Dwight Scales
Class of 2025
TSometimes a Hall of Fame journey begins in the most unlikely place — even through a bathroom window.
As a youngster in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dwight Scales was already a champion on the trampoline. When he and some friends discovered an Olympic-size trampoline inside the gym at Philander Smith College, they found a creative way to access it. The boys slipped in through an unlocked bathroom window and bounced away — until one afternoon when a stern, pipe-smoking coach appeared in the doorway. The boys ran. So did the coach.
A few weeks later, Scales’ mother, Linnie — a widow raising four children after her husband died in a military-related automobile accident — announced she had met someone and would be going on a date. That gentleman turned out to be the same coach: Duane Gordon. Within six months the two were married, and Gordon soon took a coaching job at Mississippi Valley State before becoming head basketball coach at Alabama A&M in 1968.
The move to Huntsville placed Scales in an environment that helped shape his athletic future.
“It's a shelter, you know, well organized,” Scales recalls of life around Alabama A&M. “I'm around professional, educated people, extremely athletic.”
At Lee High School, Scales — known to friends as “Bo” — became a standout wide receiver in Coach Keith Wilson’s run-and-shoot offense, forming a prolific connection with quarterback Condredge Holloway.
Scales continued his career at Grambling State, where he earned All-SWAC honors three times and was named a Black All-America selection by Jet Magazine in 1975. Grambling won Black National Championships in 1972 and 1975 during his tenure.
The Los Angeles Rams selected Scales in the fifth round of the 1976 NFL Draft. He played eight seasons in the NFL with the Rams, Giants, Chargers and Seahawks.
Following his playing career, Scales coached at Alabama A&M and Morehouse College before moving to Austin, Texas, where he founded the Central Texas Elite Track Club, helping more than 100 young athletes earn college scholarships.
Now he returns to Huntsville for a different kind of reunion — joining old friends and teammates in the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame.
Disclaimer: This feature was prepared with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed for accuracy, but it may contain minor errors or omissions.
