ORANGEBURG, SC – Recognitions continue to pour in for former South Carolina State Bulldogs. On Thursday (Jul. 22) night in Greenville, former Bulldog football All-American and NFL standout Robert Porcher was one of five persons inducted into the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame. Porcher became the sixth representative from SC State to join the prestigious hall.

On Sunday (Jul. 25) in Greenville, two Bulldog alums will be recognized by the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association (SCACA) at its 29^th Awards Banquet, which kicks off its four-day (Jul. 25-28) Coaches Clinic at the Greenville Convention Center. The event begins at 7 p.m.

James "Nate" Thompson, a 1978 SCSU graduate and an outstanding wrestler for the Bulldogs, who went on to a successful high school football coaching career, will be inducted into the SCACA Hall of Fame. Former Bulldog football player and track performer Jimmie Rogers, a 1973 alum, who also served 16 years as SC State's head athletic trainer, will receive the Tallulah and Keith Richardson Distinguished Service Award for his long and outstanding tenure as a high school athletic trainer.

Thompson's high school head coaching career included stops at Choppee High School and Carvers Bay, where at the latter, he won 164 games and two state championships. He retired from Carvers Bay in 2019. He earlier served as an assistant at Myrtle Beach High and Conway High.

Upon receiving his SCACA Hall of Fame honor on Sunday, the Georgetown, SC native will be among a rare group of people that have been inducted into both the SCACA and S.C. Football Coaches Association halls of fame.

Rogers, the current head trainer at Ft. Dorchester High School in Charleston, is in his 28 year as a high school trainer and his 49^th year overall in the profession. In addition to his tenure at SC State, he has also worked at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (HKT) and North Myrtle Beach high schools and Furman University and served as an intern for the Miami Dolphins. The Sumter, SC native, has worked high school all-star games and championships 26 of the 29 years he has been in the high school ranks.

Rogers has previously been honored by the SCACA. He earlier was named the group's Athletic Trainer of the Year and was honored for 45-years of service to the Palmetto State. He was also recognized as one of the first athletic trainers to establish Sports Medicine Departments in Secondary Schools in South Carolina

Rogers is a member of the SC State University and Ft. Dorchester High halls of Fame.  
 
 
Jimmie Rogers


Nate Thomas