Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame to Induct ODU's Mimi Smith and Darryl Cummings
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – The Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame will hold its annual induction ceremonies at Chartway Arena tonight, when it will induct two new members with close ties to Old Dominion.
Darryl Cummings, the former ODU tennis player and men’s and women’s coach, will be inducted posthumously. Cummings, then 59, passed away late last year.
STORY ON DARRYL CUMMINGS CELEBRATION OF LIFE
Former ODU field hockey great Mimi Smith, who was the NCAA’s National Player of the Year in 1999, will also be inducted.
Others to be inducted include Portsmouth native LaShawn Merritt, a famed international track star, Virginia Wesleyan softball coach Brandon Elliott, who built VWU into a national powerhouse; David Six, whose Hampton University women’s basketball teams were long dominant in the MEAC; and Sugar Rodgers, the Suffolk native and former women’s basketball star.
Smith played in the heyday of ODU field hockey, when the Monarchs had arguably the nation’s best program. She was a two-time All-American who led ODU to the 1998 national championship.
A defender known for her fierce style of play, she played on the U.S. National Team for five seasons. She remains in the game as an assistant coach at William & Mary.
A Norfolk native, Cummings grew up in a poor neighborhood with a single-parent mother. He learned to play tennis at Northside Park and Norview High School. He played at ODU, then was hired as the Monarchs’ coach by then Athletic Director Jim Jarrett.
Jarrett took a bit of a chance on Cummings, who did not yet have a college degree, but it was a gamble that more than paid off. Cummings graduated within a year and he coached the ODU women’s team for 20 years and the ODU men for 17, winning 563 career matches.
ODU Women’s Tennis Head Coach Dominic Manilla is among the players he coached.
Cummings is known as the father of ODU’s Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center, one of the nicest and most spacious centers in Division I. Throughout his career at ODU he worked to raise money for the center.
Cummings also coached at Norfolk State and Virginia Wesleyan.
Elliott has taken VWU to 12 consecutive NCAA Division III tournaments and won national titles in 2017, 2018 and 2021. His record is 582-142-1.
He’s a former VWU baseball star who started four seasons and helped the Marlins win two Old Dominion Athletic Conference titles.
A graduate of Portsmouth’s Wilson High School, Merritt won the gold medal in the 400 at the 2008 Olympics and gold in the 4x400 relay in 2008 and again 2016. He won eight more gold medals before retiring in 2017.
Rodgers was a star at Kings Fork High before going on to excel for Georgetown, where she scored 2,518 points and was a four-time All-Big East pick. She played eight seasons in the WNBA before going into coaching. She is an assistant at William & Mary.
Six won five MEAC titles and regularly upset power conference teams while at Hampton, where he had a 264-188 record. He was also a successful high school coach, winning 380 games and state championships in 2001 and 2007 at Hampton High.
The induction ceremony will be held in the Big Blue Room of Chartway Arena, with a social set for 6, dinner at 7 and the induction program at 8. Tickets, priced at $65, will be available at the door.
Chartway Arena has become an increasingly popular venue among regional sports entities. The Norfolk Sports Club held its annual jamboree there earlier this year and the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame held its 2023 induction ceremonies there.
“I think it’s wonderful that these two great regional institutions brought their annual events to ODU,” said Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics.
“ODU has very close ties to both organizations and we’re glad they feel at home on our campus.”