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Korcek: NIU Athletics Hall of Fame banquet free fun for fans
By MIKE KORCEK – Shaw Media corespondent11:57 pm
The event: Bleed cardinal and black? I mean, really bleed?
Want to rub elbows for an evening with all-time Northern Illinois athletics icons and event attendees such as Jane Albright, George Bork, Mark Kellar, Kenny Battle, Mary Bell, Bob Heimerdinger, Jill Justin-Coffel, Tom Beck, Cary Groth, Tim Dillon, Julie Sexton, Bill Baker, Charmonique Stallworth, Roger Dutton, Al Kranz, Sue Kause and Rodney Davis?
Do I have the ultimate biennial Huskies occasion for you.
The 33rd NIU Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony Oct. 6 at the Duke Ellington Ballroom in the Holmes Student Center as part of the institution’s storied 111th Homecoming weekend. The ceremony starts at 7 p.m. after a 5:30 p.m. reception.
As NIU athletic director Sean Frazier appropriately commented the other day: “We (NIU) must always remember the people who came before us, who laid the foundation for our program.”
The members of the 2017 HOF induction class are Dee Abrahamson (head softball coach, 1980 to 1994 / athletics administrator, 1995 to 2011 / NCAA secretary-rules editor, 1996 to 2015), Steve Azar (football, 2000 to 2003), Mark Goodson (men’s gymnastics, 1976 to 1980), Ed Kositzki (men’s soccer, 1969 to 1971), Angela Lockett (women’s basketball, 1990 to 1992, 1993 to 1995) and Garrett Wolfe (football, 2004 to 2006).
Event coordinator/consultant Rick Cerrone, a 1976 NIU graduate, guarantees the EPSY-like theater presentation falls into the category of “spectacular,” “celebrates NIU athletics, past and present,” and offers several Huskies surprises that evening.
This year’s ceremony also features the NIU Marching Huskies Band, tribute videos (the last two were narrated by sports media giants Bob Costas and Brent Musburger), and commemoration of the 2016-17 Jacoby Trophy – symbolic of NIU’s first Mid-American Conference women’s all-sports championship last spring.
The history: The vision became reality in 1978. Recognizing the best of the best.
Historically, NIU’s Athletics Hall of Fame evolved from a March 5, 1968, memorandum from soon-to-retire men’s athletics director George “Chick” Evans. His memo outlined some basic induction criteria and a nomination process. Copies of this missive went to Evans’ successor, Robert Brigham, and sports information director Bud Nangle – both NIU alums, future HOFers, and fixtures in the Huskies’ legacy.
Momentum stalled on the project for a decade before a group of longtime DeKalb-Sycamore area residents and avid sports fans, who called themselves the “Last Meeting of the Board” resumed the Hall of Fame discussion. “The Board” membership included many older “NI” (as townies called NIU back in the day) alumni, former Huskies student-athletes, tenured NIU faculty, and others such as Eddie Raymond – the former DeKalb Daily Chronicle sports editor/editor/publisher – who had followed the local “college” for decades.
Under Brigham’s direction, Nangle created a “Pioneer Era” ballot of nominations for the inaugural class between the 1916-17 through 1936-37 academic years. Considering his ties with the Huskies program dated back to 1939, Nangle fit perfectly into the role of research and development, critical in the formative early years of the HOF.
The charter induction class of Nov. 18, 1978, focused on the NIU “classics” – pioneer male coaches, administrators and student-athletes. The early classes played in a “catch-up” mode and honored a higher percentage of “old-timers.” Twenty of the first 53 individual inductees competed in the 1930s and those initial classes were also larger (nine individuals in 1978, 15 in 1983, eight in 1984, 10 in 1985, and 11 in 1986). In recent years, the HOF has averaged five individual inductees a year. There was a five-year hiatus between the first NIU class (1978) and the next one (1983).
With the advent of Title IX in 1972, the moves to NCAA Division I and the Mid-American Conference competition for female student-athletes during the 1982-83 school year and the impending integration of the previously separate male and female NIU athletics program, it was time for the Huskies women to be recognized in the same manner.
Under the auspices of NIU women’s athletic director Susie Pembroke-Jones, the first women were enshrined into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the annual Huskie Women’s Athletics Banquet on April 7, 1986. A second women’s class was installed in 1987 before the HOF and the two athletics departments were combined in 1988.
NIU HOF selection committee chairs (1978 to 2017) are Brigham (1978, 1983 to 1988), Susie Pembroke-Jones (1986 to 1987), Cary Groth (1989 to 1995), Gary Evans (1996), Brett Tucker (1997), Mike Korcek (1998 to 2009), Bill Finucane (2010), Don Shields (2011), and Rodney Davis (2013 to present).
With six new inductees in 2017, the updated all-time HOF roster includes 212 individuals, 18 teams, and one family. Considering the thousands of student-athletes, coaches, and administrators who have participated at NIU since 1899, that is elite status. The best of the best.
The ticket: Complimentary to all (i.e., free). One must and can RSVP in two ways: By emailing halloffame@niu.edu, or by calling Brad Hoey at NIU athletics, 815-753-6667. Please include name and number of tickets requested.
• Mike Korcek is a 1970 graduate of NIU, and was the school’s head sports information director from 1984 to 2006. His historical perspective on NIU athletics appears periodically in the Daily Chronicle. Write to him at sports@daily-chronicle.com.
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Korcek: NIU Athletics Hall of Fame banquet free fun for fans On October 6
