Dwight Vincent "Vincy" Dillard (Class of 1942): Dillard was a member of Cary's football, basketball, baseball and track teams from Fall 1938 until his graduation in Spring 1942.

He was a starter on the Cary basketball team that won the Class "B" state championship in 1939, defeating Mouint Airy in the title game at Woollen Gym on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. Cary appeared in the state finals for the next couple of years as well; Dillard was Cary's second leading scorer and one of its most consistent performers.

On the track team, Dillard was known as one of the fastest sprinters in the area nad he also was one of the leading scorers on the football team.

In later years, his community activities were many and varied. Dillard was known as someone the community went to for help on everything from broken down cars to household appliances.

As a resident of the Swift Creek area, he coached Little League baseball for many years.

Tara Marnie Gallagher (Class of '85): Gallagher graduated from Cary High in 1985 and from Guilford College in 1989, and she had plenty of athletics accomplishments at both schools.

At Cary, Marnie was a three-sport standout who earned the school's Female Athlete of the Year Award in 1984-85. She made all-conference in softball (in which she also was Team MVP) and volleyball during her career.

Basketball, however, was where Marnie shone. She made honorable mention all-conference twice and was honorable mention All-East in 1985.

Marnie was on the Eastern Regional all-tournament team in 1985, and had career highs of 17 points and 17 rebounds her senior season. She was team MVP for the Imps as a senior, and was recognized as a key team leader, the coach on the floor for Coach Carolyn Shannonhouse.

She continued her basketball career at Guilford, where as a four-year starter she earned honors including Best Defensive Player 1985-86, All-Carolinas Conference 1986-87, and Most Consistent Player 1986-87 and 1988=89. Marnie's career high was 39 points and she averaged 11.2 points and 5.9 rebounds and notched 255 assists during her Guilford career.

She spent several years playing professional basketball for Denmark and Malta teams. During the 1994-95 season, she led her team in every major category and the next season, she scored 47 points in a game that featured a 27-for-30 free throw performance.

Norwood Woodrow "Mickey" Northcutt (Class of '34): Northcutt graduated from Cary High in 1934 and went on to graduate from East Carolina Teachers College in 1939.

No written records survive from Northcutt's time in high school; during the Great Depresion, the school did not even publish a yearbook. Cary - under longtime principal, Marcus B. Dry - was making the conversion from a boarding school to a day school. In 1934, total enrollment in grades 8-11 (there was no 12th grade in North Carolina at that time ) was 520 and the graduating class included 43.

Northcutt played baseball, football, track and basketball, probably excelling most in baseball as Cary played against Garner, Fuquay, Apex, Henderson, Oxford Orphanage and other schools. Running a punt back 75 yards against Apex is one of his favorite Cary memories, as well as making a Raleigh American Legion baseball team.

At East Carolina, he played half-back on the football team and catcher on the baseball team. (He listed in the new Pirates football guide as a 1934-35 letterman.) He continued his athletics career in the service.

Now a resident of Florida, Northcutt was involved with many community groups during the years he lived in Cary including First United Methodist Church and the Masonic Lodge. After returning to Cary from military service, he also was a longtime Little League and Pony League coach who helped start the local church league softball program. He played recreationally in the area until the late 1960s.

Theodore "Ted" Whitley (Class of '64): Whitley excelled in several sports at Cary High, where he graduated in 1964, and at East Carolina University, where he graduated in 1968. He went on to earn a master's from ECU and a Ph.D. from Duke.

At Cary, Whitley made All-Cap 8 Conference and honorable mention All-East in football, honorable mention All-Cap 8 in baseball and All-Cap 8 in baseball. He was team MVP for baseball as a senior, when he also received the school's Male Athlete of the Year Award as well as the Masonic Award for Academic Leadership.

In football, Whitley was the quarterback and punter on htree conference championship teams, two of which went to the playoffs. The 1962 team reached the Eastern final.

Twice he was a forward on basketball teams that won conference tournaments and advanced to the state playoffs (one of those teams finishing 22-2).