Portland HIgh School’s Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2023 will have a decided football flavor. In fact, it will have a decided Mr. Football flavor.
This year’s four-member class all have the distinction of having been former Mr. Football Award winners for the Portland Panthers. Those inductees are Josh Bolton, Chase Brooks, Luke Dunbar and Kelly Holmes.
The four inductees will be honored at the Jan. 20 Panthers basketball game against Greenbrier.
All four played for the Panthers during what was likely the greatest run in the program’s history in the late 1990s through early 2000s under Coach Roger Perry.
Bolton won the Mr. Football Lineman Award in 2001.
Brooks won the Mr. Football Lineman Award the previous season in 2000, when the Panthers won the Class 3A State Championship. Brooks has continued in football since his time at Portland. In 2022, he completed his first season as head coach at East Robertson High School in nearby Cross Plains. Brooks guided the Indians to the Class 2A State Quarterfinals, the furthest playoff advance in school history.
Dunbar was the 1999 Mr. Football LIneman Award winner, and his run was even more amazing, given that he only played two years of varsity high school football. He finished his career in 1999, the year the Panthers lost in the state championship game, finishing the year as runner-up to Milan.
Holmes was the Mr. Football LIneman recipient in 1998, the same year that Gerald Turner was the winner of the Mr. Football Back Award.
