For Immediate Release – June 8, 2016
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For immediate release – June 8, 2016 Kansas Sports Hall of Fame announces Class of 2016 Twelve legends to be enshrined October 2 in Wichita The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame (KSHOF) has announced the members of the Class of 2016 who will be inducted on Sunday, October 2nd in Wichita. The KSHOF Class of 2016 consists of twelve members: former Kansas State University baseball player and Washburn University baseball’s career coaching wins leader Steve Anson; 1961 first-team All-American University of Kansas basketball player and three-time NBA All-Star Bill Bridges; Topeka native and forty-eight year broadcaster of the Fort Hays State Tigers, Kansas City Royals, and University of Kansas Bob Davis; two-time Big 8/Big 12 Conference Player of the Year at the University of Kansas and three-time WNBA All-Star Tameka Dixon; two-time University of Kansas track All-American and four-minute miler Bill Dotson of Concordia; two-time University of Kansas pole vault All-American and U.S. Olympian Scott Huffman from Quinter; Cheney native and three-time national football coach of the year Jerry Kill; fourteen-time track All-American and two-time National Champion at Emporia State University Deandra Doubrava-McBride of Scott City; 1993 Kansas State University All-American football player and three-time All-Big 8 selection Jaime Mendez III; Wichita native and first African-American high school basketball coach in Wichita public schools Lafayette Norwood; four-time Kansas State University All-American and four-time Olympian Austra Skujytė; and first African-American athlete to letter in athletics at Pittsburg State University and three-time Negro League World Series champion George Sweatt from Humboldt. Steve Anson, Bill Bridges, and George Sweatt, will all be honored posthumously. The induction ceremony will be held on Sunday, October 2, 2016, in Wichita. The twelve-person class raises the total number of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductees to 260. The Kansas Sports Hall of Fame is in its 55th year of operation. Tickets for the 2016 Induction Ceremony go on sale on August 1, 2016, and can be purchased by calling 316-262-2038 or by ordering online at www.kshof.org. KSHOF CLASS OF 2016 STEVE ANSON – WASHBURN UNIVERSITY A native of Princeton, Indiana, Steve Anson’s baseball career in Kansas began in 1972 when he enrolled at Kansas State University. Anson lettered for the Wildcats all four years in Manhattan and set career and single season marks that still stand today. A career .349 hitter in 184 games, Anson led the team in hits and batting average all four years in Manhattan. As of 2016, Anson also held the school record for career triples with 19. Anson was named a first-team All-Big 8 performer in 1974. Following his playing career, Anson was named head coach of Wayne State University in 1978 before being named the head coach at Washburn University in Topeka in 1980. Anson guided the Ichabods to five NAIA National Tournaments and was named the 1994 MIAA Conference Coach of the Year. In 24 years at Washburn, Anson compiled a career coaching record of 844-798-3. Anson’s players also achieved success under his tutelage and he coached three All-American selections, two Academic All-Americans, and 96 All-MIAA Conference selections. Anson was named to the K-State Baseball All-Century team in 2000 and was inducted to the Washburn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014. BILL BRIDGES – UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Bill Bridges, originally from Hobbs, New Mexico, is another in a long line of University of Kansas basketball players to make their mark on Kansas sports history. A three-time Big 8 Conference selection, Bridges compiled over 1,000 points and rebounds during his three-year KU career. In 1961, Bridges was named a first-team All-American selection. Following his collegiate career, Bridges was selected by the St. Louis Hawks in the 1961 NBA Draft. Bridges played thirteen NBA seasons with the St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Golden State Warriors, where he totaled more than 11,000 career points and rebounds. Bridges was a three-time NBA All-Star in 1967, 1968, and 1970. Bridges was inducted to the KU Athletics Hall of Fame and the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. BOB DAVIS – TOPEKA Iola born and Topeka raised, Bob Davis is a name that sports fans all across the state will recognize. A graduate of Topeka West High School in 1962 and Washburn University in 1967, Davis began his broadcasting career at Fort Hays State University in 1968 as the Voice of the Tigers. For the next forty eight years, fans of many teams across the state and region could count on Davis’s voice calling the action of their favorite teams. In 1984, Davis moved to Lawrence and the University of Kansas to be the Voice of the Jayhawks, a position he held until 2016. During that span, Davis called eight Jayhawk Final Four appearances, including two National Championships in 1988 and 2008, and six KU football bowl games. From 1997 to 2013, Davis also called baseball games for the Kansas City Royals. Davis was named the Kansas Sportscaster of the Year thirteen times and a two-time recipient of the Kansas State High School Activities Association’s Oscar Stauffer Sports Broadcasting Award. Davis has been honored in numerous athletic halls of fame across the state, including the Fort Hays State Athletics Tiger Hall of Fame in 1990, the Kansas Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2006, and the Topeka West High School Graduates Hall of Fame in 2011. TAMECKA DIXON – UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS A native of Linden, New Jersey, Tamecka Dixon left a legacy at the University of Kansas that is unrivaled. A two-time Big 8/Big 12 All-Conference selection in 1996 and 1997, Dixon was also named the conference Player of the Year both seasons and earned All-American honors in 1997. Dixon led the Jayhawks to four NCAA Tournament appearances, scoring over 1,600 points and totaling more than 330 assists for her KU career. Dixon was drafted in the first round of the 1997 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks and was named a three-time WNBA All-Star during her professional career with the Sparks, Houston Comets, and the Indiana Fever. Dixon also won two WNBA Championships with the Sparks. Dixon is an inductee of the KU Athletics Hall of Fame and her #33 jersey was retired by KU in 2003. BILL DOTSON – CONCORDIA Kansas has a long history of producing some of the finest distance runners in American history and Concordia native Bill Dotson is another in the long line of track stars from the Sunflower State. Dotson broke fellow Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Glenn Cunningham’s twenty eight year old high school mile record before graduating from Concordia High School in 1958. Dotson then enrolled at the University of Kansas where he became a two-time All-American and the first KU athlete to break the four minute mile mark in 1962. Dotson won five Big 8 Conference track titles, including three indoor titles and two outdoor titles, and won the Big 8 Conference title in cross country in 1961. Dotson set three three American records in the mile during his career. In 2008, Dotson was inducted to the KU Athletics Hall of Fame. SCOTT HUFFMAN – QUINTER Quinter native Scott Huffman literally rewrote the technique of the pole vault during his career. After winning the high school state championship in the pole vault at Quinter in 1983, Huffman walked on at the University of Kansas where he perfected what became known as the “Huffman Roll” pole vault technique. Huffman won the 1986 Big 8 Conference outdoor and the 1988 Big 8 Conference indoor championships and was named an indoor All-American in 1986 and 1988. In 1994, Huffman entered his names in the American record books as he used his patented technique to hurl himself over nineteen feet, seven inches, for an American record. Huffman was a three-time USA Track and Field National Champion following his career at KU and he competed in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, finishing thirteenth. Huffman was inducted to the KU Athletics Hall of Fame and was named to the Pole Vault Summit Hall of Fame Class of 2016. JERRY KILL – CHENEY A native of Cheney, Kansas, Jerry Kill’s coaching career spans parts of three decades and numerous conference and national honors. After graduating from Cheney High School in 1979, Kill attended Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas, where he played linebacker for the Moundbuilders. Kill began his coaching career as an assistant to Dennis Franchione at Pittsburg State University in 1985 and he served on the staff under fellow Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Chuck Broyles for the 1991 Pittsburg State National Championship team. Kill’s first head coaching position came in 1994 at Saginaw Valley State in Michigan before stints at Emporia State University from 1999 to 2000, Southern Illinois from 2001 to 2007, and Northern Illinois from 2008 to 2010. In 2010, Kill was named the head coach at the University of Minnesota. During his career, Kill won four conference championships while posting a career coaching record of 152-99. Kill was honored with National Coach of the Year awards three times and was named the 2014 Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year. In 2004, Kill was inducted to the Southwestern College Athletic Hall of Fame and he was inducted to the Southern Illinois University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014.