2002 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

DOUG BARTLETT
Played football at Waverly High School as a freshman and sophomore, and when the school dropped the sport he transferred to Griffin. Forced to sit out his junior year as a transfer student, Bartlett earned all-city, All-Capitol Conference and honorable mention all-state honors as a senior in 1981. He spent four seasons as a starter at Northern Illinois and was team MVP and co-captain as a senior in 1986, earning third-team All-America honors from The Associated Press. He was drafted on the fourth round in 1987 by the Los Angeles Rams and also played in the NFL with Philadelphia and Green Bay and in the Canadian Football League.

 

JOHN DAVSKO
Is a Griffin High School graduate (1964) who was a standout in both baseball and basketball and earned all-state honors as a senior, when he averaged 19 points a game. He scored over 1,185 points in his career (good for No. 3 on the school's all-time list) and led Griffin to a 23-4 record his senior year. In baseball, he was a three-year letter-winner and was the No. 1 pitcher on the 1964 state championship team. He played college baseball and basketball at St. Louis University after being recruited by Houston, Kentucky, Michigan, Kansas, Marquette, New Mexico and Missouri. He was the freshmen basketball team's No. 2 scorer and assists leader. In baseball for St. Louis U. in 1966 he was the national collegiate leader in ERA and had a 7-0 record. He was an All-Missouri Valley Conference pitcher in 1966 and 1968. He played two summers for the Springfield Caps of the CICL, and in 1967 he was an All-CICL pick. He was drafted in the seventh round by the White Sox after his sophomore year at St. Louis but chose to return to college, then was drafted in 1968 by the Cardinals and signed. He went 8-1 at Class A St. Petersburg in his first professional season and had a string of 28 consecutive scoreles innings. He was in spring training with the big league club in 1968, '69 and '70 and had short stints in Class AA and Class AAA before an arm injury ended his career.

AYDIN GONULSEN
Is a native of Izmir, Turkey, who arrived in the United States in 1963 to attend Warren Wilson College in North Carolina and play soccer. He was a two-time junior college All-American at Warren Wilson and then moved on to Pikeville College,. After graduating from Pikeville in 1968, he came to Springfield to work at the Springfield YMCA. In 1977, he was named the first athletic director and soccer coach at Sangamon State University. He built the soccer program from the ground up, and his teams won NAIA national titles in 1986, 1988 and 1993. His 1986 team competed in the World College Championships, where they knocked off NCAA Division I champion UCLA. Over the past 25 years, Gonulsen's teams have made 20 appearances at the NAIA nationals, winning 20 area, district and regional titles along the way. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame, and in 2000 he received the Distinguished Service Award; he's the only NAIA soccer coach ever to receive the honor. He has been named national Coach of the Year, NAIA District 20 Coach of the Year twice, NAIA Area V Coach of the Year 12 times. In 2000, he was named NAIA Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year for the 12th time in 13 years.

SARAH LEVEQUE MCGUIRE
Is a 1975 Sacred Heart Academy graduate who won the Women's City Golf title in 1974, 1976 and 1977 and was a collegiate All-American at Miami (Fla.) in 1978 and 1979. She played in all or part of 12 seasons on the LPGA Tour, from 1983-'95, with 1986 her only non-tour year during that stretch. She also played in a few LPGA events prior and after her 1983-'95 stint, with her last LPGA event being the 1998 State Farm Classic. She won a total of $183,901, which is currently No. 269 on the LPGA career earnings list. McGuire never won an LPGA tournament but had several top-10 finishes - the best was a tie for third place in the McCall's LPGA Classic at Stratton Mountain, Vermont.

JIM PATTON
Is a Springfield High School graduate (1954) who played football four years at Illinois College, serving as team captain as a senior and earning all-conference honors as a linebacker-full-back. He played semi-pro football for the Rockford Rams for two years before beginning a successful coaching career, first at Casey for two years and the at Woodstock for 32 until his retirement in 1998. In 20 years as a freshman football coach, his teams compiled a 125-72-3 record. He coached varsity track for five years and won two conference titles, spent 20 years coaching girls softball, including 15 as head coach, and was the varsity wrestling coach for 28 years. His wrestling teams won four conference and four regional titles, one sectional title and finished third in the 1984 state tournament. He also coached 36 state qualifiers, including 1998 state champion Matt Huebner, now at Northwestern. He's a member of the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame, the Woodstock High School Hall of Fame and is on of the top five wrestling coaches in state history for total wins (400-176-6).

FRED YAZELL
Is a Springfield High graduate (class of 1930) who earned 12 letters in basketball, football and baseball in high school, serving as captain of the basketball and baseball teams as a senior. Yazell was signed by a Cincinnati scout and Springfield Sports Hall of Famer Jack Rossiter in 1931. He played for the Reds' Kansas City Blues farm team that first season. Yazell spent seven years in professional baseball, three in the Cincinnati organization, two in the St. Louis farm system and two wit the Boston organization.

 

TEAMS

THE 1939 CATHEDRAL
basketball team was coached by the late Greg Sloan, and the Cyclones won the 16-team Catholic State Tornament title with a 23-18 victory over Galesburg Corpus Christi at the Illinois State Armory. Cathedral advanced to the 32-team National Catholic Tournament in Chicago, where it lost in the second round. Team members included Bill Hefferman, Bud Baker, Charlie Huneke, Eddie Sommers, Jack Kirchgessner, George Kolaz, Edward Lonergan, Bob Lucasey, Al Holmes and Larry Shea.

THE 1945 SPRINGFIELD HIGH football team was named one of two United Press International high school football teams of the year along with Oak Park. The Senators of coach Bill Roellig went 9-0 and outscored their opponents 269-63. They won the Big 12 Conference, the ninth league title Roellig had won in a 16-year stretch. The backfield included quarterback Dick Gibbs, a member of the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame, along with Jerry Slack, Fred Wiesenmeyer and Bruce Esmond. The team also included right end Cliff Kurrus, another Springfield Sports Hall of Famer. Wiesenmeyer, Slack and guard Roland "Popeye" Ashton were named to the United Press International Big Twelve All-Star team, and Slack was the honorary captain of the all-star team.

 

FRIENDS OF SPORT

 

Dick Beck - is a Griffin High School graduate (1964), where he was a team-mate of John Davsko on the 23-4 basketball team their senior years. Beck coached youth basketball for 28 years at St. Aloysius School and compiled a 353-117 record, finishing 25 of those seasons with a winning record. He won 10 Springfield Parochial League championships and had three undefeated seasons. He also was a baseball umpire in the Pony, Colt, Connie Mack, High School, Senior and Central Illinois Collegiate leagues for 20 years and worked in the Connie Mack World Series.

Pat Flannigan - a Cathedral graduate (1953), was an all-city basketball player as a senior, played basketball at Quincy College from 1953-56 and graduated from Western Illinois in 1958. He played one season of professional baseball in the Pittsburgh organization. He was an assistant baseball coach at Western Illinois, an assistant basketball coach at Feitshans and a cross crountry coach at Lanphier during the 1960s. He achieved state-wide acclaim as a basketball official beginning in 1959, including the maximum three trips to the state finals. Flannigan and Springfield Sports Hall of Famer Ron Michaelson called the 1979 Class A state title game in Champaign. He retired from officiating in 1983, Flannigan died in 1990.

Dennis Swanson - graduated from Springfield High in 1956 and headed to the University of Illinois, where he served as basketball manager. He graduated with a journalism degree in 1961 and received a masters in communications and political science n 1966. He was an assignment editor and field producer for NBC News, based at WMAQ in Chicago from 1968-70, an on-air sportscaster and producer for both WMAQ radio and television from 1970-73, a news producer and assignment manager for WGN radio and television in Chicago and a reporter for WMT radio and television in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was with Television News Inc. in Chicao from 1973-76 before becoming executive producer of local news and later news director at KABC-TV in Los Angeles. He won the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award in 1978. By 1986 he had become president of ABC Sports, serving in that capacity until 1996. He became president and general manager of WNBC in New York, the flagship station of the NBC network, in 1996. And in October of 1998, Swanson was named co-chairman, NBC Olympics. The 40-year veteran of broadcast journalism was designated a "Daily Point of Light" by former President George Bush in 1999. In 1997, he was inducted into the Illinois Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and he is a member of the Springfield High School Hall of Fame.