
Stillman College Athletics Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2025

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Six former student-athletes have been selected for enshrinement into the Stillman College Athletics Hall of Fame as the Class of 2025. The induction ceremony will be Friday, Feb. 7, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. during Homecoming Week.
Inducted in the Class of 2025 will be Nicole Chester (women's track & field), Lester Dent (men's basketball), Glenda Gilcud (women's basketball), James Toombs (men's basketball), Dr. Archie Wade (baseball) and Thomas Wesley (baseball).
Tickets for the Hall of Fame Induction Breakfast are now on sale for $35 at GoStillman.com/Tickets. The inductees will also be recognized at the Feb. 8 Homecoming basketball games against Arkansas Baptist College at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. CST.
"We're excited about this calls. We have six outstanding Stillman alums going in. This is the pinnacle of what you do as an athlete. This class will continue to show the history and legacy of Stillman College and those who contributed to its athletics history," said Terrance Whittle, director of athletics.
CLASS OF 2025 INDUCTEES
NICOLE CHESTER - WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
A four-time qualifier for the NCAA Division III Women's Track & Field Championships, Nicole Chester became Stillman College's first two-time NCAA All-American, male or female. She placed fourth in the nation in 1992 and 1993 for women's discus throw. During her four years, she set the Stillman College women's discus record at 147-feet, 6-inches in a meet at Emory University. She finished her career 23-3 in duel meets with her only losses coming in NCAA Division III national championship meets. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Chester set the Parkway West High School girls' discus record and won the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 4A state title in 1989 with a throw of 146-feet, 11-inches. After graduating from Stillman in 1995, Chester remained in Alabama, where she has served as a teacher, coach and administrator with Gadsden City Schools for three decades.
LESTER DENT - MEN'S BASKETBALL
An All-American in 1973, Lester Dent was Stillman College's men's basketball's second member of the 1,000 Point Club. A 1968 graduate of Druid High School, Dent turned down college scholarship offers to go to work. He was later rediscovered in the Benjamin Barnes YMCA gym and joined the Stillman College program in the fall of 1971. He scored a known 1,762 points in three of his four seasons with data missing for the 1973-74 season. He scored 624 points as a freshman and 481 points as a sophomore. As a senior in 1974-75, Dent secured the NAIA District 27 scoring title with 25 points per game and 657 total points. A native of Tuscaloosa, Dent was a local basketball legend, being named the Druid High School MVP in 1965, 1966 and 1967. He led the undefeated Dragons to the 1968 Alabama Interscholastic Athletic Association (AIAA) Class AA state championship. Dent, who died in April 2001, will be inducted posthumously.
GLENDA GILCUD - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
A four-sport athlete at Stillman, Glenda Gilcud was a proven winner after winning six of seven women's cross-country meets in Fall 1997. She was named Stillman MVP for Women's Basketball & Women's Cross Country in 1998. On the basketball court, Gilcud was a two-year captain and the leading scorer in 1996-97 & 1997-98. The 5-foot-7 guard led NCAA Division III in scoring in 1996-97 averaging 33.4 ppg with 801 total points, She also led NCAA DIII in 1997-98 with 30.2 ppg and 759 total points. Her averages of 33.4 & 30.2 ppg rank Top 10 all-time in NCAA DIII. Gilcud holds the Stillman career scoring record (1550), single-season scoring record (801) and single-game scoring record (57). She scored 50 or more points four times (including 57 vs Atlantic Christian and 55 vs Rust), 40 points or more 5 times, 30 or more points 18 times. She scored 20 or more in 23 games as a senior. In addition to her Stillman playing days, Gilcud played for the Bahamas national team and went on to play professionally in the New Providence Women's Basketball Association (NPWBA), where she won five consecutive championships and won many MVP awards. She has spent the past 25 years as a physical education teacher and coaching multiple sports in Nassau, Bahamas. She has coached C.V. Bethel Sr. HIgh School to three championships in senior girls' basketball (2012, 2013, 2017), senior girls' volleyball to two championships (2013, 2018) and the track and field team to a championship in 2010. Each team has also finished runner-up once.
JAMES TOOMBS - MEN'S BASKETBALL
During the 1960s, James Toombs became a national name for Stillman College men's basketball, setting the single-game (64), single-season (920) and career points (2,382) scoring records. The 5-foot-10 guard averaged 35 points per game during his career and first broke the Stillman single-game record with 52 points against Mississippi Vocational School in February 1964. His 64 points in Birthright Alumni Hall on Jan. 16, 1965 against Paul Quinn College are also the most points scored by an individual playing college basketball at an Alabama-based institution, of any level. From 1962-93 until 1965-66, Toombs played in 68 career games, making 1,000 field goals and attempting 2,319. He was 382-for-489 from the free throw line. His 925 field goal attempts in 1965 stood as the national single-season record for nearly a decade. In 1964-65, the Associated Press named Toombs a Little All-America honorable mention. He was also named to the University Press International Small America Basketball Team.
DR. ARCHIE WADE - BASEBALL
A multiple-sport athlete at Stillman College, Dr. Archie Wade became Stillman's first player to play for a Major League Baseball farm system, signing with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964. Wade was a multi-year All-Conference infielder for the Stillman Tigers and also helped the Stillman men's tennis team to a SCAC second-place finish in 1959. During his Minor League Baseball career, Wade hit over .300 in his first two seasons, with a .295 batting average, 48 stolen bases, 11 doubles, eight triples, and one home run - an inside-the-park homer in Reno in 1967. He played for legendary coach Sparky Anderson during the 1966 season in St. Petersburg, Florida. In the offseasons, Wade helped coach Stillman College's men's basketball and baseball teams, including an assistant coach on the Stillman College men's basketball team that won the program's first conference basketball championship. In September 1964, he and fellow Stillman men's basketball coach Joffre Whisenton integrated the University of Alabama's Denny Stadium as fans. He was hired as the University of Alabama's first Black faculty member in February 1970, where he taught for 30 years in the Department of Kinesiology. In 2021, the University changed the name of the building that houses kinesiology to Wade Hall. Wade, who died in January 2025, will be inducted posthumously.
THOMAS WESLEY - BASEBALL
After transferring to Stillman College from the University of Alabama and Snead State Community College to play baseball, Thomas Wesley set the NCAA Division III record for triples in a season (11) in 1980. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 70th Round of the 1980 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft and played two seasons of Minor League Baseball. He returned to both Snead State and Stillman as a baseball coach before becoming the head coach at Alabama A&M University for 16 seasons. He won 238, including the 1993 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) championship, during his time at AAMU. Wesley, who died in May 2009, will be inducted posthumously.
ABOUT THE STILLMAN COLLEGE ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME
The Stillman College Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 2022 and inducted the inaugural class in February 2023. The Class of 2023 included student-athletes Jeffery Henderson (men's track & field), Chester Hightower (men's track & field), Dr. Jamila McKinnis-Riley (women's volleyball / women's basketball) and coaches Richard Cosby (baseball), Donnie Crawford (baseball) and William Riley (men's tennis). The Class of 2024 included student-athletes Chris Brown (men's basketball), Purvis Presha (men's basketball), Lashaunda Spurgeon (women's volleyball and women's track & field), Bryan Walker (men's tennis), Oliver Wells (men's track & field), and contributor Dr. Donald Staffo. Selections to the Stillman College Athletics Hall of Fame are made by a vote of the selection committee each December from nominations submitted by Stillman College graduates prior to September of each year.
Click here to learn more about the Stillman College Athletics Hall of Fame process and submit a nomination for the Class of 2026.
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