Western Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame
Wayne Tolleson - Football and Baseball - (1974-78)
A middle infielder who fashioned a 10-year MLB career with the Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees, Wayne Tolleson was two-sport star at Western Carolina, earning spots on the SoCon’s 75th Anniversary Baseball Team and the Western Carolina All-20th Century Football Team. The Catamounts’ first-ever Southern Conference Male Athlete of the Year in 1977-78, Tolleson was a two-time All-SoCon selection at shortstop and the 1978 SoCon Player of the Year in baseball and earned all-conference honors at wide receiver in 1977, the first season Western Carolina played a SoCon schedule after joining the league in 1976. Also a two-time All-Atlantic Region pick in baseball, Tolleson hit .340 with 58 stolen bases in his two SoCon seasons in that sport and finished his collegiate career with 10 WCU season and career records. He led the SoCon in stolen bases in each of his two seasons in the league, swiping 29 both years. On the gridiron, Tolleson led the nation in receptions per game in 1977 with 6.6 and led the SoCon with 100.1 receiving yards per game. His 73 catches and 1,101 yards that season were school records. Tolleson made his MLB debut with the Rangers in 1981 and spent the first five years of his career with the organization before being traded to the White Sox after the 1985 season and then to the Yankees in the 1986. He was a member of Western Carolina’s inaugural Hall of Fame class in 1990.
Tolleson was selected to the Southern Conference 100th Anniversary Team in 2021 for both baseball and football and was enshrined into the Southern Conference Hall of Fame in 2020.
