Rick Wilson has done it all in Polk County, from being a standout football lineman at Bartow High School to currently serving on the Polk County Commission.
During that time, he competed in over 205 races as a NASCAR driver. As such, he will be one of six people scheduled to be inducted into the 2024 Polk County Sports Hall of Fame in June.
In football, Wilson was an All-County and All-State selection in 1971. He earned his first horse racing victory in 1976 at Auburndale. He ended up winning at Bristol and Dover, was chosen by Richard Petty to take the wheel in the Daytona 500, and competed in more than 200 top-class stock car races.
He left motorsports in 1998 and returned to Bartow. He was elected to the Polk County Board of County Commissioners in his 2018 year and since then he has served as both chairman and vice chairman.
All six will be inducted into the Polk County Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Polk County All-Sports Awards event on June 18 at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. For tickets, contact Polk County Tourism and Sports Marketing at 863-551-4750.
Below are the remaining five Hall of Famers in alphabetical order.
chad barnhart
Barnhart was the starting catcher on Lake Wales High School's 1993 state championship baseball team and was drafted in the eighth round by the Boston Red Sox. However, he stepped away from his baseball career to get the opportunity to play college football.
Three years later, he became a part of history as the first starting quarterback for the University of South Florida Bulls. He threw for more than 4,000 yards and 27 touchdowns in two seasons at USF, leading the team to a 13-0 starting record.
He would eventually return to Lake Wales as baseball and football coach. He dropped out of school in 2005 to work for the Bulls football team, then returned to Polk County as Weber International's offensive coordinator. He currently serves as regional president of South State Bank.
william block
He is best known as one of the winningest coaches in Florida high school baseball history.
But William “Bull” Brock wasn’t a one-sport wonder. With more than a decade of high school wrestling under his belt and a quarter-century of coaching football under his belt, he has found success elsewhere as well. Still, his 51 years in Polk County baseball is a record that few will be able to accomplish.
He was the first baseball coach at Lake Regional High School. Mr. Brock coached the Eagle Lake Baseball Association, coordinated state and regional Special Olympics, and helped coach the Senior Games during his time in Lake District.
His baseball team won a state championship and was state runner-up three times.
2023 Hall of Fame:Sykes, Richard, Pierce, McGriff to be inducted into Polk County Sports Hall of Fame
2022 High School Sports:Polk County All-Sports Award
mike cobb
Mike Cobb has been writing about all things sports-related since 1974.
Cobb, an Indianapolis native, attended Florida Southern College as a baseball player. Pitcher Cobb was part of his two national championship teams, the first of the program's in 1971 and he was in 1972.
Cobb graduated in 1974, joined Leisure, and never left. He has written over 15,000 of his articles and he has won 30 state and national writing awards, including the illustrious 2022 Sportswriter of the Year.
A series of articles he wrote for the paper were published in 1996 as a book, Spurrier: The No. 1 Gator. He also co-authored an article about Bobby Bowden.
He continues to write for The Ledger as a freelancer.
Alvin Pearsall Sr.
Pearsall won more than 300 games as Bartow College's high school basketball coach, including an FHSAA state title and an FIAA state title at Lake Wales. In eight seasons with Bartow, his teams won eight district titles, six regional titles and four sectional titles.
A native of Lake Wales, he was the eldest of 11 children. After graduating from high school in 1947, the standout athlete earned an unsuccessful scholarship to Florida Normal University, now Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens. He turned down an offer to play in the Cincinnati Reds' farm system and began his teaching and coaching career that would eventually lead him back to Polk County.
In 1968, after school integration, he became Polk County's first black head basketball coach. He also coached his AAU team, which was nationally ranked. Pearsall is also a member of the Florida Basketball Coaches Association Legends Hall of Fame.
george tinsley
George Tinsley is not from Polk County. But his contributions to the community through sports influenced the paths of many Central Florida athletes.
The Louisville, Kentucky, native was a two-time Division II All-American basketball player, a three-time national champion at Kentucky Wesleyan University and an alternate on the 1968 U.S. Olympic team. He was drafted and from 1969 he played in the American Basketball League until 1972. His final destination was the Miami Floridians.
Now a successful businessman who lives in Winter Haven, he is a member of many organizations in the area, including Polk State University, America's 100 Black Men, various chambers of commerce, the Boys & Girls Club of Winter Haven, and the Amateur Athletic Union. I am serving as a director. And he dedicates his time to area youth as a mentor, basketball coach, and speaker.
