TCC’s Mendoza, Thornton elected to FCSAA Hall of Fame
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (February 23, 2017) – A pair of legendary names from Tallahassee Community College are among the Class of 2017 inductees into the Florida College System Activities Association's (FCSAA) Coaches Hall of Fame.
Maria Mendoza, Tallahassee Community College's softball coach from 1994-2001, was elected to the FCSAA Softball Coaches Hall of Fame while Marvis "Bootsy" Thornton was among the group of individuals elected to the FCSAA Men's Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
Induction ceremonies will take place as part of each sport's respective state tournament.
Thornton will be inducted on Thursday, March 9 during halftime of the 8 p.m. game at the FCSAA State Basketball Tournament in Ocala, Fla., while Mendoza's induction ceremony will take place Thursday, April 27 at the FCSAA State Softball Tournament Banquet in Vero Beach, Fla.
Tallahassee Community College will recognize Thornton, who resides in Tallahassee, prior to the Eagles' final home game on Saturday, February 25 against Northwest Florida State College.
Maria Mendoza
Softball, 1993-2001
When Tallahassee Community College established its softball program in 1993, it pegged Tallahassee Leon High School graduate Maria Mendoza as the program's first head coach. Upon her retirement from coaching in 2001, Mendoza had turned Tallahassee into one of the state's preeminent softball programs.
In nine years with the Eagles, Mendoza accumulated an impressive record of 385-130. Included were three Panhandle Conference (PC) Championships and six trips to the FCSAA Tournament, as well as state and national titles in 1994.
TCC spent its first two seasons playing in the National Junior College Athletic Association's (NJCAA) slow pitch division, where it quickly became a power. The Eagles won 53 games during the inaugural 1993 season en route to the school's first PC Championship in any sport.
However, it was during the 1994 season that Mendoza put TCC Softball on the national map. After qualifying for the FCSAA Tournament, the Eagles became the first TCC team to claim a FCSAA Championship. TCC didn't stop there, however, as it defeated Meridian (Miss.) Community College, to capture the College's first and only NJCAA Championship. For her efforts, Mendoza was named Coach of the Year by both the FCSAA and the NJCAA.
The following year, despite making the jump to the NJCAA's fast-pitch division, Mendoza and the Eagles continued to thrive, capturing a second PC Championship. Conference title number three came three years later, in 1998, when the Eagles won a PC-record 18 games. Mendoza's final team won 47 games, finished as PC Runners-up and made a sixth postseason appearance.
At Tallahassee, Mendoza coached more than 40 All-Panhandle Conference players, 20 FCSAA All-Region players and eight All-Americans.
An All-Conference performer at Troy University and an ASA All-American, Mendoza earned a bachelor's in physical education/recreation with a minor in business administration and athletic training from Troy in 1984.
In 2002, she was part of the inaugural class inducted into the Eagle Athletics Hall of Fame. The FCSAA inducted Mendoza into its Hall of Fame in 2007.
Marvis "Bootsy" Thornton
Men's Basketball, 1995-97
Few athletes at any level are identified on a first-name basis. However, at Tallahassee Community College, everyone knows "Bootsy" — Tallahassee's all-time leading scorer Marvis "Bootsy" Thornton.
A native of Baltimore, Md., Thornton put together one of the finest careers in the history of the Panhandle Conference, averaging 20.2 points per game over his two years in an Eagle uniform. His final home game was the perfect exclamation point to a record-breaking career. Leading Tallahassee to a 117-66 win over Okaloosa-Walton Community College – now Northwest Florida State College – a victory that clinched the 1997 PC Championship, Thornton poured in a then-school-record 41 points. One game later, against Polk State College in the opening round of the NJCAA Region 8/FCSAA Tournament, he scored 26 points to become the school's all-time leading scorer.
Thornton led Tallahassee to the 1997 FCSAA State Championship, was named Tournament Most Valuable Player and was the coaches' selection for FCSAA Player of the Year. He eventually led the Eagles to a third-place finish at the NJCAA Tournament, was named NJCAA Honorable Mention All-America and was twice named First-team All-Panhandle Conference and First-team All-FCSAA.
Thornton ended his Tallahassee career with 1,374 points, a record he still holds 20 years later.
Though he originally signed with Virginia Commonwealth University, Thornton eventually attended St. John's University, where he became a household name, largely at the expense of Duke University. In 1999, he scored 40 points in a nationally-televised match-up with the Blue Devils and later earned second-team All-Big East honors. The following season, he hit the game-winning shot to beat Duke in legendary Cameron Indoor Stadium – still the Blue Devils' last home defeat to a non-conference opponent. Later that season, he was named third-team All-Big East, led St. John's to the 2000 Big East Tournament Championship and was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Thornton played professionally overseas from 2000-2014. He was named Second-team All-Euroleague in 2008. The following year, he was the Most Valuable Player of the Turkish Basketball League Finals.