HUNTSVILLE, Ala. | Alabama A&M University legendary head men's basketball coach L. Vann Pettaway received the Billy Neighbors Lifetime Achievement Award on Monday night during the Second Annual Rocket City Awards, presented by Woody Anderson Ford.
Pettaway served 25 seasons as the Alabama A&M men's basketball head coach and during his tenure, he helped the program elevate to NCAA Division I. He compiled more than 450 wins and led the program to the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament. A 1980 graduate of Alabama A&M, Pettaway had eight seasons of more than 20 wins and holds the school record for most wins (453), most Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) victories (56) and best winning percentage (.620).
The award was named after Billy Neighbors, who is one of the University of Alabama's all-time football greats and a patriarch of Â鶹´«Ã½'s first family of football. While a senior for the Crimson Tide, Neighbors was a unanimous All-American and was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004. In addition, he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame (1983) and part of the inaugural class of the Â鶹´«Ã½-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame (1989).
Alabama A&M women's 100-meter hurdler, Ana-Liese Torian, was nominated as one of the top collegiate athletes in the Rocket City. Most recently, Torian, who is the program's record holder in the event, won the Nike Outdoor Nationals & USATF U20 Championship in Oregon last week, logging a time of 13.12.
The Second Annual Rocket City Awards highlights local athletes, coaches and programs from North Alabama.
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