Steve Culbertson's lifelong athletics journey leads to Gaston Sports HOF

In basketball, he was a playmaking point guard for a 16-win Ashley team in 1965 that featured leading scorer (and Duke signee) Dale Stubbs.

And in baseball, Culbertson was on Gastonia's 1962 Teener League World Series championship team, played on back-to-back 11-win teams for Ashley and was a part of history for Gastonia American Legion Post 23 championship-winner.

Culbertson was on back-to-back Area IV championship teams as part of Post 23's then-record five straight area champions. And in 1964, Post 23 set N.C. Legion baseball history by breaking the color line with African-American Highland High standouts Elmore Hill and Willie Gillispie among the team's top hitters.

"We had the misfortune of running into that (Charlotte) Post 9 team two years in a row," Culbertson said of losing to the eventual 1964 American Legion World Series runner-up and 1965 ALWS champion in the Western N.C. Legion finals each season. "But we've become great friends with the Post 9 players and my Gastonia teammates remain like brothers to this day."

Culbertson, who was part of an informal tryout for the Pittsburgh Pirates when their organization had a minor league team at Gastonia's Sims Legion Park in 1965, initially considered playing college baseball at Brevard Junior College.

But when inaugural Gaston College president Dr. Crayton Robert "Bob" Benson, Jr. (whose daughters also attended Ashley) told Culbertson the school would soon be starting a baseball program, he chose to stay home attend classes for a semester.

Gaston College wouldn't start its baseball program until 1968 and world issues intervened to change the direction of Culbertson's life.

"Well, the Vietnam War was coming on and I went and talked to a recruiter and joined the Marine Corps and I was in Vietnam by 1968," Culbertson said. "In the Marine Corps in those days, you served for one year and 28 days."

Once he came back home, Culbertson began working, playing recreation sports and soon began a coaching career. That led to a long career officiating football, basketball and baseball.

Already having had a brush with greatness when he met Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse Club member and future actress Annette Funicello during his DisneyLand Bowl game appearance in 1960, Culbertson's officiating career helped him gain introduction to legendary University of North Carolina figures like coach Dean Smith and players Michael Jordan, Phil Ford, James Worthy and Matt Doherty.

A longtime golf fan, Culbertson also met former golfing greats Arnold Palmer, Tiger Woods and Davis Love III.

"I got into coaching at first, but refereeing kept me around the games," Culbertson said.

During his long career, he pulled off a rare Pop Warner football trifecta.

Culbertson played, coached and officiated Pop Warner national championship football games - 1960 Gastonia YMBC as a player, 1973 Gastonia Salvation Army as a coach and two games as a referee in the 2011 Pop Warner national championship games in Orlando, Fla.

He also become a fixture for N.C. high school football as he officiated nearly 500 regular-season games and more than 60 playoff games highlighted by eight Western N.C. title games and one state championship. He also officiated the Gaston County Conference middle school games including the championship game for more than 20 years.

"I've enjoyed every minute of it," Culbertson said.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Steve Culbertson earns Gaston HOF nod following decades of service