MICHAEL ALEXANDER CONLEY, SR.

OLYMPIAN & NCAA RECORD HOLDER

Mike Conley Sr. is the most decorated Conley in sports history. Considered one of the best combination jumpers ever, Conley was a three-time World champion, 12-time USATF champion, with 9 NCAA long jump and triple jump titles during his track & field career.

United States Track & Field (USATF) Hall of Fame inductee, Olympic gold medalist Mike Conley is now chairman of that same USATF organization. Conley is the former CEO and current board member of World Sports Chicago. He also served on the IAAF Athletes’ Commission (2002-2005). Upon retirement, Conley served as team leader for the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.

MIKE CONLEY JR.

BASKETBALL ATHLETE

Michael Alex Conley Jr. is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was drafted as the fourth overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft by the Memphis Grizzlies. Conley spent 12 seasons with the Grizzlies and became the team's all-time leading scorer before being traded to the Utah Jazz in 2019, then traded again to the Timberwolves in 2023.

LEVI BURGESS SCRUGGS (1902-1972)- GENESIS OF THE CONLEY SCHOLAR-ATHLETE

The Conley Family’s first college athlete was Levi Burgess Scruggs who played American Football for the University of Vermont (UVM) from 1921 until 1924. A leader on and off the field, he would become an active Alumni leader for University of Vermont in Los Angeles, California for many years.

Born in Huntsville, Alabama to Zann Scruggs and Jessie Lee Conley Scruggs, Burgess was named for two important Conley Family ancestors: His grandfather Levi Scruggs, a prominent barber to the wealthy in the years following the Civil War, with his shop located across the street from today’s Huntsville City Hall; his great-uncle Dr. Burgess Scruggs, an influential medical doctor who was also the first Black city council member of Huntsville between 1883 and 1901. His parents relocated to Burlington, Vermont, and he spent his teenage years on the Thornton Farm owned by his grandmother, Sallie Ann Conley Thornton. Handsome, intelligent, and charismatic, he showed athletic prowess at an early age. After college at University of Vermont, he married Yvonne Florence Jarrett, a young woman from an old New England family.

Burgess followed his brothers, and first cousins to Los Angeles, which was booming at the time. He and his wife Yvonne had two daughters (Gertrude and Sadie) and one son (David Paul.) Burgess Scruggs was a lifelong booster of University of Vermont sports.

TYLER TENNER

FOOTBALL ATHLETE

Tyler Tenner became the Wisconsin state high school rushing record-holder in 2019.

Tenner, a senior running back for Racine Lutheran, broke the record for career rushing yards in Wisconsin high school football by rushing for 6,903 yards, including 2,286 in one season.

He now plays running back for Roosevelt University where he earned both NAIA National and MSFA Midwest League Offensive Player.

In Autumn of 2022, Tyler tied a MSFA record with five rushing touchdowns which set a new RU program record and reached a college career-high 220 yards in a single game.

Tenner currently leads the NAIA with 12 rushing touchdowns and is second in scoring with 72 points, while also ranking fourth in the NAIA in rushing yards per game (126 yards) and fifth in total rushing yards (756) in the 2022 season.

JEROME RODGERS

NCAA COMPLIANCE AND REGULATORY OFFICIAL

Jerome Rodgers is a 30-year veteran of collegiate athletics administration, and the most accomplished Conley in that profession.

In 2020, he became the Deputy Commissioner for ASUN (Atlantic Sun) Conference. ASUN is a NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference operating in the Southeastern United States. At the ASUN Conference, he has oversight of the conference's NCAA compliance program--including governance issues, rules, and rule interpretations. Rodgers joined the league office after spending the previous three years in the Northern Illinois Athletic Department as Senior Associate Athletics Director.

Before his time in Illinois, Jerome was associate athletic director for compliance at Georgia Tech. He oversaw the rebuilding of Georgia Tech’s comprehensive compliance program while also serving as the administrator for six athletic programs. Rodgers also created a program for sports agent registration and interaction with student-athletes.

Prior to Georgia Tech, Jerome worked as assistant commissioner for compliance at the Big East Conference and also served as associate athletic director for compliance at Boston College. Earlier he served as associate athletic director for internal operations at Northern Kentucky. His career began as an administration and finance intern at the NCAA.

A graduate of Tennessee Tech, Rodgers he played varsity basketball for all four years, and earned a degree in business administration and a master’s in education administration and supervision.

STEVEN ALEXANDER CONLEY

FOOTBALL ATHELETE & Kinesiology PROFESSIONAL

Steven Alexander Conley was star football player for the University of Arkansas, named to several all-star lists for Southeastern Conference (SEC), America’s most competitive athletic conference. After Arkansas, Steve was drafted linebacker in the third round of the 1996 National Football League draft as a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Conley also played for the Indianapolis Colts and in the Canadian Football League.

He was also a standout in basketball, playing at the college level for the SEC (Southeastern Conference, the most competitive college sports conference in the world.

After his football career, he became a sports medicine professional with a kinesiology practice in Fayetteville. Additionally, he is coach, advocate, and administrator for several youth football organizations in Arkansas.

JAMES LEWIS WILSON

NFL & NCAA FOOTBALL OFFICIAL

Wilson was a standout in football and track for Huntsville’s Butler High School, from which he graduated in 1967. In college, he played for Eastern Kentucky University, where he was a star receiver. In his senior year, James Wilson was voted the team's MVP and was named to the OVC All-Conference team. After a brief turn with the New York Jets, an injury ended his NFL ambitions.

He went to work for Ford Motor Company shortly after graduation in 1972, and stayed with the company for the next 34 years. Stationed in Louisville and Dallas, then later in Memphis, he rose to a lead sales for the heavy truck division in The South and MidWest.

During his time at Ford Motor, Wilson maintained his ties to football as a referee and official. In total, his on-the-field officiating career included 13 years (1985-97) in the SEC, and later a decade with the NFL (1998-2008) as a Line Judge, Field Judge, Side Judge, and finally, an Official Observer.