Two names very familiar to Mississippians will soon be enshrined in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.
The SWAC announced that its 2025 class will be inducted on Dec. 12 during a ceremony in Atlanta. Of the six inductees, now-Jackson State athletic director Ashley Robinson is being honored in part for his time playing basketball at Mississippi Valley State. At the same time, Shawn Gregory earned the nod for his illustrious career on the gridiron for JSU.
While Robinson has risen in recent years to become one of the most successful ADs in the conference’s modern history, well before that, he was a star on the court for the Delta Devils. From 1999-2003, he played point guard and left Itta Bena as the program’s single-season and career record-holder in assists. He was inducted into the MVSU Hall of Fame in 2011.
As an AD, Robinson has made a handful of tremendous hires – especially in football with Deion Sanders in 2020 and then his successor T.C. Taylor in 2022. Taylor led the Tigers to their first HBCU national championship in 2024 and their third SWAC championship since Robinson was hired in 2018.
Across all sports, Robinson has seen 28 SWAC championships under his leadership. Those include women’s basketball, softball, women’s tennis, women’s volleyball, women’s cross country, men’s cross country, and men’s and women’s track and field.
Back in May, Robinson earned his seventh national AD of the year award. He currently serves as chair of the SWAC’s Athletics Directors Committee and is a past president of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.
Gregory, on the other hand, played quarterback at JSU from 1987-90 and won three SWAC championships during his time in the blue and white. In 1990, he tossed for 2,870 yards, which was a single-season record at the time and still ranks eighth in program history.
He compiled a long list of accolades as a player, including All-SWAC three times, the MVP BET Award in 1988, Southern Heritage Classic MVP in 1990, and team MVP in 1990. He was a team captain in 1989 and 1990 and an All-American Bowl participant in 1990.
Following his playing career, Gregory got into coaching and was selected for internships with the San Diego Chargers (2004) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2005). Other clipboard stints for Gregory were Morris Brown (1998-2000), Tuskegee (2000-02), MVSU (2002, 2014-15), and Samford (2004-06).
Gregory was inducted into the JSU Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 and was named a member of the JSU All-Century Team in 2011.
Robinson and Gregory are joined in the 2025 SWAC Hall of Fame class by former Grambling football player and AD Albert Dennis III, former Southern baseball player Adell Davenport, former Alabama State baseball player and SWAC office coordinator Milton Taylor, Jr., and former SWAC official Byron Johnson.
