more than one sport back then," said Talbott. "You became really close friends with your teammates and that camaraderie helped us be as successful as anything."
During the summer Talbott and his friends spent their time playing all three sports in parks around town.
"Kids didn't have the distractions they do today," he said. "Instead of spending so much time watching cable TV or surfing the Internet, we'd be outside getting some of our best athletic training."
Talbott thinks kids should still play a variety of sports before perhaps concentrating on a single one. But in today's world, youngsters dream of great careers and big salaries so they often limit all their time to football, baseball, basketball, golf, tennis or some other sport.
And if professional athletes had been making as much money and getting as much attention as they do today, maybe things would have been different back then.
"When I signed with the Orioles I was paid $300 a month," said Talbott. "My annual salary with the Redskins was $15,000. That's a little bit different than what athletes today are being paid."
Talbott knows sports have changed dramatically in the last 25 years and isn't bothered by the huge salaries of today's athletes.
"I know the 'good old days' are gone," he said. "But, I still like the idea of playing different sports for as long as possible.
"That was especially important to me in a town like Rocky Mount. I made so many lifetime friends by competing in that manner.
"The people there were great supporters of all our high school teams. They would sometimes charter trains to games in places like Wilmington. There were always caravans of buses and cars following our teams."
And there was another caravan of fans and friends from Rocky Mount travelling to and from Raleigh last Wednesday night to finally see Talbott get an honor he's long deserved.
