BRIDGEWATER, Va. - Many Hall of Fame honorees find success in a sport that can change the team's trajectory for the better, and that is what one Bridgewater College Hall of Fame honoree in the class of 2001 did in extravagant ways. 

Carlyle Whitelow lettered two years in football, basketball, and track at Bridgewater and was the first black athlete to participate in intercollegiate athletics at the college as well as being the first black athlete in the state to play at a school not predominantly black. Whitelow changed the landscape for others after him. 

Not only did the respectable honoree shine athletically, Whitelow had a gift to educate those around him. He received his degree in physical education from Bridgewater, embarking on a long and distinguished career in education, teaching in the Staunton Public School system for 10 years before his time at the college.  

He then returned to his alma mater in 1969 and saw prolonged success for the next 28 years while teaching physical education and coaching football, basketball, and tennis.  

Whitelow helped guide the tennis program to new heights. In 1979, the stoic Bridgewater mentor was named ODAC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year and coached the college's first-ever ODAC Men's Tennis Player of the Year recipient and participant in the NCAA men's tennis tournament.  

Whitelow retired in 1997, leaving a historic and monumental career in Bridgewater athletics history.  He passed in 2021, but his legacy and impact lives on forever. 

With these amazing accomplishments and achievements, the Old Dominion Athletic Conference has given Bridgewater College the honor of inducting Carlyle Whitelow into the conference's first ever Hall of Fame class in the league's 50-year anniversary of competition.    

Carlyle Whitelow along with four other Hall of Fame honorees from Bridgewater Athletics Hall of Fame will be celebrated on Saturday, Jan. 17 at the women's basketball contest in Nininger Hall at 4:30 p.m.