Longtime Charlotte Hornets executive Fred Whitfield and former Hornets and Wake Forest star Muggsy Bogues will be the featured speakers at the Greensboro Sports Council\u2019s 2026 Fred Barakat Sports Dinner.<\/p>\n
The dinner, to be held May 11 on the arena floor of First Horizon Coliseum, is presented by The Carroll Companies and will once again benefit the Greensboro Aquatic Center\u2019s Learn to Swim Program.<\/p>\n
Whitfield joined what was then Bobcats Sports & Entertainment in July 2006, serving as President & Chief Operating Officer for 12 years before assuming the title of President & Vice Chairman in 2018. During his tenure, he oversaw significant growth throughout the organization, including the name change from Charlotte Bobcats to Charlotte Hornets in 2014, the rebranding of Spectrum Center in 2016 and the launch of the Greensboro Swarm in the NBA G League. A native of Greensboro and former collegiate star at Campbell University, Whitfield retired from the Hornets in 2023.<\/p>\n
Tyrone “Muggsy” Bogues is the shortest player in NBA history (5’3″) and a fierce competitor known for his incredible speed, court vision, and skill as a point guard. Selected 12th overall in the 1988 NBA Draft, Bogues played for 14 seasons, primarily with the Charlotte Hornets where he emerged as a fan favorite. Bogues\u2019 NBA career also included stints with the Washington Bullets, Golden State Warriors, and Toronto Raptors. At Wake Forest, Bogues led the ACC in steals and assists, earned All-ACC honors, and had his jersey (#14) retired by the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Founded in 2008, The Fred Barakat Sports Dinner was renamed in 2011 in memory of the late associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Barakat joined the ACC in 1981 as supervisor of men\u2019s basketball officials. He was later promoted to associate commissioner, director of men\u2019s basketball and served as the ACC Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament director for 16 years. He passed away in 2010.<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the Fred Barakat Sports Dinner will benefit the privately-funded Learn to Swim program at the GAC.\u00a0The goal of the program\u00a0is to teach every second-grade student in Guilford County water safety skills. Fifty-four Guilford County schools \u2013 the program\u2019s highest total ever – are\u00a0participating\u00a0in\u00a0the 2025-26\u00a0school\u00a0year and more than 20,500 students have graduated from the curriculum-based, healthy lifestyle program since its inception.<\/p>\n
The Fred Barakat Sports Dinner is open to the general public. Tickets are available at\u00a0GreensboroSportsCouncil.com<\/a>. For corporate sponsorship information, please contact\u00a0Brett Schulman at\u00a0brett@ssbre.com<\/a>\u00a0or 336-508-2800.<\/p>\n About the Greensboro Sports Council<\/p>\n The Greensboro Sports Council was formed in 1959 as a support group for First Horizon Coliseum. Its primary purpose was and remains to provide hospitality, resources and community support for events held at Greensboro Complex.\u00a0The Sports Council has a long history of supporting major sports events in Greensboro and Guilford County including ACC Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Basketball Tournaments, the PGA TOUR\u2019s Wyndham Championship, U.S. Figure Skating Championships, various USA Swimming events, ACC Swimming and Diving Championships, NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships and the ACC Women\u2019s Golf Tournament.<\/p>\n About Greensboro Aquatic Center\u2019s Learn to Swim Program<\/p>\n In partnership with Guilford County Schools, the Greensboro Aquatic Center developed a curriculum-based\u00a0Learn to Swim\u00a0healthy lifestyle program that debuted in 2011. Students in the\u00a0Learn to Swim program are taught techniques that foster a systematic progression of swimming skills that maximize their development over a series of five 40-minute lessons. The skills learned through the Learn to Swim Program are potentially lifesaving and help students develop an active lifestyle while exposing them to additional swimming opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Charlotte Hornets executive Fred Whitfield and former Hornets and Wake Forest star Muggsy Bogues will be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,73703,684,473,3878,73704,73705,685,15823,6],"class_list":["post-534763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-basketball","tag-bogues","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-fred-barakat","tag-greensboro-sports-council","tag-hornets","tag-muggsy-bogues","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115890141538683597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}