Before he died, the legendary high school football coach James Wyman “Whiney” Ingram was kind enough to throw me a bone and nominate me for the Lexington High School Athletic Hall of Fame.

My old high school honors a new class of athletes every fall during a Wildcat football game in my hometown of Lexington, SC. I am under no illusions here. There are dozens of real athletes that deserve this honor far more than I do, so it is not like I am holding my breath in anticipation of a phone call.

Still, I recently had the pleasure of making my first visit to the relatively new Lexington High School athletic facility while I was in South Carolina for Family Reunion and a Memorial Mass for my late mother, Alice Aun.

I had the privilege of watching my nephew, John Michael Aun, play in a pre-season jamboree game against Airport High School. John Michael did well, making several tackles from his nose guard position, bringing back pleasant memories from yesteryear with a big Wildcat victory.

I was actually one of the Founders of the Lexington High School Athletic Hall of Fame back in the eighties along with a teammate, George Stoudemire. I recall calling George to tell him that I had been appointed chairman of the Hallof Fame Committee. He asked me who appointed me. I had to confess it was me. But both George and I felt that deserving athletes needed to be honored and remembered. I am so happy they are keeping the tradition alive.

Reunions and retreats are a terrific way to not only honor and remember family, friends and loved ones, but it allows us to mend old wounds and reacquaint ourselves with special people in our lives. We simply do not do enough of it.

I was privileged to receive an honor at another retreat at the Allenberrry Resort and Playhouse in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania on August 29 called the Legends of the Speaking Profession Award, which is given out to a handful of folks each year by the Veteran Speakers Retreat.

You have to be 60 years old to be considered for the award. I barely qualified. I actually just turned sixty on August 15th, the date of my mother’s death. The reunion in South Carolina was to acknowledge the 25th anniversary of her passing, so it’s a bitter-sweet day in my life.

Among the other Legends of the Speaking Profession recipients this year was my old friend motivational speaker Zig Ziglar. I have known Zig since I was a child. He sold my mom and dad their first set of pots and pans. We called him Ziggy back in those days. He was a student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He had to work his way through school to earn enough money to get his first-born out of the hospital.

Zig used the “puppy dog close” on my parents. He came to our home, bought food, cooked a meal and then left the pots and pans behind (the puppy dog close). I once kidded him about it saying it took my parents three years to pay off those pots and pans. To which he replied, “By the time he got through feeding the Aun family (11 kids) I didn’t make anything anyway.”

The other recipients at this year’s Veteran Speakers Retreat were author and speaker Tony Alessandra and former Prisoner of War Charlie Plumb. Also being honored posthumously were motivational speakers Mort Utley and Joe Charbonneau.

I have had several honors bestowed on me over the years. In 1978, I won the World Championship of Public Speaking for Toastmasters International which earned me a spot in the Toastmasters International Speaker Hall of Fame. In 2000, the National Speakers Association inducted me into their CPAE Speaker Hall of Fame. In 2002, I was awarded the George Morrisey Lifetime Achievement Award by the Central Florida Speakers Association.

Despite all these tributes, I am humbled by arguably most modest nomination of them all- the one I deserve the least, the Lexington High School Athletic Hall of Fame.