11/14/06 — MOC Hall profile -- Larry Nance

View Archive

MOC Hall profile -- Larry Nance

By Steve Roush
Published in Sports on November 14, 2006 1:47 PM

This year's Mount Olive Alumni Weekend and Pickle Classic festivities will include a new addition as the inaugural Mount Olive College Athletics Hall of Fame Class will be inducted. The induction ceremony will take place Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Hennessee Room in the Lois K. Murphy Regional Center on the school campus.

The inaugural class is comprised of Kenney Moore, Larry Nance, Clarence Rose, Ray Scarborough and Russell Stephens. As part of the Pickle Classic Countdown, an inductee will be profiled.

Today's profile: Larry Nance.

You could say that Larry Nance put the "Athletics" in Mount Olive College Athletics. Nance arrived at Mount Olive in 1963, serving as Dean of Students and the school's first Director of Athletics. He was also Mount Olive's first-ever head coach for baseball, men's basketball and men's golf.

It's only fitting that Nance's induction would take place during Pickle Classic weekend. Nance initiated the first edition of the Pickle Classic (then known as the Holiday Classic) in 1965.

A graduate of Appalachian State University, Nance left Mount Olive in 1968 to return to his alma mater, where he held positions of Director of Personnel Services and Special Assistant to eh Vice Chancellor for Advancement until retiring in 2001.

A tennis student-athlete at ASU, Nance is also in the Appalachian State Athletics Hall of Fame.