Two honorees and an emcee: Erskine set to shine at South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony

Legendary soccer coach Ralph Lundy, who began his coaching career at Erskine College in 1976, and Don Whitehead ’67, a Fleet basketball standout who was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, have been named to the 10-member South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame (SCAHOF) Class of 2025.

This year’s SCAHOF inductees were selected from among more than 200 nominees, says Erskine’s Vice President for Athletics Ralph Patterson, a member of the SCAHOF Board of Directors.

Inductees will be recognized at a reception and banquet Monday, May 19, at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, with Patterson emceeing the event. Learn more about the SCAHOF banquet here.  

“Erskine alumni and friends should be very proud that two of our own will be inducted,” Patterson says. “The fact that Erskine has two of the 10 inductees is a phenomenal achievement for Flying Fleet Athletics.”

Leading the Flying Fleet to seven district titles and three NAIA National Tournaments and racking up 10 winning seasons during his 11 years at Erskine, Lundy also broke some new ground. “In 1984 Erskine Athletics Director Bill Lesesne and Men’s Soccer Coach Ralph Lundy introduced women’s soccer to South Carolina when Erskine fielded the state’s first women’s soccer team,” recalls Richard Haldeman, who served from 1961 to 1995 as the school’s public relations director. “In three years, Erskine had become a national powerhouse, hosting and finishing second in the NAIA National Tournament in 1987.”

Lundy, who later coached at the College of Charleston, was inducted into the Flying Fleet Hall of Fame, and Erskine gives an annual soccer award in his honor. He retired in 2019 after 44 seasons and “ranks in the top 25 in all-time wins amongst Division 1 coaches,” according to the SCAHOF’s Feb. 3 release, which says of the famed coach, “Lundy has dedicated his life to the game of soccer for the State of South Carolina.” Erskine’s new soccer facility, Ralph Lundy Field, is now under construction.

Whitehead, who was inducted into the Flying Fleet Hall of Fame in 1986, scored 1,359 points during his 87-game career at Erskine. He averaged 19.3 points per game as a junior and 22.3 points per game as a senior, earning All-NAIA District 6 honors after his junior and senior seasons.

“During the 1965 season, Whitehead scored 36 of Erskine’s 57 points in a 59-57 overtime loss to South Carolina,” the SCAHOF release notes. “Following the contest, USC Hall of Fame coach Frank McGuire said someone should draft him.” Drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1967, Whitehead was later traded to the Houston Rockets and played professionally for three teams in the Eastern Basketball League—Asbury Park, Trenton, and Springfield—from 1967 to 1969.

Ralph Lundy and Don Whitehead will join previous Erskine SCAHOF inductees, who include Gene Alexander (1975), Red Myers (1992), and Dode Phillips (1960).

Pictured at top, from left, are Don Whitehead during his Fleet basketball days and today; and Ralph Lundy during his coaching days at Erskine and today.