About Inductee

Dione Foster of Huntsville was known as Dee Dee in 1984 when, at the age of 13, she was named the first Elite Gymnast in the state of Alabama. She was still answering to Dee Dee as a student at Grissom High School and later at the University of Alabama, where she became the first African-American woman to sign an athletic scholarship with the Crimson Tide. A member of the USA National Team while still in high school, Foster was already competing and excelling at the national and international level well before the start of her college career. When she was just 16, an untimely injury kept her from competing in the 1988 Olympic Trials. Almost immediately after enrolling at Alabama the following year, she became the collegiate star of stars on the uneven bars, balance beam, floor exercise and vault just as future Hall of Fame coach Sarah Patterson was beginning to build what would become a gymnastics dynasty at the Capstone. Nobody ever showed up here with more determination to succeed than Dee, said Sarah Pattersons husband, David, who helped coach the Tide gymnasts at the time. She set her goals high and then she went out and did it. During a hitherto unsurpassed gymnastics career at Alabama from 1989-93, Foster became a 17-time All-American, a four-time champion and a nine-time regional champion. As a senior in 1993, she set an NCAA record with perfect 10s in five consecutive meets. Ranked as the nations No. 1 All-Around competitor, she was a runaway winner of Alabamas Amateur Athlete of the Year Award. At the time of her graduation, she was the only NCAA gymnast to finish in the top three in All-Around for four straight years. During her time at Alabama, she won awards as SEC Female Athlete of the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year and NCAA Gymnast of the Year, and was nominated for NCAA Female Athlete of the Year alongside World and Olympic champions Mia Hamm and Sheryl Swoopes. One of five children, Dee credits her mother, former State Farm employee Edie Foster, for much of her success in life. Other than God and His generous bestowing of athletic talent, my mom is the person most responsible for helping me turn Gods gift into a skill that resulted in 17 years of my wildest dreams coming to pass, she said. My mom worked for the money to keep me in the sport of gymnastics. She got multiple job transfers to move with me when I made coaching changes. She sacrificed on unimaginable levels to ensure that I was always in the best possible position to succeed at the top level. Now, 20 years later, Dee is married to Tim Worley, a former All-America running back at the University of Georgia. Tim and Dee are co-founders of a Huntsville-based company called Worley Global Enterprises. Dee heads up the business consulting division and Tim is in charge of the motivational and mentoring division. They have two children, Brandon and Taylor Worley.