For a lady who doesn’t go out of her way looking for recognition, Cindy Mallard sure has received plenty of it these past few months.

Not long removed from one local induction, Mallard is set to enjoy another when the Cullman County Sports Hall of Fame ushers in its 17th class April 23 at the Civic Center. The 1980 Hanceville graduate, a member of Wallace State’s first softball team and second sports hall of fame class, will share the stage with 11 other honorees who’ve made an impact on the area’s sports scene.

Some will be more familiar than others. Mallard, formerly Barksdale, was a few years ahead of Bobby Meyer, a few behind Mike Grantham, and played co-ed softball with Greg Boatright. Her son, Chase, trained with Charlie Rogers in Huntsville as well.

“I was tickled to death to be in the first group, much less be selected to be in there,” Mallard said of the semifinalist and finalist stages.

She’s expecting the banquet to be a good time.

“Getting to see everybody and then having a lot in common with those people, too,” she added. “Just having the connection that we all have together.”

Mallard was voted Hanceville’s most athletic female as a senior. Her last two years as a Bulldog, she served as cheerleading captain and was All-County in volleyball and basketball.

But Mallard’s best sport, from the time she was 8 or 9, was softball.

Because it had yet to be offered at Hanceville, she played on a team that dually competed in the local league at Heritage Park and traveled for tournaments.

It was no coincidence Mallard and many of the same teammates landed on Wallace State’s inaugural slow pitch squad in 1981. Their familiarity factored heavily into the Lady Lions closing their charter season as state champions.

“Playing beside players that I’d played with for years probably was the key to it,” said Mallard, an outfielder. “Just really adapting to a few other players, because we had people almost at over half the positions that were already teammates of mine that I’d played with for years.”

Mallard capped off the state tournament as MVP.

Not that she found out immediately following the event.

No, that news was sprung on Mallard by coach Xonnie Johnson-Hardiman, the conference commissioner and others in the days after. She’d been in the student center and had to to run and put on her uniform for pictures with the MVP plaque.

“I had no idea,” Mallard said. “I’ve never kept up with stats. I knew how many hits I had a game or something like that, but a week later, that was past and I was always looking to the future. I never kept up with how many hits I had or what anybody else had because that wasn’t important to me. Unless I wasn’t hitting, and that was important to me.”

Mallard lettered one year in basketball, two in softball and was an All-Tournament selection in the latter during Wallace State’s conference runner-up showing in 1982. After finishing up with the Lions, she spent several softball seasons in the women’s majors in Huntsville.

Mallard returned to Wallace State in 1994, this time as an employee. She started in student support services and currently teaches developmental math. There have been other job titles in between, though she’s been an academic adviser for athletics her entire tenure.

Mallard was on the committee that decided Wallace State’s first hall of fame class and was initially pencilled in as a participant to pick this year’s newcomers.

Until she was nominated. Then, as she playfully put it, she “was kicked off.”

The payoff, however, was completely worth it.

And, just like her earlier MVP prize, a complete surprise.

“There’s some great athletes that have gone through there,” she said. “To be one of those was very honoring.”