Francis Marion University athletic director Gerald Griffin has announced that a former Patriot basketball player and a former Lady Patriot basketball coach will be inducted into the FMU Athletic Hall of Fame this February. The two honorees will be men's basketball player Allen Floyd, a native of Mullins, and former women's basketball coach Sylvia Rhyne Hatchell, a native of Gastonia, N.C.
Induction ceremonies will take place during the Homecoming basketball doubleheader, Saturday, Feb. 13, 1993, in the Smith University Center.
Floyd lettered in basketball from 1971 to 1975. He is the Patriot career leader in points scored (1,599), rebounds (933), and field goals attempted (1,334). He also holds the Patriot single-season marks for highest scoring average (22.4 ppg), highest rebounding average (11.5 rpg), and consecutive fee throws made (28). During his playing days, he established numerous other records which have since been broken.
He finished second in the state in scoring both as a freshman, with a 21.9 ppg average, and a sophomore, with a 22.4 ppg average. He was named his team's most valuable player in 1973 and was later selected to the Francis Marion 1970s All-Decade Men's Basketball Team.
He scored a career-high 36 points, then a Patriot single-game record, in a 98-96 loss to Newberry College, Jan.12, 1973. He twice grabbed 20 rebounds in a game. He hit 48% of his career field goal attempts and 79% of his career free throw attempts while recording 127 assists in 92 career games.
Now employed by the New York Life Insurance Company, Floyd earned the B.S. degree in business administration in 1976. A long-time supporter of the Patriots Brigade and a participant in many Patriot Old-Timers' Games, Floyd was a member of Kappa Epsilon Gamma fraternity. He is a former recreation director for the city of Mullins.
