The Carter Center for Academic Success and the Panther Academic Den (PAD) recently awarded the inaugural Bob Davis Academic Grit Award to Jaylyn Gray-Palmore, a rising senior majoring in Health and Human Performance, from Charlotte, NC.

Gray-Palmore is an outside linebacker for the Ferrum College football team and has been selected as a 2022 team captain. He earned 2021-22 ODAC All-Academic Team honors and has earned Dean’s List recognition. Gray-Palmore is also a member of Ferrum’s Brother4Brother peer mentor program.

Gray-Palmore is a 20-year cancer survivor. His positive and effervescent personality has led to teammates referring to him as a “hype guy”.  He shared that he has fully enjoyed his Ferrum experience. “Jaylan wants to be remembered as ‘a good, smiling person who shows love to everybody’. This young man is the embodiment of the true meaning of student-athlete,” said Director of the PAD Tom Steele.

The award, named in memory of Coach Bob Davis, was made possible through a memorial gift from the Davis family following Coach Davis’ passing in May of 2021. The father-in-law of former head football coach Rob Grande, Coach Davis was an assistant defensive coach for the Panthers. He also served student-athletes as an academic tutor in the PAD. Coach Davis was loved and appreciated by all students with whom he interacted.

Steele shared, “Bob was one-of-a-kind, just a really fine individual. He was one of the most intelligent individuals I’ve known and possessed a gift of helping students process information. He was a dear friend and is sorely missed by his students and by all of us in the PAD.”

The Bob Davis Academic Grit award is given to the Ferrum football player who made the most improvement in GPA. Gray-Palmore was selected for the award due to his consistent work with Coach Davis in the PAD, which led to improving his semester GPA from 2.15 to 3.60. Coach Davis always referred to Gray-Palmore as “Dean’s List Gray-Palmore” and was extremely proud of this young man.

Ferrum College congratulates Jaylyn Gray-Palmore and extends sincere appreciation to the family of Bob Davis for keeping Coach’s legacy alive.

Billy Wagner

Former Ferrum College and Major League Baseball standout Billy Wagner has been selected for induction into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. The seven-time MLB All-Star had a record-setting baseball career at Ferrum from 1991-93 before being drafted into the pros.

Wagner is one of eight individuals that comprise the 2019 National College Baseball Hall of Fame induction class, including the winningest coach in college baseball history and the player of the decade in the 1990s.

Wagner closed his three-year Ferrum College career with a 17-3 record and 1.63 earned run average, and still to this day holds the NCAA Division III single-season record for strikeouts per nine innings at 19.1 with 109 strikeouts in 51.1 innings in 1992. He was a 1993 first-team NCAA Division III All-American for the Panthers. Wagner was selected in the first round of the Major League Baseball 1993 June Draft by the Houston Astros, as the #12 pick overall.

Wagner’s 18-year professional baseball career, 16 in the majors, includes: Auburn Astros (A) 1993, Quad City River Bandits (A) 1994, Jackson Generals (AA) 1995, Tucson Toros (AAA) 1995, Houston Astros 1995-2003, Philadelphia Phillies 2003-05, New York Mets 2005-2009, Boston Red Sox 2009, Atlanta Braves 2010. Wagner made his Major League Baseball debut September 13, 1995 with the Astros. He is a seven-time MLB All-Star (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010), and was the 1999 MLB National League Rolaids Relief Award Winner.

The 2019 National College Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held in conjunction with the College Baseball Night of Champions celebration, November 1-2 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Read the full press release on Ferrum College’s athletics website.

Tickets for the 2019 induction will be available on the Night of Champions website at www.cbfnightofchampions.org. For more information, contact Mike Gustafson, National College Baseball Hall of Fame president and CEO, at gus@collegebaseballfoundation.org.