The Western Carolina University Office of Alumni Engagement is stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at a new summer event designed to bring together members of the Catamount family at baseball stadiums across North and South Carolina. 

Members of the Western Carolina University family will come together to recognize three prominent alumni for their career accomplishments and to honor a longtime proponent of economic development across Western North Carolina as part of the university’s celebration of Homecoming 2023.

A former two-time Western Carolina University Academic All-American football player wants to help ensure that future Catamount student-athletes have similar experiences. 

Jackson County Manager Chuck Wooten arrived at Western Carolina University as a freshman in 1969. He remembers his college days fondly.

“My classmates and fraternity brothers all had such a great time in Cullowhee,” Wooten said. “I remember as a freshman, wearing beanies — we got to burn’em at Homecoming.”