2011 Newsletter - GPSHOF | Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame

RecentNotices
Obituaries
Death
GREATER PEORIA SPORTS HALL OF
FAME BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Larry Dunn, President
Roger Monroe, 1st Vice President
Mike Burns, 2nd Vice President
Treasurer, Susie Stockman
Secretary, Rhonda Parker
Dan Shea, a longtime board member of the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame, died November 27, 2010 at his
winter home in New Port Richey, FL. Dan was active in
running events for 20 years, having run in 7 marathons and
13 triathlons. Dan started as a copyboy at the Peoria Journal in 1951 and became a sportswriter which was his high
school dream. He retired in 1992 as the Day News Editor.
Del Bireline and Lee Utt passed away during the past
year. They were members of the outstanding 1958 Bradley
Baseball Team that tied for 3rd in the 1958 College World
Series. The team was inducted into the Greater Peoria
Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
Bob Jauron, the outstanding former Manual High School
football coach, died on January 20, 2010 in Massachusetts.
Mr. Jauron coached the undefeated 1949 and 1950 Manual teams that were inducted into the Great Peoria Sports
Hall of Fame in 1990.
Al Fuhrman, a member of the 1947 Gipps Junior All Star
National Championship Softball Team, died on August 21,
2010 in Lafayette, CA. His team was inducted into the
Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.
Steven Yang died in Peoria on December 23, 2010. He
was one of the coaches of the 1967-1971 Peoria Central
Tennis teams that were inducted into the Greater Peoria
Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Gary Paulson died on December 29, 2010. Gary was a
running back on the undefeated 1957 Woodruff Football
team that was inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall
of Fame in 1992.
Bobby Lowder died in Peoria on January 3, 2011. Bob
played on the undefeated 1949 and 1950 Manual Football
teams that were inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports
Hall of Fame in 1990.
GREATER PEORIA SPORTS HALL OF FAME
1105 East War Memorial Drive
Peoria Heights, IL 61616
PRESORT STD.
U.S. POSTAGE
PA I D
PEORIA, ILLINOIS
PERMIT NO. 789
Special gifts available for
individual and team inductees.
Former individual and team members may order duplicates of their
12 x20 inch plaques displayed at the Peoria Civic Center. You may order
them by contacting Don Gustin at Joan’s Trophy. don@awardsnow.com
309-674-6500. The cost is $135.
Located at the Peoria Civic Center
Dedicated to those individuals making significant contributions to sports history
in the Greater Peoria area.
——————— 2010 INDIVIDUAL INDUCTEES ———————
TOM WIERZBA
- Basketball/Softball Coach
Tom coached basketball for 38
years. His last 26 were at Farmington High School where his
teams amassed 611 wins. He
won 5 of the 7 times his teams
were in the super sectional. His
1998 team were undefeated and
finished 3rd in the state tournament. His 2007 team won 4th
place in the state tournament.
He coached girls softball at
Farmington for 10 years where
his teams won state championships in 1989 and 1991.
The cost of producing and mailing our newsletter is offset by benefactor donations, Hall of Fame memberships and ads in our banquet program and Newsletter. Business Card size ads are $100 a
year. We mail the newsletter to 2,000 addresses. Please consider
supporting us by including your ad in our next newsletter, please
send your business card and $100 check to the:
The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame wishes to thank the benefactors that made contributions to us last year. All of our board members
are unpaid volunteers. Your generous contributions support our mission to honor the athletes and teams that have contributed to the rich
sports history of the tri-county area.
G R EATER PEOR IA SPORT S HAL L OF FAME
The 30th Annual Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame Banquet will be held Sunday March 13, 2010 at
the Peoria Civic Center. Advance tickets are $30 and after March 1st, $35.
Call 309-682-4255 to make reservations.
These individuals and teams will be inducted.
NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING
THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS
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—— Website: www.gpshof.org ——
Associate Board Members
Ron Ferguson Lorene Ramsey Paul King
309-685-6000 -- Ask for Mike or Larry
E AT E R P E O R I A
President: Larry Dunn • 1st Vice President: Roger Monroe • 2nd Vice President: Mike Burns
Treasurer: Susie Stockman • Secretary: Rhonda Parker • Newsletter Editor: Bob Sulaski
Welcome to two new Hall of Fame board members – Mike McDonald and
Richard Kestner. Both have extensive knowledge of Greater Peoria sports
history.
Regular Board Members
Gary Childs
Matt George
Mike Higgins
Richard Kestner
Don Mathews
Mike McDonald
Ed Murphy
Bobby Parker
Gene Petty
Corky Robertson
Phil Salzer
Sue Sinclair
Doug Sluser
Bob Sulaski
Scotty Sullivan
Junior Watkins
Kirk Wessler
Lee Youngman
GPSHOF Newsletter Advertising
1105 E. War Memorial Drive
Peoria Heights,IL 61616
Thanks for your support!
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GR
EORIA
The
30th
AT E R PAnnual
GRE
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Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame
Induction Banquet
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Peoria Civic Center
(Visit our website at: www.gpshof.org)
Tickets are on sale now for the 30th Annual Induction Banquet to be held Sunday, March 13,
2011 at the Peoria Civic Center, Rooms 401-404. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. for the
reception and dinner is served at 12:00 noon. Introduction of the new Hall of Fame inductees
follows dinner. Come early and say hello to former inductees that will be in attendance.
Advance tickets are $30 and after March 1st, $35.
Call 309-682-4255 or e-mail Rhonda at gpshof@gmail.com
to make a reservation.
RON FAHNESTOCK
- Athlete, Coach, and Official
Ron did it all. A 3-sport athlete
at Limestone High School, he
pitched his high school to the
1956 IHSA state baseball finals
and signed with the New York
Yankees after high school. After
college he was baseball coach
and athletic director at Canton
High School and and a longtime basketball and football official. He worked 3 seasons as a
Missouri Valley Basketball official.
——————— 2010 TEAM INDUCTEES ———————
1947 & 1948 Pekin Basketball Teams
Pekin High School’s 1947 (pictured at left)
and 1948 (pictured at right) Basketball teams
combined for a school record 59 wins over the
2-year period. The 1947 team finished 4th and
the 1948 team was 3rd in the one-class IHSA
tournament.
1980 Bergan Basketball Team (right)
The Bergan 1980 Basketball Team had a 23-9
record and put together a late season run to
finish 2nd in the Class A IHSA State Tournament.
1983, 1984 & 1985 Elmwood Cross Country Teams (pictured below)
The Elmwood boys cross country team won back to back to back Class A IHSA titles in 1983, 1984 and 1985.
IT HAPPENED IN GREATER PEORIA SPORTS HISTORY
August 20, 1921, Johnny Weissmuller
broke the world record for the 500 meter
swim at Peoria’s Glen Oak Pool. He
swam the distance in 6 minutes and 34.6
seconds. Weissmuller later won three
gold and one bronze medal
in the 1924 Paris Olympics
and two gold medals in the
1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
Johnny Weissmuller
He set sixty-seven world
records. He was, however, probably best known
as Tarzan in the twelve Tarzan movies he made
from 1932 -1948.
The Bradley Fieldhouse was replaced by
the Bradley Renaissance Center in 2010.
The historic Fieldhouse opened on December 6, 1949. On opening night Bradley’s
starting five were Squeaky Melchiorre,
Billy Mann, Paul Unruh, Bud Grover and
Mike Chianakas. They defeated Houston
73 to 57. The Bradley freshman played the
preliminary game and won 89 to 51 over
Stan Albeck
the Hopedale Stags. Three members of that
Bradley’s freshman team Stan Albeck, Buzz Ott, and Zack
Monroe were years later inducted into the Bradley Hall of
Fame. Stan Albeck played 4 years at
Bradley, was Bradley’s head coach from
1986 to 1991, and was the head coach of
several NBA teams. Freshman Buzz Ott, a
multi-sports high school star from Hillsboro, IL, played
basketball 4 years
for Bradley and
was named team
Buzz Ott
captain two times.
Zack Monroe was an all state basketball
player at Woodruff High School and
came to Bradley as a basketball player.
He also pitched for the Bradley Baseball team and later gained fame pitching for the New York Yankees in the
1958 World Series.
Zack Monroe
In late 1800s Peorian Hudson B. Saurs was
known in the Peoria area as the “fastest mortal on legs”and was the perennial Peoria foot
race champion. In 1889 a challenge race with
a speedster named Pierce from Bartonville
was staged at the intersection of Howett and
Western. A massive crowd gathered for the
big race and the backers for both men bet heavily on their
favorite. Saurs, as usual, broke to an early lead but as he neared
the finish line, his pet dog ran out of the crowd to greet him and
tripped him. Saurs went down. Pierce sped by the fallen champion and won the race and money giving Saurs the only loss of
his career. His dog was tied up and excluded from future races.
Gus Moreland, 6-time City champion,
was quoted in 1940 saying, “Every time
my golf game begins getting fuzzy I
spend a few days in the office.”
Over the years
several
world
champion boxers
Gus Moreland
have been Peoria
visitors. Tony Zale light heavyweight
champion in the 1940-1948 period was the
referee for amateur boxing bouts in 1947
at the Main Street
Arena located at
the top of Main
Tony Zale
Street hill. Jack
Dempsey, heavyweight champion,
visited
Peoria
friends over a
Jack Dempsey
weekend in November
1938.
Muhammad Ali
visited
Carver
Center in the early
Muhammad Ali
1970s, Ingemar
Johansson, 1959-1961 heavyweight
champion, was in Peoria in the late
1960s to visit Caterpillar headquarters
and factories.
Ingemar Johansson
The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame’s mission is to promote the many and varied sports
programs in the Greater Peoria area (Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford Counties). Our aim is to
honor those men, women and teams that have contributed to the area’s rich sports history. With the
cooperation of the Peoria Civic Center Commission, The Peoria Journal Star, and generous
community support we have served the area since 1979.
——— Check Out Our Website: www.gpshof.org ———
RECENTLY IN GREATER PEORIA
Old Timers
Baseball
Association
OF PEORIA, ILLINOIS
Since 1934
SPECIAL AWARDS 2011 BANQUET
Each year the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame honors
the outstanding coaches and athletes for the year. The 2010
honorees are:
2010 Female Coach of the Year
Paula Buscher - Paula is the Bradley
Womens Basketball Coach. In her
10th season, she guided her team to
a 3rd place finish in the Missouri
Valley and got to the quarter finals
of the inaugural Women’s Basketball
Invitational Tournament.
2010-2011 Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame Officers
Front Row (left to right) – Larry Dunn, President; Susie
Stockman, Treasurer; Back Row – Corky Robertson, Past
President; Roger Monroe, 1st Vice President; Mike Burns2nd Vice President.
2010 NEVE HARMS MERITORIOUS
SERVICE TO SPORTS AWARD
For the past 60 years Glen McCullough
has volunteered his time and management skills for many area sporting
events. In 1967 he established the
Bradley Sports Statistic Crew for
Bradley Football and Basketball games
and developed and improved the procedures that enabled his volunteer crew to
become the standard for the Missouri
Valley Conference. He currently volunteers as the game
manager for all Bradley home games and the IHSA State
Basketball tournaments.
THANKS TO ROMOLO & ASSOCIATES
The Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame wishes to thank
Romolo & Associates, Certified Public Accountants. They have
volunteered their assistance and guidance to the Greater Peoria
Sports Hall of Fame in the preparation of our required financial
and government reports.
NOMINATIONS
Each year in September the 25-member Greater Peoria Sports
Hall of Fame board of directors reviews a long list of nominees
to determine the select few individuals and teams to be inducted
at the annual banquet in March. Do you want to nominate
someone? Visit our website www.gpshof.org and under
“Contact Us” you can pull up and print a nomination form.
2010 Male Coach of the Year
Mike Bare - Mike,the Peoria Notre
Dame Soccer Coach, directed his team
to the IHSA Class 2A State title and
finished the season with a 26-1 record.
2010 Female Athlete of the Year
Jodi Rebholz - Jodi was the pitching
ace for the Metamora Redbirds and
led her team with a 30-1 record to the
3A IHSA State Women’s Softball
Championship. During her 4-years at
Metamora she had 83 career wins.
2010 Male Athletes of the Year
Matt Elliott - Matt won his third
IHSA Swimming title in the 200-yard
individual medley and regained the
title in the 100-breaststroke. In
August as a member of the USA
National Youth Team he won silver
medals in the 100-and 200-meter
breaststroke at the Junior Pan Pacific
Championships in Maui.
Dylan Reel - Dylan’s Washington
high school wrestling record is 87- 2
with state titles in his freshman and
sophomore seasons. In July he won
the 160-pound Junior Greco-Roman
National Championship in Fargo
N.D. In the Fall he led the Mid- Illini
Conference in rushing yardage.
Email questions to Rhonda at: gpshof.gmail.com
“A Friend of the Community”
The Old Timers donate hundreds of volunteer hours
yearly to numerous charitable projects.
MAILING ADDRESS & FURTHER INFORMATION
Mike Burns, Secretary-Treasurer
1603 Woodbine Ct., Washington, IL 61571 • 444-8719
A non-profit tax exempt IRS 501(c)(3) organization.
Otto Baum & Sons
LARRY DUNN
1105 E. War Memorial Drive
Peoria Heights, IL 61616
309-685-6000
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