Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Nitschke, 1995 Butkus Award winner Kevin Hardy and long-time NBA star Derek Harper headline 15-person Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame Class for 2020. The class, which was announced just minutes ago, includes athletes and coaches from nine different sports and covers athletes from 1901 through 2013.
It’s only the fourth such class in Illini athletics history and when you look at the full class, aggregated with the previous three, you have plenty of snubs to point out. (And we’ll do that in another post shortly). What’s most glaring here? Still not a single quarterback in the hall yet.
It’s only the single most individual position in all of team sports. Plus the Illini had a dominant run of signal callers in the 1980s. Not to mention the early 2000s, when they had a guy taking snaps who was arguably the best in U of I history.
Oh, well, maybe next year? I mean you have to spread everybody out to some extent- Can’t have everyone in the same class/first couple classes, right?
2020 Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame Class in Full
Michelle Bartsch-Hackey, Volleyball
Tal Brody, Basketball
Vanessa DiBernardo, Soccer
Moe Gardner, Football
Kevin Hardy, Football
Derek Harper, Basketball
Leo Johnson, Track & Field Coach
Gia Lewis-Smallwood, Track and Field
Ray Nitschke, Football
Bob Richards, Track & Field
Art Schankin, Fencing
Jenna Smith, Basketball
Jake Stahl, Baseball/Football
Adam Tirapelle, Wrestling
Don Tonry, Gymnastics
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