Art Blevins inducted into the Parkland Athletic Hall of Fame
Members and representatives of the first Parkland High School Athletic Hall of Fame class are shown. Front row, left to right, are Art Blevins; Louis “Josh” Henighan II; Anne Thompson, who is standing in for her late father, Coach Homer Thompson; and Larry Shelton, standing in for his late brother Bruce Shelton. Back row, left to right, are James Webster Jr., Coach Tome Muse and Paul Cloud.
Photo by Kenny Ferris
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Art Blevins, director of the Hanes Hosiery Community Center, was inducted into the Parkland High School Athletic Hall of Fame Thursday, Sept. 1.
Blevins has been a mainstay in the Parks and Recreation department of Winston-Salem for over 30 years.
This was the inaugural class of the Parkland HOF. The committee chose Blevins unanimously.
Blevins said he was very honored to have been selected part of the Parkland HOF.
“With God, all things are possible, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. God has truly blessed me. I am a lucky man. I am blessed to have a great wife, wonderful daughter, great mother and great family and real friends I can count on and thousands of kids I call my own.”
Blevins was one of eight inductees that also included; Tom Cash, Paul Cloud, Louis “Josh” Henighan II, Tome Muse, Bruce Shelton, Homer Thompson and James Webster Jr.
Art Blevins in 1976 graduated from Parkland High School, where he played varsity football for the late, great coach Homer Thompson.
In 1978, Blevins started his own youth sports program out of his own pocket in his old Southside neighborhood for under-privileged kids. Blevins grew up in Southside and watched some of his childhood friends get in trouble or to jail, so the program was started to keep children off the streets and to be into something positive.
Blevins soon had over 100 kids playing ball, and the Winston-Salem recreation department took notice and offered him a job.
He was hired and ran the Forest Park summer recreation playground in the summer and the Skyland recreation center in East Winston in the fall and winter.
Successful athletic pro-grams and city championships in basketball and baseball followed and so did the kids and parents over the years.
Blevins has touched thousands of children’s lives who have been in his recreation programs whether at Forest Park, Skyland, South Fork, or Hanes Hosiery over the years.
Blevins has won 16 awards for his work with kids and the community.
He says, “One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, or how much money I had. But what matters the most is that I was important in the life of a child.”
