1993 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE | DUARD B. WALKER
Duard B. Walker played high school football, basketball and baseball, earning varsity letters in each at Mary Hughes High School in Piney Flats, Tennessee. As a freshman at East Tennessee State University, he earned a varsity letter in baseball, and at Milligan he lettered in football, basketball, tennis, baseball and track. He is the only Milligan athlete to have earned 12 varsity letters in five intercollegiate sports. He was selected as outstanding scholar-athlete in 1947-48.
Duard spent three years in the U.S. Navy as part of Milligan's V-12 program. He received the B.S. degree from Milligan in 1948 and the M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1949.
He began working at Farragut High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he coached football, basketball and baseball for two years.
In 1951, Coach Walker returned to Milligan and has coached non-scholarship teams in baseball (eight years), basketball (15 years), cross-country (20 years), track & field (20 years), and he is now in his 20th year of coaching tennis. He has been athletic director for 35 years.
Walker's cross-country teams won seven consecutive Volunteer State Athletic Conference championships, and one went to the NAIA national championship meet in Salina, Kansas. Track & field won the Volunteer State Athletic Conference championship in 1966. His basketball team won the Smoky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament championship in 1958-59.
He continues to teach and head the physical education department at Milligan and supervises two off-campus courses: horseback riding and snow skiing. He serves the area as a football referee and as an official in the Senior Citizen Olympics. He competes annually in the Tennessee Sportsfest, having won gold and silver medals in badminton.
Coach Walked is married to Carolyn Roberts, a Milligan graduate, and they have five children, all Milligan alumni.