Irving ISD Athletic Hall of Fame includes two former NFL players

The Irving ISD Athletic Hall of Fame Committee has announced the Class of 2016, which includes two former NFL players and two beloved coaches, one of whom was also an athlete at Irving High. The inductees are (in alphabetical order):

• DeMarcus Faggins;
• Kelvin Korver;
• Ray Overton; and
• Morris Sloan.

The 2016 Hall of Fame inductees will be honored at a banquet on Saturday, June 18, at the Sheraton DFW Airport Hotel at 6 p.m. Tickets are $20. For sponsorship and/or ticket information, please contact the Irving ISD Athletic Department at 972-600-5215.

Now in its fifth year, the Irving ISD Hall of Fame is designed to honor those who have contributed to athletic excellence throughout the history of Irving ISD. Read more about this year’s honorees below.

DeMarcus Faggins

DeMarcus Faggins, who played football for the first time as a sophomore in high school, quickly became a standout cornerback on the Irving High School football team in the 1990s, earning First Team All-District and Second Team All-State honors. Graduating in 1998, he continued his football career at Navarro Junior College and then at Kansas State University, where he helped lead his team to the 2001 Cotton Bowl championship.

Faggins played two years at Kansas State before being drafted by the Houston Texans in the sixth round of the 2002 NFL draft. After six years with the Texans, Faggins moved on to the Tennessee Titans and Detroit Lions. He also spent several years as a player/coach for the UFL’s Omaha Nighthawks.

Former Irving Tigers’ coach Jim Bennett remembers Faggins as a special player who had a burning desire to succeed and make his mother (who had passed away when he was 13) proud of his academic success, life choices and performance on the football field. Faggins, who volunteered for youth football camps in Houston when he played with the Texans, now lives in the Houston area with wife Khonnia and their 8-year-old son DeMari.

Kelvin Korver

In addition to having a successful football career as a defensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders, Kelvin Korver broke state and national records as a track and field athlete at Irving High School in the 1960s.

With a discuss throw of 197 feet 3 ½ inches in 1967, Korver became the Class 4A UIL State Champion and set the state and national record, which stood for 13 years.  Korver attended Texas A&M University on a track scholarship before transferring to Northwestern College in Iowa where he competed in track and played football, earning All-America honors both years that he played.

Drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 1972 NFL draft, Korver played six seasons there as defensive tackle and was a member of the Super Bowl XI Championship Team. He now lives in Adams, Neb., where he is self employed.

Ray Overton

Ray Overton, a member of the Big Country Hall of Fame, is a storied football coach of 47 years. In the history of Texas high school football, Overton is one of the most well known and well respected coaches of all time. With 30 years as a UIL head coach and 169 wins, Overton has made history in high school sports.

At MacArthur High School, he led teams to 13 playoff games, a district championship in 1987 and an overall record of 69-61-3. His career also included stops at Paint Creek High School, Haskell ISD and Abilene Cooper High School. He became a THSCA (Texas High School Coaches Association) Hall of Honor member in 1978, was named Co-Coach of the Year in 1990 and won the Tom Landry Award from the THSCA in 1994. Having led the MacArthur Cardinal football team as its head coach from 1983 to 1994, Overton retired from coaching in 1994 and continued to teach at MacArthur until 2006.

A resident of Irving, Overton’s plans did not always include coaching. After high school, he attended Texas A&M University for a year, served in the Air Force during WWII and then returned to Texas A&M, where he finished his bachelor’s degree in 1948. He returned home to be a farmer and began coaching at Paint Creek High School, almost by accident. He later earned a master’s degree from Abilene Christian University and taught and coached for nearly 50 years.

Morris Sloan

Before Morris Sloan became a devoted high school and college football coach for more than 30 years, he was a top athlete at Irving High School, lettering in both football and baseball.

As a varsity starter on both offense and defense in 1967 and 1968, Sloan earned All-District, All-Greater Dallas Second Team and All-Metro Honorable Mention honors as a high school senior. He went on to play – and start – all four years at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where he was named Honorable Mention All-Conference Linebacker in 1970 and the All-Conference Offensive Guard and Team MVP in 1972.

Having a love for the game, Sloan returned to Irving where he coached at Lamar Junior High School from 1975 to1977, at Nimitz High School from 1977 to1980, and at Irving High School from 1980 to1984. He then moved on to coach two years at Bonham High School and the next 14 at his alma mater, Southeastern Oklahoma State University (SE).

As SE’s head coach, Sloan’s achievements include coaching six nationally-ranked teams, winning the OIC Conference in 1988, the Aztec Bowl in 1989 and being named conference co-champions three times. He was named the OIC Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1996, the Lone Star Conference Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2000, and he is the all-time winningest coach in school history at SE, where he coached 113 All-Conference athletes and 17 All-Americans. In 2007, Sloan was inducted into the Southeastern Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 2009, he returned to Irving ISD where he finished his career at Nimitz High School. Sloan’s 31-year career included 14 years in Irving ISD. He is now retired, living in Roanoke, Texas.