Hall of Fame
Hunt served as the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) from 1978 through 1995 (minus a one and a half year period) at Austin Peay, his alma mater. Hunt graduated from the school in 1966 and came back to become a Professor of Agriculture from 1971-2006. During that tenure he served as Dean of the Department of Agriculture (1978-87 and 1991-96).
Prior to the NCAA sponsoring women’s sports, Hunt served as Austin Peay’s NCAA delegate in 1981 that passed a governance plan to allow women to compete for NCAA Championships (something that became a reality two years later).
In addition to his FAR duties he served on OVC subcommittees that established the prestigious OVC Scholar-Athlete Award in 1981 and drafted the first OVC Sportsmanship Policy in 1995. The first-of-its-kind “Sportsmanship Statement” promoted principles of fair play, ethical conduct and respect for one's opponent. The statement has become a model for others to follow across the nation, and has answered the challenge of the NCAA Presidents Commission to improve sportsmanship in collegiate athletics.
During the 1990-91 season he was charged with the responsibility of conducting an NCAA Basketball Recruiting Investigation and Response in which he prepared a 460-page document in response to charges; at the time it was believed to be the first occasion an institution self-imposed penalties as a result of major violations.
As an educator he taught Dr. Lannett Edwards who would later go on to make national headlines for cloning Dolly the sheep. Hunt retired from Austin Peay in 2006 and had the Dr. Gaines Hunt Agriculture Scholarship established in his honor in 2012 and which became endowed earlier this spring.