Mary Frances Penick (or as she would later be known, Skeeter Davis) had life troubles, but would go to become one of the early solo female crossover artists and an influence on legends like Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton. In high school she met a great friend named Betty Jack Davis, and they performed at talent shows together. Despite being unrelated, Mary would take Betty Jack’s last name to become Skeeter Davis, and they toured as the duo the Davis Sisters. After signing a recording contract, they quickly got a number one hit. Unfortunately, soon after that Betty Jack was killed in a car accident. With her own injuries and emotional stress, Skeeter took some years off. Beginning in 1957, she went solo and ended up with a nice stretch of hits throughout the 1960’s. Her song “The End Of The World” even ended up becoming the only song in history to hit the top ten of the country, pop, R&B and easy listening charts. Her chart success faded into the 70’s, but her influence on all of the country females to come cannot be denied.

Doyle and Teddy Wilburn were brothers who started with music early and had a big impact on the genre. In 1937 at the ages of 6 & 7, Doyle and Teddy were out on a street corner with their 3 siblings, playing instruments and singing. Their father had gotten all five children instruments, hoping their sibling act could get more money for their struggling family. It worked, allowing them various radio spots, tv shows, and a six-month contract with the Grand Ole Opry. By 1951, both Teddy and Doyle were drafted to the Korean conflict. Upon returning they realized their three siblings had all retired from touring, so the two of them continued as a duo called the Wilburn Brothers. From there they got a recording contract with Decca. This led to 30 charting hits for them, their own tv series for 11 years and their own music publishing house. Between the series and the publishing house, they helped launch careers for Sonny James (inducted 2006), Jean Shepard (inducted 2011) and Loretta Lynn (inducted 1988), and gave early exposure to the Oak Ridge Boys (inducted 2015), Tammy Wynette (inducted 1998) and Barbara Mandrell (inducted 2009). With all six of these acts already in the Hall Of Fame, will the Wilburns time come soon?

If you have heard our weekly Podcast, the Buck Stops Here: Hall of Fame Show, you know that we have discussed (surprisingly) Women’s Tennis a lot, mostly the issues that Naomi Osaka has been going through.  With Osaka’ issues, and an aging Serena Williams, 18-year-old Emma Raducanu came out of nowhere to win the U.S. Open, and a star was born.

The British sensation not only won her first Grand Slam, but became a media darling and instant fan-favorite.  The International Tennis Hall of Fame has taken notice, and Radacanu’s U.S. Open game-worn outfit will now be displayed at their institution.

Here’s hoping that there will be a lot more success for Raducanu.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021-22 revision of our top 50 Colorado Avalanche.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NHL. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision in in the last two years, and it has generated one new entry, and four elevations.

As always, we present our top five immediately, although there are no changes from our last list:

1. Joe Sakic

2. Peter Forsberg

3. Michel Goulet

4. Peter Stastny

5. Patrick Roy

You can find the entire list here.

Center, Nathan MacKinnon, who earned his second Second Team All-Star in 2020, climbed to #8 from #11.

2012 Calder Trophy winning forward, Gabriel Landeskog, moved up four spots to #14.

Defenseman, Erik Johnson, moved up one spot to #25.

Mikko Rantanen, climbs from #41 to #27.  The Right Wing led the NHL in Plus/Minus last year and was also a Second Team All-Star.

The lone new entry is Cale Makar, who is at #50 with only two NHL seasons logged.  He was the runner-up for the Norris last year.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.