By Jon Mark Beilue
Golf takes center stage with the installation of two prominent names in the sport along with two others during the 68th Annual Texas Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame ceremonies.
The greatest golfer in Texas Panhandle history and a longtime golf professional who impacted the game for 37 years join one of the top football players in the 1950s who later played for the world champion Baltimore Colts and one of the top players in West Texas A&M’s women’s basketball program comprise the latest class.
Harold Lewis, Sherwin Cox, Teresa Tinner and Ryan Palmer propel the elite number of inductions to 214 in the 2026 class.
They will be honored, along with coaches and athletes of the year from 2025-2026 in 11 sports, and five special award winners, at 2 p.m., Sunday at the Amarillo Civic Center’s Grand Plaza. There is no admission charge and a free catered reception is scheduled before and following the ceremonies.
HAROLD LEWIS (211)
Harold Lewis, born during the Depression in Pampa in the 1930s, discovered sports in the last years of World War II. Lewis had the body of an athlete, and had natural talent to go with it. Lewis headed to Pampa High School at a golden age for talented athletes at the school and Lewis soon became part of the very best to walk the hallways at Pampa. The Harvesters would win four state basketball championships in the 1950s, and Lewis started on the 1954 state title team, one that was part of a 72-game winning streak.
He was a sprinter in all four years in track, running the 100, 220, and the 440 relay. He was among a group of five who competed at the Texas Relays. But football was his main sport, the ones other sports, including baseball, revolved around.
Lewis was a three-year starter, going both ways as a running back and defensive back. He was 180 pounds, strong and fast. As a junior, he was honorable mention all-state, and that was the prelude for a senior season in 1954 in which he was co-captain, all-district, all-state in Texas’ highest classification, and named to the All-Southern team that expanded into several states.
The University of Houston won a hard-fought recruiting battle for Lewis. He became a fixture on the UH football team, lettering as a sophomore and then, as a fullback in his junior year of 1957, he helped lead the Cougars to the Missouri Valley Conference title where he was named first-team All-Conference. He started against for Houston as a senior.
Lewis was then drafted in the seventh round of the 1959 NFL draft by the world champion Baltimore Colts. As a rookie, Lewis played in 12 games for the 9-3 Colts, who repeated as world champions with a 31-16 win over the New York Giants. He played alongside five who would eventually be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In 1960, he was signed by the Buffalo Bills in the first year of the American Football League. He played briefly for Montreal of the Canadian Football League, and then in 1962, he joined the Oakland Raiders where he started four games, played in 11, caught seven passes and returned 12 punts and kickoffs.
Lewis returned to his hometown in 1963, making a career working for Cabot, manufacturer of carbon black. Lewis died on Dec. 14, 2014 at the age of 79. Charlotte, his wife of 59 years, passed away in 2020. They had two sets of twins, Howie and Dean, and Andrea and Annette, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
SHERWIN COX (212)
Sherwin Cox discovered the game of golf innocently enough in the fifth grade when a friend asked if he wanted to caddy at the Pampa Country Club. Sure, Cox said, especially when finding out he’d get some loose change for his trouble. Golf has been part of his life ever since.
Cox spent 47 years of his adult life – 37 years as the golf pro at Ross Rogers and later the specialized title of director of golf operations for the city Amarillo – promoting the game, improving courses, welcoming charity tournaments, making the rank-and-file golfer feel catered to, the likes of which this area has never seen.
He spent much of his free time in high school working for golf pro Hart Warren at the Pampa Country Club. That led to becoming assistant pro at Pampa at age 19 in 1971. He was there for 5 ½ years when he accepted the assistant golf pro position at Tascosa Country Club in 1976.
In 1980, he ran his first golf course as head pro at Canyon Country Club, and cemented his growing reputation for golf innovation. He was soon offered and got the job as golf professional at Ross Rogers Golf Course, the 36-hole public course on Amarillo’s north end. On Jan. 1, 1981, Cox began 37 years, in many ways, as the face of golf in Amarillo.
His goal was to enhance the golf experience and grow the game. Quickly, he realized to get more golfers, the Ross Rogers courses needed improving. It was a major undertaking. But that first year, there were 64,000 rounds played, an increase of 7,000 rounds. By 1990, play had incredibly nearly doubled to 100,140 rounds. Eventually, the Wildhorse and Mustang courses at Ross Rogers would be recognized multiple times by the Dallas Morning News as one of the top 50 public courses in Texas.
He started a free junior clinic, from which sprung the extremely popular Junior Coca-Cola tournament. Cox started the Amarillo Junior City Championship and the Ladies City Championship and revived the Men’s City Championship. In just his third year, a new badly needed clubhouse was built.
Cox also enhanced the most prestigious tournament in the Panhandle, the Ross Rogers Partnership, to a tournament with several naming rights. In 1994, Sherwin and Richard O’Neal began the Amarillo Tournament of Champions, now in its 32nd year. Ross Rogers became the prime location for charity tournaments. The courses hosted as many as 140 charity tournaments a year and raising between $15-20 million.
Cox won two national awards from the PGA, 12 awards from the West Texas PGA, 10 from the NTPGA. He’s served on the North Texas PGA for 19 years, including one year as president.
Cox, who retired on New Year’s Eve 2017, and his late wife Jenny have two children, Ty and Teela, and two grandchildren.
TERESA TINNER (213)
In the late 1980s, she was known as “Triple T,” Teresa Tinner of Tulia. She was a triple threat – and more – for the West Texas State Lady Buffs. She could rebound, score, and play tight defense. Tinner was instrumental in helping WT to the most dominant four-year basketball period in school history.
Tinner grew up in Tulia, playing against primarily her boy cousins and brothers. She learned not to concede anything. She moved back and forth between Tulia and Amarillo, ended up starting for Horace Mann Junior High in Amarillo before moving back to Tulia to stay.
Tulia had a strong track program in the 1980s, and she excelled in that sport. But she also had a couple of growth spurts that had her close to six feet tall, and coach Bill Schneider took over the basketball program and took Tinner under his wing. She underwent surgery for a knee injury in her junior year, but recovered from that well enough to be one of the top players in the Panhandle/South Plains.
Location and her mother’s insistence that she play closer to home won the recruiting push for WT. In effect, Bill Schneider ended up handing off Tinner to his brother, Bob, WT’s Hall of Fame coach, in 1986. Under Schneider, Tinner’s potential was unlocked.
She was a key part of the best four-year run in WT’s renowned history. In her four years, along with fellow All-American Vanessa Wells, as well as Von Tucker and Angela Seay, WT was a dominant 116-10. The Lady Buffs advanced to the NCAA Division II national semifinals in her freshman year, to the national championship game as a sophomore, and two regional tournament finals as a junior and senior.
A three-time All-Lone Star Conference player, Tinner stepped up her game even more as a junior after Wells graduated. She earned first-team Kodak All-America honors in 1989, averaging 17.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in leading the Lady Buffs to a 26-3 record. On Feb. 20, 1989, in leading WT to a 69-66 win over Abilene Christian, to clinch the LSC title, Teresa was a perfect 14 of 14 from the field.
Her career was one of the best in WT history, leaving as the school’s all-time leading rebounder with 777, still fourth 36 years later, and her 1,598 points were third all-time, now eighth. She finished second all-time in field goals with 720.
Tinner was inducted into the WT Hall of Champions in 1997, and in 2001, along with Wells, had their jerseys retired. For 26 years, Tinner has worked out of Amarillo as a customer service agent and later flight attendant for first American Airlines and now Southwest Airlines. Her daughter, Jade, followed in her footsteps playing for state champion Canyon in 2018 and later collegiately.
RYAN PALMER (214)
Nearly $34 million in career earnings, a seven-time qualifier for The Masters, and four PGA tournament victories are just a few of the accomplishments that make Ryan Palmer the greatest golfer in Texas Panhandle history.
Palmer got his primary start playing with friend Ty Cox and the junior clinics and tournaments organized by Sherwin Cox, golf pro at Ross Rogers. The two continued on at Amarillo High, where they were part of two Sandies teams that qualified to the state tournament in the mid-1990s. After a year at the University of North Texas, Palmer again joined Cox, this time at Texas A&M.
His game reached another level at College Station. Palmer qualified for the U.S. Open as a junior at A&M. During that time, he won two individual tournaments with the Aggies, was named All-Big 12 from 1997-1999, and left as the single season record holder with a scoring average of 73.4. He would be inducted into the A&M Hall of Honor in 2016.
Palmer had the aspirations and talent for the PGA Tour, but he had to grind for four years to earn that coveted PGA card. He played on the Tight Lies and Hooters tour through 2002, topping the Tight Lies money list in 2002 while winning four tournaments. He was on the Nationwide Tour in 2003, winning the Clearwater Classic and finishing sixth on the money list. He would then earn that PGA card in 2004.
For the next 22 years on the PGA Tour, Palmer has won $33.8 million in earnings, making the cut 328 times. But he did more than just make cuts, Palmer won four PGA tournaments spaced over 15 years – the Funai Classic in his rookie year of 2004, the Gin suer Mer Classic in 2008, the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2010, and the Zurich Classic in 2019.
He was also runner-up in four tournaments. Palmer played in 30 majors with a best finish of fifth in the 2014 PGA Championship, tied for 21st in the U.S. Open, and as far as the Masters, Palmer played that seven times. He finished 10th at Augusta in 2011. In his first Masters in 2005, he made the cut, finished 39th and led the tournament for four holes.
More than 20 years ago, he established the Ryan Palmer Foundation, in which philanthropic efforts are focused on breast cancer initiatives and dental services for children with many in Amarillo benefitting.
Palmer turns 50 in September and will be eligible for the Seniors Tour. He and Jennifer have two children, Mason and Madelyn, and reside in Colleyville.
Coaches of the Year
2025-2026
Baseball: Colby Chandler, West Plains High School
Basketball: (co) Rob Schmucker, Josh Strickland, Panhandle High School
Cross Country: Wes Kirton, Canyon High School
Football: Jeff Smith, West Texas High
Golf: Axel Ochoa, West Texas A&M
Soccer: Victoria Nunez, Borger High School
Softball: Carlyn Tolleson, Dumas High School
Tennis: David De Leon, Canyon High School
Track: Cade Wartes, Canyon High School
Volleyball: Holly Lindley, Fort Elliott High School
Wrestling: Chris Allen, Caprock High School
Athletes of the Year
Baseball: Carson Allen, Canyon High School
Basketball: Bailey Maupin, Gruver High School/Texas Tech
Cross Country: Addyson Bristow, Canyon High School
Football: Cayde Winters, West Texas High School
Golf: Hunter Corman, Wildorado High School
Soccer: Sophie Ferro, Amarillo High School
Softball: Star Cortes, Dumas High School
Tennis: Sara Shelhamer, Olivia Hefley, Amarillo High School
Track: Addyson Bristow, Canyon High School
Volleyball: Harper Vaughan, Amarillo High School
Wrestling: Elijah Luna, Randall High School
Special Achievement Awards
Jan Barker, Amarillo High volleyball
Alec Purdy, Amarillo High swimming
Blayne Robison, San Jacinto Christian tennis
Amarillo Bombers, indoor soccer
Matt Stewart, WT Track & Field
Dick Risenhoover Memorial Award: Brenen Thompson, Spearman/Mississippi State/Los Angeles Chargers
Big Play: Addyson Bristow, Canyon High School/Elijah Luna, Randall High School
Super Team: Canyon High School boys and girls cross country and track teams
Dee Henry Inspiration Award: Kynley Craddock, Randall High School