If anyone else attended the 33rd Induction Ceremony to the NIU Hall of Fame, please confirm that those who did not attend missed a great evening and an opportunity.
It was a tremendous and entertaining evening that would have cost you nothing but showing up in the Duke Ellington Ballroom.
It included a surprising video message from Billy Crystal (ripping on Nebraska) to those in attendance, the NIU Silverettes, the Huskie Marching Band, the NIU Chamber Choir, gymnasts and women's golf team members dressed to the hilt, plus great Huskies or great Huskie memories every time you turned around.
Not only did the inductees -- Dee Abrahamson, Steve Azar, Mark Goodson, Ed Kostizki, Angela Lockett, and Garrett Wolfe -- give speeches combining heartfelt emotions with humor and pride, but the list of accomplishments for them and for all those in the Hall who returned, makes your Cardinal and Black blood stir.
What I don't understand is why the Huskie Athletic Administration couldn't have someone from Media Relations do a story on the evening itself. Quote some of the inductees from their speeches. Yes there's a photo of the new inductees joined on the stage by all the Hall of Famers who returned posted in a tweet, but it's not like you can see who's there. Joe Novak, Jane Albright, Kenny Battle, E.C. Hill, and LeShon Johnson were among those you could have shaken hands with, hugged, or simply said hello. Quite honestly, a video of the evening should be available on the website for people to watch.
Rick Cerrone deserves some major credit for staging the whole affair and lining up sponsors and donors.
You go to
http://www.niuhuskies.com and click on the You Tube link off to the right and it brings up a two-year-old video on athletics supporting the "You Can Play" LGBT effort (including the infamous Doug Baker), a three-year-old video Huskies Go Hollywood, an eight-year-old video on redoing the turf at Brigham Field, plus another eight-year-old video on 2009 tailgating. No idea what the parameters are for You Tube length, but somehow and somewhere there should be a link to watch the entire banquet.