GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Southern Conference Hall of Fame Class of 2027 has a decidedly Furman purple color to it, and for good reason as football standout Louis Ivory '02, basketball great Darrell Floyd '56, and Paladin Football's 1988 NCAA I-AA (FCS) National Championship Team are among the seven selections set for induction, the league announced today.
 
Induction ceremonies for the SoCon Hall of Fame Class of 2027 will be held on Thursday, Mar. 4, at Battery Park Hall in Asheville, N.C., with doors opening at 7:00 p.m.  Tickets for the event may be secured at this link.
 
Joining Ivory, Floyd, and Furman's 1988 national championship team in the Class of 2027 are Samford quarterback Devlin Hodges (2015-2018), Mercer women's basketball's Kahlia Lawrence (2014-2018), ETSU cross country/track's Seamus Power (1990-1994), and Samford women's soccer's Alyssa Whitehead (2008-2011).
 
Ivory, Floyd, and the 1988 Paladin football squad will give Furman 13 selections to the SoCon Hall of Fame — the most of any league school.  The inaugural SoCon Hall of Fame class was introduced on May 4, 2009, in Spartanburg.
 
"This is a proud day for Furman University as we honor three of the most significant contributors to Paladin history," said Jason Donnelly, Furman's Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics. "Louis Ivory earned the Walter Payton Award and helped lead Furman to the 2001 national championship game. Darrell Floyd was a two-time All-American who led the nation in scoring in back-to-back seasons and brought national recognition to Furman basketball. Furman's 1988 football team won the Southern Conference's first NCAA Division I-AA national championship, a defining achievement in our university's history that set a standard for generations of Paladins. We are grateful to the Southern Conference for recognizing their legacies and proud to celebrate this honor with their families, teammates and the entire Furman community."
 
Ivory (1998-01) fashioned one of the greatest careers in Furman history, rushing for a school record 5,353 yards and 53 touchdowns, while helping the Paladins to a 35-15 overall record, 23-9 SoCon worksheet, and league championships in both 1999 and '01.  A three-time first team All-SoCon selection and two-time SoCon Offensive Player of the Year pick, he also twice garnered FCS All-America honors and in 2000 won the Walter Payton Award — the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy — after rushing for a nation leading 2,079 yards and 16 touchdowns. His 2000 season was spiced by ten 100-yard rushing performances and a school record 301-yard, three-touchdown display in a 45-10 mashing of top-ranked Georgia Southern in Paladin Stadium.
 
Ivory, who ran for 177 yards in a 28-3 victory over North Carolina in 1999, in all topped 100 yards 31 times in his career, including a stretch of nine straight over two seasons, and produced six 200-yard rushing performances.
 
The Fort Valley, Ga., native was honored by both the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame as its Male Amateur Athlete of the Year and by the Greenville Touchdown Club as its South Carolina Player of the Year in 2000.  In addition, South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges proclaimed January 23, 2001, as Louis Ivory Day in the Palmetto State.
 
Ivory's No. 34 is among only three retired jerseys in program history, and he was inducted into Furman's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007.  In 2009 The State Newspaper named Ivory South Carolina Player of the Decade, and in 2021 he was named to the SoCon's 100th Anniversary Team.
 
Floyd (1954-56), who came to Furman following an All-American season at Wingate (N.C.) Junior College, garnered first team All-America honors in 1955 & '56 after averaging a nation best 35.9 points per game as a junior and 33.8 points per game as senior. Combined with All-American teammate Frank Selvy who led the NCAA in scoring in 1953 & '54, the duo gave Furman a four-year lock on NCAA scoring crowns.
 
Floyd's 32.1 career scoring average ranks as the eighth highest career average in NCAA history and ahead of well-known basketball greats such as Elgin Baylor (31.3 ppg), Elvin Hayes (31.0 ppg), Larry Bird (30.3 ppg), Bill Bradley (30.2 ppg), and Wilt Chamberlain (29.9 ppg). He scored 2,281 points in his 71-game Furman career.
 
A native of Thomasville, N.C., he twice earned Southern Conference and South Carolina Player-of-the-Year honors, as well as league athlete of the year accolades. He scored a career high 67 points against Morehead State on Jan. 2, 1955, and later that season tallied 56 points in a 124-87 triumph over Clemson. The 67-point performance against Morehead State ranks as the ninth highest single game scoring total in NCAA history, and his 56-point performance against Clemson still stands as a Tiger opponent record. In all Floyd topped the 40-point plateau 15 times during his career.
 
Following graduation in 1956, Floyd was drafted by the United States Army and also by the NBA's St. Louis Hawks. After a two-year stint in the armed forces, he had his draft rights traded to the Cincinnati Royals but never came to terms.  He returned to South Carolina and enjoyed a successful career in private business and as an entrepreneur.
 
A member of South Carolina, North Carolina, Wingate, and National Junior College Athletic Association Halls of Fame, Floyd was a charter inductee into Furman's Athletic Hall-of-Fame in 1981.  In 1998 he was named to the Southern Conference's 75-Year Anniversary Team and in 2021 to the league's 100-year anniversary squad.  He is among only six players in Furman basketball history to have his jersey (No. 33) retired.  Floyd passed away on March 7, 2000.
 
The 1988 Furman Paladins became the first Southern Conference team — and first private institution — to win a NCAA I-AA (FCS) national championship, going 13-2 under head coach Jimmy Satterfield.  Picked to finish fourth in the preseason SoCon poll, the Paladins defied those projection and rolled to a 6-1 league mark to secure a share of the league crown.
 
Furman's campaign featured a nine-game winning streak that began with a 24-9 victory over Appalachian State in Boone and included five regular season triumphs before the Paladins knocked off Delaware, 21-7, in Paladin Stadium in first round playoff action.  The next week Furman took on SoCon co-champion and No. 6-ranked Marshall in front of 16,820 fans in Huntington, W.Va., and beat the Thundering Herd, 13-9, behind a stout defensive effort.  The Paladins returned home the next week and dispatched top-ranked Idaho, 38-7, to qualify for its second national championship game appearance in four years.  On Dec. 17 in Pocatello, Idaho, Furman gained revenge on Georgia Southern, limiting the Eagles' rushing attack to only 134 yards to beat the Eagles, 17-12, in the Holt Arena Minidome and claim the national championship in a 13-2 campaign.
 
The story of the season was Furman's defense, which led the nation by allowing only 9.7 points per game and recording four shutouts.  Consensus All-America linebacker Jeff Blankenship was also named I-AA National Defensive Player of the Year by the Football News. Five Paladins earned first-team All-SoCon honors that season, with center Steve Duggan, guard Fe Cowan, defensive end Kelly Fletcher, and corner Julius Dixon joining Blankenship on the squad. Among four second team all-conference picks was fullback Kennet Goldsmith, who captured the SoCon's prestigious Jacobs Blocking Award.
 
Furman's national championship team was celebrated on Jan. 16, 1989, with a parade in downtown Greenville attended by 30,000 spectators, and on Feb. 15 the Paladins were honored at the Statehouse in Columbia by visiting President George Bush and by Governor Carroll Campbell, who signed a proclamation naming it Furman Paladins Appreciation Day in South Carolina.