2011 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

DAN CALLAHAN
Springfield High graduate (1976) was a two-time All-City baseball player who played collegiately at the University of New Orleans and Quincy (1981 graduate). He signed a free agent contract with San Diego and pitched one season in the Padres' organization before beginning a coaching career that would last almost 30 years. He was an assistant football and baseball coach at Lanphier in 1982 and 1983, and in 1984 he was named head baseball coach at his alma mater. In 1985, he led Springfield High to a second-place finish in the Class AA State Baseball Tournament

After the season he resigned to serve as a graduate assistant at Southern Illinois in 1986-87 and an assistant coach/academic coordinator in 1988 under then-head coach Itchy Jones. He was named head coach at Eastern Illinois in 1989 and was 153-158-1 in five seasons - he was Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year in 1994 - before taking over as he head baseball coach at SIU in 1994. Callahan, the second-winningest coach in Salukis history, compiled a 442-447-1 record in 16 seasons as head collegiate coach, Callahan amassed a 595-605-2 record. After a lengthy battle with cancer, he died in November of 2010.

GREG GARDNER
The 1986 Southeast graduate was Springfield's first state wrestling champion (a 43-0 record at 155 pounds as a senior) and a three-time city champion. His high school achievements - all-state honors as a junior and senior, 136 career wins, 32 pins as a senior - remain unmatched 25 years later. He wrestled collegiately at Illinois State, where he was an NCAA qualifier, was ranked in the top 12 nationally as both a junior and senior, was team MVP and captain as a junior and senior and posted an 83-32 career record.

After high school he served as wrestling coach at Southeast, special education department chair at Southeast and Sangamon County assistant regional superintendent of schools. He coached state freestyle teams for six years and produced many state qualifiers and multiple state place winners. While jogging in January of 2005, he was hit by a car and was left paralyzed. In 2009, he was awarded the Medal of Courage by the Illinois chapter of USA Wrestling's National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He has since started his own corporation/foundation, The Gardner Foundation and Individual Differences. He has opened up his rehab center to anyone with a disabliity to work on regaining what they have lost.

KEVIN JONES
The 1978 Lanphier graduate was a man for all seasons, and he excelled at everything he tried. In basketball he was a four-year starter and the Lions placed second in the Class AA State Tournament in 1977. He was a three-year starter as a defensive back and wide receiver in football, earning all-conference and all-city honors. In track he was a four-year letter-winner who competed in everything from the shot put to the hurdles, earned all-city honors in 1977 and 1978 and qualified for the state meet as both a junior and senior. He placed eighth at the state meet in the 120-yard high hurdles as a senior.

When it came time to pick a college, Jones headed to Eastern Illinois for football. He was a four-year starter for the Panthers - his first two at safety, his final two at cornerback - including his freshman season when the Panthers won the NCAA Division II national championship. His fumble recovery in the title game set up the Panthers' winning score, and his interception in the final minute deep in EIU territory sealed the victory. Jones lives in Mansfield, Texas.

 

ANNE QUENETTE KRUER
The 1991 Sacred Heart-Griffin graduate was a four-year volleyball standout in high school. She was a two-time all-city selection, at 5 feet 8 an exceptional jumper who led the team with a .340 hitting percentage as a senior when she was named to the Champaign-Urbana News Gazette All-State team and The State Journal-Register Player of the Year.

She played four years at NCAA Division III Washington University, where she was a member of four NCAA Division III national championship teams. She was a three-time American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American, second-team in 1992 and first-team in 1993 and 1994 (she's one of only four Washington U. players to earn the honor three times). She was a three-time All-America selection by Volleyball magazine, NCAA All-Central Region in 1992 and 1993 and All-South Region in 1994. She's the only Washington U. player to be named All-University Athletic Association all four years, second team in 1991 and 1992 and first team in 1993 and 1994. She ranks No. 1 on the school's all-time list for digs and games played, is second in service aces, fourth in kills, attacks and total blocks, sixth in hitting percentage and seventh in assists. She lives in Indiana.

KEVIN KYES
An outstanding basketball and baseball pleyer, the 1971 Southeast graduate won eight varsity letters for cross country, baseball and basketball during an outstanding career on both the high school and collegiate levels. He was a three-year starter and two-time all-city selection in baseball as a second baseman and a two-time all-city pick in basketball as a 5-foot-6 point guard. He still holds the City Tournament record for free throws in a game (17).

He continued his career at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he played both basketball and baseball. He was a basketball teammate of Jack Sikma at Wesleyan, and he was a four-year starter on the baseball team who compiled a career .296 batting average. He was a two-time All-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin selection in baseball, and he spent his summers playing in the Central Illinois Collegiate League for both the Springfield Caps and Bloomington Bobcats. After graduating from Wesleyan, Kyes served as the baseball and basketball coach at Williamsville, compiling a 66-37 basketball record in four seasons and a 74-23 baseball record in six seasons. His 1978 Old Luxemburg summer baseball team qualified for the Connie Mack World Series. He left coaching in 1981 to take a job in sales with Bunn-O-Matic and now lives in Alabama.

JOHN OAKS
Well respected as both an athlete and coach, the 1970 Springfield High graduate played football and was a member of the wrestling teams at the school and later came back to coach both sports. He was a two-way starter at guard and linebacker and an all-city selection in football as a senior and was named Outstanding Defensive Player/Lineman for the city. He was a city champion and state qualifier in wrestling and held both 138- and 145-pound weight class records at SHS long after graduating. As a senior he was named Scholar Athlete of the Year at SHS.

He received a wrestling scholarship to Illinois and lettered as a sophomore and junior (he was injured as a freshman and senior) and won the U of I's George Huff Award in 1973 for excelling in athletics and academics. He compiled a 85-45 record as SHS wrestling coach, won three City titles and in 1981 had a still-City-record six wrestlers qualify for the state meet. He coached football at five different schools and compiled a 110-97 record, including a 9-1 mark at SHS in 1981 (the school's best since 1944) and a 43-27 mark at Lanphier, where he won two City and two Central State Eight Conference titles. He has the third-highest winning percentage among city coaches with 10 or more years, and he's No. 5 on the all-time city win list. He was inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005, just one of three coaches from Springfield to earn the IHSFCA honor.

TEAM

1937 ST. JAMES TRADE SCHOOL FOOTBALL TEAM
This was the greatest football team in school history. The small northend school that had an enrollment of between 50-80 in a given year, went 6-1-1 and was declared co-champions of the Illinois High School Catholic Conference in the days before parochial schools could join the Illinois High School Association. St. James never won more than four games in any other season, and the football program was in existence from 1934-56. The coach was Frank "Red" Hartman and team members were Babe Aiello, Joe Bartolomucci, Louis Betz, Jim Buhnerkemper, Joe Cooney, Cleo Deerwester, Bob Denny, Silver DiGiacomo, Eugene Emory, Bill Guinan, Jake Harbauer, Bob Mayfield, Jerome Medic, Frank Mertz, Al Schwabe, Frank Tapocik, Joe Wilson, Mickey Wysocki and Clarence Yuhas.

1969 COLT LEAGUE ALL-STAR BASEBALL TEAM
The team of 15- and 16-year-old all-stars finished second in the Colt League World Series in Lafayette, Ind. Ray Gedaminski, Stu Jameson and Fred Kopatz coached the team, and players included Jim Potter, Bob Benedict, Bob Babiak, Ron Packingham, Kevin Kyes, Gerry Vandiver, Dave Peters, Bill Kinsel, John Marsaglia, Jim Kopatz, John Beckman, Rocky Barron, Bill Lemasters, Boo Gedaminski and Dave McCauley.

FRIENDS OF SPORT

BOB ENGEL
The Springfield High graduate (1974) began his career as a baseball umpire in 1972. He also worked with the football, basketball and baseball teams while in high school and became a registered Illinois High School Association baseball and basketball official in 1976. Since then he has worked 18 regionals, 11 sectionals, three supersectionals and two state finals in basketball, including the 2010 Class 1A state title game. In baseball he has worked 20 sectionals, seven supersectionals and three state finals, including working the plate for the 2008 Class 2A state title game. He's a charter member of the Springfield Area Officials Association and has held every office in that organization. He's a certified IHSA clinician in both baseball and basketball.

 

GEORGE VASS
One of the country's leading sportswriters was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1927 as a Hungarian citizen and came to the United States in 1935 with his father, pathologist Dr. Aloysius Vass, who served at Springfield's Memorial Hospital from 1936 into The 1950s. He attended public schools in Springfield, graduating from SHS in 1945. After a two-year hitch in the U.S. Army, he graduated from Washington University in 1950 and received a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern in 1952. He was managing editor of the National Jewish Post and Opinion from 1953-55, then was an editor and executive sports editor at the Rockford Register Republic from 1955-58. He was a sportswriter at the Chicago Daily News (1958-78; he was the baseball beat writer from 1965-78 and also covered the Bulls and Blackhawks) and Chicago Sun-Times (1979-94). Since his retirement from newspapper work, he has continued to write books and contribute monthly pieces to Baseball Digest. He has written a dozen books on sports subjects as well as two historical novels.