Alonzo “Willie” Wilkins
Achievements
Adaptive Sports Hall of FameAlonzo “Willie” Wilkins is a charter member of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association Hall of Fame, having been one of the three original athletes inducted into the Hall. Willie was a Korean War veteran who was injured while serving.
He participated in every National Wheelchair Games up until his untimely death in 1972. He competed in the 1960 Paralympics in Rome; Tokyo, 1964; and Tel Aviv, 1968. Willie also competed in the 1967, 1969, and 1971 Pan American Games, and in the annual Stoke Mandeville Games on many occasions. Regardless of the competition, Willie was always winning his share of medals in basketball, slalom, and track & field.
Willie won the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Jack Gerhardt Athlete of the Year Award in 1970 and was also a National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame charter inductee.
Willie was a very fun guy, a jokester, but a great teammate—assisting the novice and nervous athletes and encouraging anyone in the heat of competition. He was the Team USA goodwill ambassador at any competition in which he was competing.
Willie was an outstanding contributor in the earliest years of the National Wheelchair Athletic Association: a tenacious competitor and a real character!