Seven athletes can be inducted into the Springfield Sports activities Corridor of Fame subsequent month as a part of a 31-year custom within the capital metropolis.
“To be thought of, you need to have been out of the game for at the least 10 years and have performed for one of many Springfield excessive colleges,” stated Corridor of Fame President Chris Leming.
The athletes can be inducted in a ceremony on the Financial institution of Springfield Heart on Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. This 12 months’s members:
Nathaniel Browning is a 2004 Lutheran Excessive Faculty graduate who received back-to-back Class A 400-meter state championships in 2003 and 2004 and scored greater than 1,000 factors in basketball. He earned a monitor and discipline scholarship to the College of Kentucky within the Southeastern Convention and whereas there was a two-time All-American within the 4×400 relay.
Dominique “Main” Clay is a 2007 graduate of Lanphier Excessive Faculty who excelled in each monitor and discipline and basketball. He was a two-time state champion within the excessive bounce and set the Illinois highschool indoor excessive bounce report at 7-Zero ¼. He earned a monitor and discipline scholarship to Indiana State College, the place he went 7-Zero in 35 of 38 indoor meets. Clay was ranked within the prime 20 on the earth at his peak and competed on the 2012 US Olympic Trials.
Dougal collins is a 1987 Lanphier graduate who performed two varsity seasons for the Lions and scored 986 factors. He performed at John A. Logan School in 1987-88 and 1988-89 and was the Nice River Athletic Convention Freshman of the Yr. He transferred to Iowa State within the Massive Eight Convention, the place he performed for Johnny Orr and scored 224 factors as a junior in 1989-90 and 442 factors as a senior in 1990-91. He spent the previous 22 seasons as the ladies basketball coach at Lanphier.
Phil Eck is a 1980 graduate of Springfield Excessive Faculty who earned All-Metropolis honors in soccer as a junior and senior after which attended Quincy School, the place he performed on NAIA nationwide championship groups in 1980, 1981 and 1982. As a senior, he was an assistant Soccer. coach at Quincy Notre Dame Excessive Faculty, which completed second within the Illinois Excessive Faculty Affiliation state match. He was employed as a trainer and head boys soccer coach at Springfield Excessive Faculty in 1985, and in 22 seasons his groups compiled a report of 352-131-43, together with the 1997 Class A state title.
Jim Recordsdata is a 1980 Lanphier graduate who grew to become the primary and solely boys runner in Springfield historical past to win the state cross nation championship, operating the Three-mile course at Peoria’s Detweiller Park in 14 minutes, 18.Three seconds in 1979. He’s nonetheless the one large one. -Sangamon County boys highschool particular person champion for the reason that state meet started in 1946. Served 4 years within the Military after graduating from highschool.
John Fox is a 1976 graduate of Lanphier who earned 9 varsity letters – 4 in basketball, 4 in baseball and one in golf. Throughout his basketball profession, he scored over 1,400 factors and was a two-time All-Metropolis choice. In baseball, he was a pitcher and catcher and earned a pair of All-Metropolis choices. He obtained a baseball scholarship to Japanese Illinois College and performed there for 2 seasons earlier than transferring to Quincy School, the place a knee harm ended his collegiate profession.
Tracy Tate Wilson, a Springfield Excessive graduate, is the one highschool participant in metropolis historical past to win two state golf championships, successful by three strokes in 1980 and defending her crown by one stroke in ’81. She earned a scholarship to Oklahoma State College and was a member of the Cowgirls in 1985 earlier than transferring to the College of South Florida. She was a PGA Instructing Skilled and Director of Golf Operations at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Additionally inducted into the Corridor of Fame are 5 “associates of the game”:
Mike Chamness was State Journal-Register sports activities editor from 1986 to 1991 and created The State Journal-Register Baseball Basic in 1990. He was a part of the group that established the Springfield Sports activities Corridor of Fame in 1990. After spending greater than 20 years within the newspaper enterprise, entered the state authorities. in 1991, working within the places of work of the Secretary of State and the Governor. He was the chairman of the Illinois Terrorism Process Power from 1999 to 2020.
Larry Chaney served as a coach, trainer and administrator in District 186 for 33 years, together with 16 seasons as the top baseball coach at Southeast Excessive Faculty and eight years because the athletic director at Southeast. Throughout that point, he performed a serious function within the formation of the Eighth Central State Convention. He was inducted into the Illinois Athletic Administrators Affiliation Corridor of Fame in 2006 and was named the Class AA Excellent Athletic Director in 2001.
Cress Maddox and John Reynolds Each had been instrumental in bringing women soccer to Springfield Faculty District 186 within the late 1980s. They made shows to the varsity district quite a few occasions to request that the game be supplied. Not solely did they create women soccer to 186, however they labored to safe Lee Subject so that every one soccer groups within the faculty district may use it as their residence discipline, elevating all the cash for the lights and building of the sector. Lee Subject is utilized by 4 of the town’s excessive colleges and was used final season by the College of Illinois Springfield males’s and ladies’s soccer groups..
Paul Pachlhofer is a 1974 graduate of Griffin Excessive Faculty. He started his profession as a baseball umpire in 1976 and continues to officiate video games right now, together with quite a few regionals, sectionals and supersectionals, in addition to the state finals in 2021 and 2022. He’s a clinician of the Illinois Excessive Faculty Affiliation since 2016. Officiated highschool basketball. from 2008 to 2015 and highschool soccer from 2009 to 2015. He additionally served because the announcer for soccer video games at Memorial Stadium from 1981 to 2005 and because the PA announcer for the town’s basketball match from 1984 to 2022 .He did sports activities reporting at WTAX from 1991 to 1996 and at Neuhoff Media-Springfield from 1996 to current.
Jim Ruppert was A State Journal-Register sportswriter from 1976 to 1991 and SJ-R sports activities editor from 1991 to 2016. Was a part of the group that established the Springfield Sports activities Corridor of Fame. He joined the Neuhoff Media broadcast group in 1991 and continues in that function. He has served as grasp of ceremonies for the Springfield Sports activities Corridor of Fame since 1999.
Scott Reeder, a workers author for Illinois Occasions, he could be reached at sreeder@illinoisimes.com.