USI’s Athletic Hall of Fame Committee has selected its 2014 class, which will be inducted during homecoming week in February.
Six individuals and one team was selected by the USI Athletic Hall of Fame Committee – Gary Redman (baseball coach 1988-1993), Kim Boehmer Coffman (volleyball 2000-2003), Duncan Bray (men’s soccer 2001-2003), Lori Leonard Swaim (softball 1996-1998), Mike Orban (men’s cross country 1984-1987), Matt Vince (baseball 1992-1994) and the 1968-1969 men’s basketball team.
“It was unexpected,” said Duncan Bray, who played soccer at USI from 2001 to 2003. “After being gone for so long, it’s a great honor to hear.”
Before coming to USI, Bray played soccer in Scotland. He currently works as a yacht broker and has since 2005. He hopes he can come up for the induction, he said.
“I’ll try to come up in February, but I’m not 100 percent sure,” he said. “It will be a last minute thing because of work.”
Bray was a midfielder during his time at USI. In 2003, he earned second-team All American honor, All-Region in 2002 and 2003.
He was the NSCAA Scholar All- American in 2002 and 2003 and All-GLVC during those year as well. In 2003, he won the GLVC Paragon Award.
Any student athlete or team could be nominated by the public after the 10-year anniversary of their last season, or a coach/administrator who has departed from the Athletic Department after two years.
When Athletics Director Jon Mark Hall arrived at the athletic department in 2002, he felt the Hall of Fame was a tradition USI needed to keep.
“It was really a chance to honor those who helped build that tradition and keep connection (to) who made us what we are today,” Hall said. Each year, the USI’s Athletic Hall of Fame committee goes through the 30-50 nominations. “We trim the list to a short list and then pick the Hall of Fame class from those remaining,” Hall said.
The Hall of Fame keeps people connected.
“Fifty years from now, people will see these inductees and ask questions,” Hall said. “It definitely helps connecting the past with the present and future.”
Every year, each class is special, but this one stands out, Hall said. “
This class stretches from athletes from 10 years ago to the first sanctioned men’s basketball team,” he said. “This group spans a long gap in USI athletics. You bring people in, and some of the younger folk will learn about USI’s history, while those who have been around for some time will have a change to see what happened more recently.”
