Capital Area Chapter/Pa Sports Hall of Fame 2018 Hall of Fame Nominees
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CAPITAL AREA CHAPTER/PA SPORTS HALL OF FAME 2018 HALL OF FAME NOMINEES LIVING NOMINEES ANDERSON, JIM – Football. Longtime NFL assistant coach who was a three-year varsity athlete at Harrisburg’s old John Harris High, where he played on three Central Penn Conference championship teams. He was a starting offensive guard on the Pioneers’ 1965 undefeated football team. Played collegiately at Taft Junior College before transferring to Cal Western University. Started coaching career in 1970 at Cal Western before joining the staffs at UNLV and Southern Methodist. Best known for his work in the NFL with Cincinnati, where he was the Bengals’ running backs coach for 29 seasons. His proteges included Pro Bowlers James Brooks, Harold Green, Corey Dillon, Lorenzo Neal and Rudi Johnson. His 29 seasons with the Bengals remain a franchise record for most seasons by a position coach with the team. BITTING, DAVE – Coaching, administration. Longtime high school boys’ basketball coach at Cumberland Valley and Central Dauphin who also spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Lebanon Valley College. Coached baseball at Central Dauphin for four seasons before shifting fulltime to administration, where he has spent the last 17 years as an athletic director, first, at Cumberland Valley and now at Lower Dauphin High School. He also has served as a chairman or representative for every sport either with District 3 or the PIAA. COLLIER, RON – Baseball. After a once-promising pitching career in the minor leagues for the New York Yankees ended with an arm injury, Collier began coaching as an assistant for Lower Dauphin High’s baseball program and ended up spending 45 years with the Falcons. In that time, Lower Dauphin won 707 games and 22 division or league championships. He was a three-sport athlete growing up in Alexandria, Va., before lettering in three sports at Mansfield University. While in college, he twice was selected in baseball’s amateur draft by the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Senators, but opted to finish school. He again was selected in 1969 by the Yankees and signed with them. DAVIS, RONALD – Coaching, football. Played football at Harrisburg’s John Harris High in the late 1960s before playing at Shippensburg University. He began his coaching career in 1976 for Mickey Minnich at Steel-High and remained in the Harrisburg area over the next 34 seasons either as a head coach or assistant coach. In addition to Steel-High, where he was an assistant from 1976-89, his coaching stops included Central Dauphin from 1990-96; Harrisburg High from 1997-2001; Cedar Cliff from 2004-07; and Hershey in 2009. He was named the Mid-Penn Conference Class AAAA coach of the year in 1996 for his work at Central Dauphin after turning the Rams from a 2-8 team into an 8-2 team that qualified for the district playoffs. DRAYER, LUKE – Football and wrestling. Earned seven letters at Hershey High during his scholastic career with three in football, three in wrestling and one in track before graduating in 1978. Nominated to play in the Big 33 Classic after his senior season. Played four seasons, starting in three of them, for Lafayette College’s football team. Teamed with Dr. David Joyner in 1992 to start Joyner Sports Medicine Institute. In 2002, he founded the Drayer Physical Therapy Institute, which now has 155 centers across 14 states. Inducted into Hershey High’s Hall of Fame in 2013. DIGGS, RICHARD “Ricky” – Football. Former star at Harrisburg’s John Harris High who in 1974 became the first 1,000-yard rusher in Shippensburg University history. While at Shippensburg, he was named to first team All-PSAC and tied the school’s single-season record for touchdowns with 15. He began his college career as a defensive end before switching to running back. He later was the head football coach for five seasons at Morgan State University, and also served as an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina, the Citadel and the Air Force Academy. ECKROTH, DEBBIE – Golf. One of the best amateur golfers to come out of the Harrisburg area. Graduate of Central Dauphin High School in 1988 before playing No. 1 at the University of South Carolina’s women’s golf team from 1988-93. Among her first-place finishes were the 1988 Pennsylvania State Girls’ Championship, and the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur championships in 1990 and 1991. She competed in four U.S. Women’s Opens in 1990, 1991, 2000 and 2001. She also competed in the European Women’s Pro Tour in 1995 and 1996, as well as the LPGA Tour in 2000. At the same time, she played in the Symetra Futures Tour from 1993-2007, a span that included wins in the 1994 Victoria Advocate Classic and the 1997 Red Cross Classic. She now is the golf pro at Manada Golf Course in Grantville. FOREMAN, DONALD – Hockey. Longtime linesman in the American Hockey League with a career that spanned four decades from 1959-83. Due to AHL policy, the Oberlin native exclusively worked home games for the Hershey Bears from 1960-70. He then averaged, including travel, 80 games per season from 1970 until he finally retired from the AHL in 1983. During his time in the AHL, he also was a referee in the North American Hockey League from 1971-76 and worked games in the NHL during the 1978-79 season. Hockey career started as a player in the Junior leagues with Winnipeg in 1956. Prior to becoming a linesman, he played in the AHL for Providence during the 1958-59 season. FREEDMAN, LARRY – Baseball and basketball. Starred in both sports at Susquehanna Township High School and Penn State. He was the first 1,000-point scorer at Susquehanna Township, where he averaged 20 points per game before becoming a two-sport letterman at Penn State from 1956-60. He pitched for the Penn State baseball team that qualified for the 1958 College World Series. After college, he played one season of semi-pro basketball for Williamsport in the Eastern Basketball League in 1962. FRISCO, ROD – Sports writer. Frisco spent 25 years of his award-winning sports writing career at The Patriot-News, where he was the newspaper’s No. 1 beat writer for high school football, wrestling and track. His expertise made him one of the best, if not the best, wrestling writers in Pennsylvania. He has been inducted into the District 3 Wrestling Hall of Fame, as well as the Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was one of the most prolific sportswriters at The Patriot-News, totaling more than 5,700 byline stories from his arrival there in 1985 until his retirement from the newspaper industry in 2010. He now is the communications director, webmaster and director of corporate sponsorships for District 3 of the PIAA. GONZALES, GEORGE – Coaching, lacrosse. Began his coaching career in 1974 in New York state before serving as the varsity head coach at Harrisburg Academy from 1975-2006. His teams won 47 of 54 matches from 1990-93, and twice finished second in the Mid-Penn championships in 1997 and 1998. He was instrumental in the formation of the Mid-Penn’s lacrosse league and directed Harrisburg Academy’s summer lacrosse camps from 1985-2006. One of the pioneers in coaching lacrosse in Pennsylvania, where more than 45 high schools now have varsity programs. HOUCK, WILLIAM “Bill” – Track and field. A 1954 graduate of the Carson Long Military Academy, where Houck also played football and basketball. Was undefeated in the javelin, shot put and discus. After graduation, he was a medal winner in AAU competition, topped off with a javelin throw of 248-7 at the age of 51 during master’s competition in 1987. MARTIN, LAUREL HERSHEY – Field hockey. She was an integral part of the pipeline of All-American field hockey players from Lower Dauphin High School, where she played for 2004 Chapter Hall of Fame inductee Linda Kreiser. After graduating from Lower Dauphin in 1987, Martin became a three-time, All-American at the University of North Carolina, where she played on the Tar Heels’ 1989 national title team. She also played for the U.S. National Team in the 1994 World Cup, and later played in the 1995 Pan-American Games and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She was inducted into the United States Field Hockey Association’s Hall of Fame in 2004. She now is in her 17th season as a college coach with the first 10 at Lebanon Valley College and the last seven at Stevenson College in suburban Baltimore. POLLIHAN, JIM – Soccer. The original coach of the Harrisburg Heat pro indoor soccer team from 1991-99. He was an outstanding player both in the indoor and outdoor game. He played with the prestigious United States National Team from 1976-79, while also playing professionally outdoors with Rochester from 1976-80 and indoors with New York, Houston and Baltimore from 1978-84. Holds the distinction of scoring the first goal in the history of the Major Indoor Soccer League in 1978. He became the head coach of the Harrisburg Heat in 1991, building that franchise into a perennial playoff contender. SHADLE, DAVID – Coaching, basketball. Spent more than 25 years coaching the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams both at Upper Dauphin Area’s high school and middle school. Started as the boys’ coach at the middle school in 1984 before moving up to the high school in 1991 as the girls’ varsity coach. Over the next decade, he won two Tri-Valley League championships and three coach of the year awards.