Terry Fuell
Terry was born in Guntersville on September 17, 1956, to James (Doc) Fuell and Vicie Randles Fuell. He was the youngest of a family of two brothers, James and David, and one sister, Patricia Fuell Barry. Terry’s wife is Donna Moore Fuell, and he has one son, Glenn, who resides in Atlanta Georgia.
Terry began playing organized baseball at the age of 13. Grant had no organized baseball teams in 1970, so former athletes Billy Joe Cooper, Billy Ray Tucker and Terry’s older brother James put together a team from the Grant area to play in the Guntersville Pony League along with four other teams. The boys from Grant won the League Championship with a 14-1 record. Normally, at the close of the season two all-star teams were selected to play each another. However, that year because of the outstanding record of the Grant team, it was decided for their team to play against a team of all-stars selected from the four other teams in a best of two-out-of-three series. The team from Grant won the first two games for the Championship.
Terry was a three-sport letterman at Kate Duncan Smith DAR High School. He was an outstanding pitcher on the baseball team and when he wasn’t pitching he was the starting shortstop. As a sophomore, Terry helped lead the Patriots to the Alabama State semifinals in 1972, pitching two games in the tournament. In 1973, Terry was the starting pitcher as DAR won two pulse-pounding one-run games in the state semifinals against a very strong undefeated Gaston team in two days. He then started and pitched two strong games in the State Championship finals against Flomaton High School from Escambia County. Flomaton had not lost a game against a team in Alabama all year and edged the Patriots in a hard-fought first game. Game 1 was tied up 1-1 after 2 and 1/2 innings on Friday, but was stopped due to rain. After resuming the game on the next day, Flomaton won 2-1 in the 10th inning. Terry struck out 16 batters and was the leading hitter in the game, going 2 for 3 at the plate. After a lunch break, he started game 2, but was removed in the sixth inning with an arm injury. Flomaton won 5-2 and with it the Alabama State Championship. In his high school career, Terry was selected to the All-County team four years, was the most outstanding pitcher three years and the Most Valuable Player as a senior in 1974. He was chosen to play on the East-West All-Star team in 1974 and was chosen by the professional baseball scouts as the Most Valuable Player of the game.
Terry also played varsity basketball at DAR four years and was selected All-County and the top defensive player as a junior and senior. As a senior, Terry averaged 14.7 points and 7 rebounds per game, led the team with the highest free throw percentage and was named to the Prep High School All-American Team. He also lettered two years on the tennis team and in 1973 was All-County, winning the #2 singles and #2 doubles matches.
Terry signed with The University of North Alabama as a pitcher to become the first athlete from DAR to sign a four-year baseball scholarship. He played baseball with 2002 Sports Hall of Fame charter member Roger Wayne Ralph from Arab. Roger was a senior at UNA while Terry was a freshman. Terry lettered three years at UNA in baseball with a career pitching record of 8 wins, 3 losses and 4 saves, once pitching a one-hitter against Freed Hardman College. Due to an arm injury, Terry was unable to pitch his senior year.
Terry graduated from The University of North Alabama in 1978 and began a 21-year coaching career at Liberty Middle School in Madison, Alabama. His team records included 54 wins and 35 losses in baseball, including 2 city/county championships. His basketball teams were 168-119, with 5 city/county championships. His greatest successes were in soccer, as his teams won 198 matches and lost 56, won 8 city/county championships and were undefeated 3 years. In 2000, Coach Fuell was selected to be the coach for the under 14-year-old soccer team that played in the Kiwi Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. Since 2002, Terry has been serving as the Athletic Director for Liberty Middle School in Madison.