Justin Gatlin, Monica Abbott part of Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame

Success on a global stage had its beginning in Knoxville.

That success, however, doesn’t come without responsibility.

Justin Gatlin and Monica Abbott were among eight former University of Tennessee athletes and coaches honored Friday night with induction into the Tennessee Athletics Hall of Fame.

Today, both are dominant professionals in their sports. 

Gatlin, 35, turned the track world upside down in August when he spoiled Usain Bolt’s farewell to racing by beating him in the 100 meters of the IAAF World Championships.

Gatlin, a lightning rod for controversy, weathered a pair of performance enhancing drug suspensions in his career – one year in 2001 and four years in 2006 – to climb again to the pinnacle.

As part of his mea culpa for the transgressions, Gatlin has spoken to youngsters on ways to avoid such a situation.

“Adversity builds character,” said Gatlin, who ran track at UT from 2001-02. “My time of being an Olympic champion (100 meters) in 2004, I had the same personality that I had when I had my lows.

“Four years away from my sport, I remained the same person. That hunger, that drive; I still had a positive attitude. When I came back to the sport, I was the same person. That helped me get back to the top.”

Now that he’s back on top, his future path is muddled. As the reigning champ, he won’t have to qualify for the World Championships in 2019. Then, there are the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020. 

But at his age …?

“I’m a vampire dinosaur in this sport,” said Gatlin, who shrugged off not being nominated for the IAAF’s Athlete of the Year.  

Abbott also had great  success after leaving UT

Abbott’s amazing talent as a 6-foot-3 flame-throwing, left-handed pitcher has made her a pioneer, of sorts, for all women’s sports.

After a stellar career at UT from 2004-07, Abbott helped the U.S. win the silver medal in the 2008 Olympics. Since then, she has been the standard by which every pitcher in the National Professional Fastpitch league is judged.

And, all the others seem to come up short.

That’s why, last year, Abbott became the first female athlete to sign a $1 million contract (over six years) when she left from the Chicago Bandits to the Scrap Yard Dawgs, based near Houston.

This past summer she led the Scrap Yard Dawgs to the NPF title.

Abbott, the dictionary definition of humble, said the astronomical deal was more about paving the way for future stars to command that sort of compensation.

“Making that decision (to leave Chicago and sign the big deal), I thought about my time at UT,” said Abbott, 31. “I was at a program that was primed to develop. I thought I could step in and help the softball program.

“I was in my comfort zone in Chicago. I knew that if I didn’t leave to play for the Scrap Yard Dawgs and sign that $1 million contract, what legacy would I leave? I had a chance to open a door for future generations in so many areas; not only in softball, but in the athletic field.”

Abbott has been invited to try out in January for the 2018 USA Women’s National Team. With softball reinstated in the Olympics in 2020, this is the first step toward competing.

Joining Gatlin and Abbott in the class of 2017 are the late Ray Bussard (men’s swimming coach, 1968-88), Phillip Fulmer (football coach, 1992-2008), Todd Helton (baseball, 1993-95), Jeremy Linn (men’s swimming, 1995-98), the late Gen. Robert Neyland (football coach, 1926-34, 1936-40, 1946-52) and Delisa Walton Myricks (women’s track, 1980-83).

Al Lesar is a freelance contributor.