ETTRICK, VA – Nine distinguished men and women whose outstanding accomplishments in the world of athletics have brought glory to the state of Delaware over the last half-century, have been selected to be inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum & Hall of Fame.
Virginia State University's very own, Gene Thompson, will be honored at the state's premier sports banquet on Thursday, May 12, at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware. Tickets to the 46th annual banquet are $65 each with tables of 8 available for $490. Social hour and silent auction will begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and ceremony at 6:45.
Gene Thompson was Delaware Coach of the Year in three different sports and led Wilmington High School to the state boys basketball championship three times in an 11-year span.
After leading the Wilmington High junior varsity to a 62-game winning streak, Thompson, a science and math teacher, was promoted to head basketball coach in 1976-77, a role he filled until the school closed in 1999. In just his second season, the Red Devils went 23-1 for a state title, followed by championships in 1983 and 1988. He produced seven first-team all-state players, five on second-team all-state players, and three players of the year. Thompson also had a 49-game Flight B winning streak.
Coach Thompson was named Delaware Coach of the Year in basketball (1978), tennis (1978) and track and field (1994). At a school where only 38 percent of the student body matriculated at a institution of higher learning, 92 percent of his student-athletes moved on to college.
His 1994 track team won the Division Two state title, even though the Red Devils won only one individual event.
Gene Thompson was an advocate for tennis at Wilmington High and the youth of the city, for which he received the U.S. Tennis Association's National Community Service Award in 1998.
He returned to Virginia in 2005 to coach the men's tennis team at Virginia State University (166-121 over 16 season), while assisting the women's basketball team and serving as interim men's coach.
He has been inducted into the Delaware Tennis Hall of Fame (2013), Delaware Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), Delaware Afro-American Sports Hall of Fame (2009), and Virginia Interscholastic Heritage Association Hall of Fame (2018).
Virginia State University Athletics is very proud to be the home of the legendary, Coach Gene Thompson.
