Award is the namesake of 2021 National Sheriff of the Year Leon Lott
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
The S.C. Black Belt Hall of Fame (SCBBHOF) presented Tarrant County (Texas) Sheriff Bill E. Waybourn with the prestigious LEON LOTT – FIRST THROUGH THE DOOR AWARD during an awards dinner held in Arlington, Texas, Friday evening March 6, 2026.
The award, named after Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, is part of the SCBBHOF awards program, which for this particular honor was conceived last year by SCBBHOF boardmembers to honor military and law-enforcement leaders as well as other first responders who have demonstrated proven exceptional “leading-from-the-front” courage either in a singularly notable action or exhibited over the course of a career.
Lott – who has served as Sheriff of Richland County since first being elected to office in 1996 and who was named National Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff’s Association in 2021 – received the first such FIRST THROUGH THE DOOR Award in early January 2026. The award was subsequently renamed to include Lott’s name going forward.
“I cannot think of a more deserving law enforcement leader than Sheriff Waybourn,” said Karate Grandmaster (10th degree Black Belt) Bruce Brutschy, a SCBBHOF inductee and current boardmember. “And there is no man nationwide who has proven himself not only worthy of this award, but deserving of having all future awards of this nature to be presented bearing his name than Sheriff Lott.”
The award name-change was unanimously approved by the SCBBHOF as were the presentations to recipients Lott (Jan. 10) and Waybourn (March 6).
A veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, Waybourn is a former police chief (in fact the youngest police chief in the state of Texas when he was tapped to lead the Dalworthington Gardens Police Department in 1984). Later, during his first term as Tarrant County Sheriff, Waybourn established a Human Trafficking Unit, a Department of Intelligence, and numerous other training initiatives which have gained state and national prominence. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.
Lott, also a graduate of the FBI National Academy, has “led from the front” during myriad law enforcement evolutions and operations including the volatile protests turned rioting in Columbia, S.C. in 2020. In 2010, he traveled to Erbil, Iraq on the invitation of the Iraqi government to assist in the establishment of that country’s first-ever female police academy. Also a human trafficking expert, Lott serves on the board of Crime Stoppers Global Solutions, the international arm of Crime Stoppers in the U.S. which is responsible for international intelligence collection, countering human-trafficking, and mine-clearing efforts in Eastern Europe, now expanding into Africa.
“Sheriff Waybourn received the Leon Lott-First through the door award at a star-studded event attended by more than 600 guests,” said Brutschy. “No surprise and well-deserved as both sheriffs have performed magnificently in dangerous operations too numerous to list, but certainly recognized by us.”
Brutschy added: “Not every leader will receive this award because he or she is courageous. The standards are deliberately exacting. And simply being nominated is recognition enough. Both Waybourn, the second recipient, and Lott, the first, are model leaders who exemplify the qualities expounded upon within the Hall of Fame.”
Though officially established in 2012, the formative years of the S.C. Black Belt Hall of Fame stretch back to the 1970s when founders like Keith Vitali, Mike Genova, Bobby Tucker, and Bruce Brutschy were gaining state, regional, and national recognition as martial arts tournament fighters and Karate instructors.
– Pictured (L-R) Sheriff Bill Waybourn and Sheriff Leon Lott.