Original Story
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A host of people converged on the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame late Saturday morning, most dressed in identical T-shirts.
Dannette Young-Stone is interviewed next to her display at Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (Vasha Hunt/al.com)
The front was emblazoned with a photo. On the back was a long list of schools, teams and accomplishments. Items like:
NCAA Division II champion three consecutive years
Undefeated in four years of SIAC competition
Only lost one race in four years
Gold medalist in the 1988 Olympics
Silver medalist in the 1992 Olympics
Then at the very bottom:
Loving Wife & Mother of Three
The latter is now what defines Dannette Young-Stone, a former Alabama A&M track star who was enshrined Saturday into the hall.
"That's the most important part of the T-shirt," Stone said.
She was joined on the morning tour by family and friends, sporting the T-shirts with her likeness and her resume, gathering around a handsome display case that included various prizes and memorabilia, next to those of the other inductees -- Alabama coach Nick Saban, long-time college football coach Bill Oliver, former UNA basketball coach Bill Jones, former Auburn and NFL lineman Forrest Blue, ex-Auburn basketball player Vickie Orr, former Jacksonville State and NFL defensive back Eric Davis, ex-SEC and NFL official Ronnie Baynes.
Stone is not a pack-rat. But, as a family member chirped up, "The rest of us are." There was plenty to put on display. The Olympic gold medal. A pair of track shoes. Olympic rings. A warmup jacket.
"The memory I will take from this weekend is being part of one special occasion," she said. "It was very prestigious to me. It was something I can't explain. I couldn't ever dream of being inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Being around those professional athletes, great athletes, it was awesome."
Stone won a gold medal in the 1988 Olympics as part of the 4 x 100 meter relay team and won silver in the same event in the 1992 games. In 1988, in a meet in California, she ran the fastest 200-meter race in the world that year, at 22.34 seconds.
Dannette Young-Stone won medals in consecutive Olympics
At Alabama A&M, she was the NCAA Division II champ in the 100 and 200 for three years running and part of a record-setting relay team. In 1986, in the SIAC Championships, she competed in five events, winning all with record times. She was undefeated in four years of SIAC competition and lost just one race in her Division II career.
All of which seem to just now sink into her children as something pretty darn amazing.
"They had seen me as just Mom," she said. "I had shown pictures and video of what I did, but they thought, 'That's just Mom.' This weekend really opened their eyes about who I am and what I did. Chelsea (her 12-year-old daughter) told me, 'Mom, I can't believe you did all that.'"
Chelsea was among those on the tour Saturday morning, along with 15-year-old Curtis Jr., a football and track star in Conyers, Ga., where the family now lives, and 29-year-old Dyshann, Dannette's oldest son. He was the genius behind the T-shirts.
Dannette and Curtis Stone met at Alabama A&M, where he also ran track for the Bulldogs. His specialty was the 400 meters. The couple never raced, though Dannette laughingly says, "I was faster. He was good, but I was faster."
That debate has spanned another generation now. Dannette is the founder and head coach of Dynamic Speed Elite Track Club in Conyers and continues to train. Curtis Jr. has told her, "I don't want to race you. I might beat you."
If he did, he'd be one of the few who ever could.
