Editor’s note: The annual Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame banquet was Saturday night. See Tuesday’s edition of The News Courier for coverage of the event.

Limestone County has its own version of Jim Thorpe and Babe Didrikson, renowned minority athletes known for their enduring ability to compete at a high level in a multitude of sports.

Athens resident Robert Malone’s competitive career spanned nine sports — football, basketball, baseball, swimming, diving, track, softball, tennis and golf. He played at Trinity High School and Clark College in Atlanta, for community and semi-professional teams and during a 20-year stint in the U.S. Army.

Malone, a 1963 Trinity graduate, will be enshrined tonight in the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame as part of its 15th induction class. He is the fifth former player or coach from Trinity to be inducted in the 119-member hall of fame.

“It’s a culmination of my sporting career, of playing all these sports and enjoying them to the max,” Malone said. “I’m 71 years old now, so to be inducted in the Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame is icing on the cake. I don’t really have words to express what it means to me.”

In high school, he was a 5-foot-10, 150-pound All-State guard in basketball and a regional track champion in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash. He pitched and played outfield and first base for the Athens Giants, a semipro adult baseball team. He moonlighted in swimming and diving, winning the 100-meter freestyle, 100-meter breaststroke and diving event in the Athens vs. Decatur swim meet before he left for college.

At Clark, he was a running back and starting punter for the football team as a freshman. He played No. 2 singles in tennis as a sophomore, helping the Panthers win the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tennis championship. While serving in the military, he won several All-Army golf tournaments. He was an all-star football player and played on a fast-pitch softball team that advanced to the world championship tournament in Canada.

“I got drafted in ’65 as I was getting ready to go back to school. A lot of factors played into staying in the Army for 20 years. One major reason was the Army offered me a lot of schooling,” said Malone, who finished his bachelor’s degree and also earned a master’s degree in environmental science with an emphasis in meteorology.

Malone retired from the Army as a master sergeant and chief meteorologist, spending 22 more years working as a civilian for the Atmospheric Science Laboratory in Arizona. He then became an ordained minister, retiring from meteorology and returning to Athens, where he is pastor of Village View United Methodist Church.

“I lived in Arizona for 42 years, but Athens was always home,” Malone said. “Looking back on my playing career, I don’t have any regrets. I believe sports transcends distances and races, and it gave me the discipline to do these things I did later in life.

“Trinity was the only black high school in the county, and all we had for equipment was hand-me-downs. We didn’t have a ball field at our school. We practiced in an open field next to the school and we played our games at the old Athens stadium. We made the best of what we had, so it’s one of the reasons we’re so proud of what we accomplished and (in) realizing our goals.”

The hall of fame ceremony is 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Limestone County Event Center at 114 W. Pryor St. in Athens.