Gentry will be enshrined during the 61st annual induction celebration on Friday, May 2 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel Joseph S. Koury Convention Center, starting at 5 p.m.
Elon University alumnus David Gentry ’70 is one of 11 inductees into the 2025 North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame class. A 1970 graduate, Gentry is the winningest high school football coach in the state of North Carolina.
Gentry played football at Elon and got his coaching start here as an undergraduate assistant for Head Coach Red Wilson. He was able to coach the freshman football team and handled all scouting duties.
A four-sport standout at Edneyville High School, Gentry won 426 games as a high school coach, including 366 at Murphy High School, more than any other coach at a single school in North Carolina. He won nine state championships at Murphy and had a playoff record of 82-25 (.766). Gentry is also a member of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame and the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Gentry will be enshrined during the 61st annual induction celebration on Friday, May 2 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel Joseph S. Koury Convention Center, starting at 5 p.m. The induction will bring the total number of Hall of Fame members to 421. He will be inducted alongside Greg Ellis, Nora Lynn Finch, Rollie Geiger, Dale Inman, Bobby Isaac, Cullen Jones, Chester McGlockton, Wendy Palmer, Jimmy Raye and Miles Wolff.
“The Class of 2025 of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame is wonderfully diverse, just like the sports landscape of this great state,” said Rick Webb, president of the hall’s Board of Directors. “Trailblazers, icons, and luminaries, from the high school ranks to the professional circuits, there is so much history encapsulated within these eleven inductees, all of whom contributed to the sports culture of North Carolina.”