NEWS RELEASE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF STATE HIGH SCHOOL ASSOCIATIONS PO Box 690, Indianapolis, IN 46206 317-972-6900, FAX 317.822.5700/www.nfhs.org Sean Elliott, Ty Detmer Headline 2005 Hall of Fame Class FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bruce Howard INDIANAPOLIS, IN (March 24, 2005) — Sean Elliott, a high school and college basketball star in Arizona who played 11 years with the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and Ty Detmer, a record-setting quarterback at Southwest High School in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1980s who recently completed his 13th season in the National Football League (NFL), head a list of 13 individuals selected for induction into the 2005 class of the National High School Hall of Fame July 2 in San Antonio. Other former high school athletes selected for the 2005 class are Chad Hennings, a standout football player and wrestler at Benton Community High School in Van Horne, Iowa, in the early 1980s who later played on three Super Bowl teams with the Dallas Cowboys; LaTaunya Pollard, 1979 Miss Basketball in Indiana after an outstanding four-year career at Roosevelt High School in East Chicago, Indiana; and Patty Sheehan, a three-time state golf champion at Wooster High School in Reno, Nevada, in the early 1970s who later won 35 events on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. Sheehan is the first individual from Nevada to selected for the Hall of Fame. These former outstanding high school athletes, along with three coaches, one contest official, two administrators and two individuals in the fine arts field, will be inducted into the 23rd class of the National High School Hall of Fame July 2 at the Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio, site of the National Federation of State High School Associations’ (NFHS) 86th annual Summer Meeting. The National High School Hall of Fame was started in 1982 by the NFHS to honor high school athletes, coaches, contest officials, administrators, fine arts coaches/directors and others for their extraordinary achievements and accomplishments in high school athletics. This year’s class increases the number in the Hall of Fame to 314. Jerry Popp, who won 15 North Dakota state boys cross country championships and 23 state girls cross country championships in 29 years at Bowman (North Dakota) High School, is one of three coaches selected for induction this year. Other coaches chosen for the 2005 class include Bill Gentry, who won 305 games and three state championships in 38 years as football coach at Highland High School and Eldorado High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bob Wood, who won 27 state championships in 37 years as tennis coach at University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan. Jerry Hall, who officiated the sports of football and basketball for almost 40 years in Arkansas, is the lone official selected for the 2005 class. Hall, who also served 25 years as associate director of the Arkansas Activities Association, is the 47th contest official to be inducted in the Hall of Fame. Two former state high school association executive directors were chosen for this year’s class, including Sandy Scott, the first female to head a state association on a full-time basis. Scott served the New York State Public High School Athletic Association for 26 years, including the last 11 (1990-2000) as executive director. Also selected in the Administrator category was Earl Gillespie, a member of the Virginia High School League staff for 34 years who served as executive director from 1986 until his retirement in 1994. Fine arts inductees for 2005 include Donus Roberts, director of the speech activities program at Watertown (South Dakota) High School for 39 years (1961-99), and Betty Whitlock, who will be retiring in June after 30 years as speech/debate/drama coach at Clinton (Mississippi) High School. Roberts and Whitlock are the third and fourth individuals, respectively, in the fine arts field to be inducted in the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was expanded to include fine arts in 2003. The 13 individuals were chosen for the National High School Hall of Fame after a two-level selection process involving a screening committee composed of active high school administrators, coaches and officials, and a final selection committee composed of coaches, former athletes, state association officials, media representatives and educational leaders. Nomination were made through member state high school athletic/activity associations. Following are biographical sketches on the 13 inductees in the 2005 class of the National High School Hall of Fame: ATHLETES Ty Detmer – Texas Ty Detmer lettered in five sports (football, basketball, baseball, golf and track) at Southwest High School in San Antonio, Texas, from 1983 to 1986, but his football performances gained him state and national headlines. Playing quarterback for his father, Sonny, Detmer passed for 8,005 yards, which included a one-season best of 3,551 yards as a junior. Detmer completed 506 of 910 passes, including 71 touchdowns in his high school career, and registered 557 yards passing in one game. He earned All-America and Texas Player of the Year honors in football as a senior, and he was an all-state selection in baseball. Detmer’s collegiate football career was even more phenomenal. As a quarterback at Brigham Young University, Detmer won the Heisman Trophy in 1990 as a junior and was third in the voting in 1991. He set 59 NCAA records, including most touchdown passes (121), most yards passing (15,031), most completions (958), most attempts (1,530) and most yards total offense (14,653). In a game against San Diego State as a senior, Detmer passed for 599 yards and six touchdowns. Detmer was a two-time winner of the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s top quarterback, and he was a two-time All-America selection as well. In 1990, he received the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top college football player. At the professional level, Detmer has played for six teams during his 13-year NFL career. Currently a member of the Atlanta Falcons, Detmer’s best season was with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1996 when he completed 238 of 401 passes for 2,911 yards and 15 touchdowns. For his career, Detmer has passed for 6,351 yards and 34 touchdowns. In addition to Philadelphia and Atlanta, Detmer has played for Green Bay, San Francisco, Cleveland and Detroit. Sean Elliott – Arizona Long before he was helping the San Antonio Spurs win the 1999 NBA championship, Sean Elliott was one of the brightest basketball stars in Arizona schoolboy history. As a senior at Cholla High School in Tucson in the 1984-85 season, Elliott scored 844 points and averaged 31.3 points per game to help his team to a 24-3 record and a semifinal berth in the state tournament. Both marks were single-season records at that time in Arizona’s Class 5A (large class). Elliott was a two-time selection to the Arizona Super All-State team and was selected Arizona’s high school player of the year in 1985. He was selected to Arizona’s 20th Century Super Seven team and made four All-America teams (McDonald’s, Converse, adidas and Basketball Times). The gymnasium at Cholla High School is named after Elliott. Elliott then played four years for Lute Olson at the University of Arizona (1986-89) and helped the Wildcats to four consecutive NCAA playoff berths, including one Final Four in 1988. He is the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,555 points, good for a 19.2 points-per-game average. He left Arizona as the Pacific-10 Conference’s all-time leading scorer, though that mark has since been eclipsed. Elliott was a two-time, first-team All-America selection by the Associated Press, and he was chosen National Player of the Year for the 1988-89 season. Success continued for Elliott during his 12-year professional career. He spent 11 of his 12 NBA seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, scoring almost 10,000 points and averaging 14.4 points per game. He is the team’s all-time leader in three-point field goals made and attempted, and fourth in points. He appeared in 85 playoff games, second most to David Robinson. The nation took notice of Elliott in 1999. Two months after helping the Spurs to the NBA title, Elliott underwent a successful kidney transplant in San Antonio, receiving a new kidney from his brother, Noel. Amazingly, Elliott was back on the court in March 2000 and played in 19 games that season and 52 games in 2000-01 before announcing his retirement. He was the first player in league history to return to action following a major organ transplant. Since his retirement, Elliott has been an NBA broadcaster for ESPN and ABC, and this year has been the Spurs’ television analyst. On March 6 of this year, Elliott became the fifth Spurs’ player to have his number (No. 32) retired, following David Robinson, James Silas, Johnny Moore and George Gervin. Chad Hennings – Iowa Chad Hennings has been an outstanding athlete at every level of sport as well as an exemplary citizen through his service in the Armed Forces, and his success began as a two-sport star at Benton Community High School in Van Horne, Iowa. In football, Hennings was a three-year starter at defensive tackle, earning all-conference honors twice and all-state honors as a senior. He was captain of his team as a senior and played in the All-Star Shrine game in 1984.