In a crowd filled with former athletes, current coaches and family, UW Oshkosh Athletics welcomed seven new members into its hall of fame last Sunday, Oct. 5, at the Culver Family Welcome Center.
The event featured multimedia production for each of the athletes ahead of their induction and speeches, along with appearances from Chancellor Manohar Singh and remarks from both Assistant Chancellor of Athletics Darryl Sims and Michael Patton, the master of ceremonies and the main public adress announcer for UWO.
With the seven new members inducted on Sunday, the UWO Athletics Hall of Fame grows to 262 inductees.
“Each hall of fame member represents greatness, with their accomplishments built on-campus, after graduation or through meritorious efforts that benefit the UW Oshkosh athletics program,” Patton said in his opening remarks.
Of the seven athletes inducted into the hall of fame, only one was a coach; the other six were athletes. The coach was Terry Barth, who trained student athletes to 10 All-America performances and 17 conference titles.
The athletes were Christy Cazzola, who brought UWO 27 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Conference Championships (WIAC) on the women’s cross country and track and field teams, Jack Friess, who helped lead UWO baseball to a 87-39 record in his career, Nazar Kulchytskyy, who finished his wrestling career with a program-best 142-5 record, Tricia Rotering, who was a nine time All-American, Kristin Stanley, a two-time First-Team All-WIAC member in 2001 and 2002 and lastly Jacque Strook, who was named the 2009 WIAC Women’s Volleyball Player of the Year.
After speeches full of reminiscing on good times, thanking previous coaches and family as well as some tears, Sims closed it out with some final remarks and thanks to everyone who attended.
“One of the many coolest things that I do with my job is the phone call to the inductees and let them know that they’ve been selected,” Sims said. “It never fails. Every phone call I’ve ever made since I’ve been here, each one of the inductees could probably attest of this. They always think I’m calling to ask for money… then I tell them. Tears, outroars and all that you could expect to happen.”
Be on the lookout for the upcoming Hall of Famer of the Week series in the A-T as we’ll highlight each of the new inductees’ careers at UWO.
