Pair of Former Gamecocks Inducted into South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame

Monday’s South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony includes a pair of former University of South Carolina Gamecocks. South Carolina women’s basketball star Shannon Johnson and baseball standout Landon Powell are part of the 10-member 2025 class being honored at the Columbia Convention Center.

“This means the world to me,” said Johnson, who grew up in Hartsville, S.C. and was an outstanding guard for the Gamecocks from 1992 through 1996, earning All-SEC honors three times while also earning All-America honors as a senior. “They haven’t forgotten about me! It means so much to come back home to South Carolina where it all started.

“This is incredibly humbling, and I’m very honored,” said Powell, who was an outstanding switch-hitting catcher for the Gamecock baseball team from 2001 through 2004 and was a part of three College World Series teams. He earned All-America honors as a senior and was a two-time All SEC selection. “I had never thought I’d be in the South Carolina state Hall of Fame, so to be part of this amazing group of athletes and coaches and contributors to sports is very, very humbling.”

Johnson averaged 20.5 points per game for her career and ranks third in program history with 2,230 points. She was the first Gamecock to play in the WNBA where she enjoyed a ten-year career, earning All-Star honors five times.

“We played at the Carolina Coliseum when I was at Carolina, and I always remember the fans being there for us,” Johnson said of her best memories of wearing the garnet and black. “College was great here. I had such a great time. Campus has grown a lot. I watch all the women’s basketball games on TV now. It’s great to see the crowds they have now!”

Johnson also represented her country in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, helping Team USA win the gold medal. She later served as head basketball coach at Coker College from 2015-20. She was inducted into the University of South Carolina Association of Lettermen’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where she works as a product tester for an athletic apparel company.

A native of Apex, N.C., Powell ranks sixth in South Carolina history with 44 career home runs, second all-time with 61 doubles, and fourth with 193 runs batted in. Defensively, he holds the school single game, season, and career record for putouts.

“I loved my time in Columbia,” said Powell, who has spent the last 11 years as the head baseball coach at North Greenville University in South Carolina where he guided the Trailblazers to the 2022 NCAA Division II College World Series Championship. “It was all great. From my sophomore year beating Miami with the miracle in the ninth to go to Omaha to my last ever game at Sarge Frye Field when I went 0 for 5 against East Carolina. It was one of my worst games, and I was so upset, but when I made my last out, the crowd gave me a standing ovation and a curtain call. I’ll never forget that.”

Following his career at South Carolina, he was the 24th overall pick in the first round of the 2004 Major League Baseball draft by Oakland. One of his professional baseball highlights came in May of 2010, when he caught Dallas Braden’s perfect game for the Athletics. He later played for the Houston Astros and New York Mets before retiring after the 2013 season. Powell was previously inducted into the University of South Carolina Association of Lettermen’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.

The 10-member South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame’s induction class of 2025 also includes Lower Richland High’s Richard Seymour, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, World Cup standout Clint Dempsey of Furman, Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore, who led the Chanticleers to the 2016 NCAA title, Clemson offensive lineman Harold Olson, who helped the Tigers to the 1958 and ’59 ACC titles, Susan Hill-Whitson, the most celebrated tennis player in Clemson history, Ralph Lundy, who led Erskine and College of Charleston soccer to unprecedented heights, Erskine basketball legend Don Whitehead, and Claflin’s storied women’s basketball coach Nelson Brownlee, who will be enshrined posthumously.