Seventy-five is a whole lot of years.
So was fifty.
In the year 2000 I was the director of athletics at Jamestown Community College. I replaced Greg Fish who ran the department for like a hundred years before me.
Big shoes to fill (figuratively, trust me).
With the help of a lot of college personnel (including assistant AD Kathy Stedman), Jim Riggs of the Post Journal, and some long-timers in the JCC admin building, we created the first ever Hall of Fame for Jayhawk Athletics. We did it on the 50th Anniuversary of the college, established in 1950. It’s one of the achievements at the college, as a Jayhawk, that I’m most proud of. The event we put together was comprehensive, a day that featured a barbeque, events for the fifty top athletes and their families, fans and guests, a picnic, a beer tent, and commemorative items. JCC maintenance set uip the event in the 100 Acre Lot just off main campus, they built a stage for the top 50 Jayhawks athletes of all time.
To help keep bias from the selection, the athletes were nominated by the public. A list was compiled and voted on by a committee. Jim Riggs from the Post Journal was critical to the process, helping with research, publicizing the nomination methodology, and compiling votes. It was a long and well-conceived series of decisions that led to the Hall of Fame, we did not take the responsibility lightly.
In the inaugural year, 2000, one by one I announced these highly accomplished JUCO athletes, reading off their achievements in a Let’s Get Ready to Rumble presentation. One by one those that attended the ceremony mounted the stage and took a seat. It was exciting, it was fun, it was my honor to acknowledge and celebrate them.
I’m sure we missed a few deserving ‘Hawks, and we mis-ranked others. But this movement was meant to be a start, leaving a future path to add athletes to the list. It was supposed to be the beginning of a tradition, a way to gather the athletes from the college and celebrate their achievements, the way most colleges do around the country.
The next year, we added Jim Riggs and George Bataitis to the Hall of Fame. We hosted a small ceremony, a fund-raising 5K footrace around campus, and a small gathering after. Another good day, another good celebration of Jayhawks. We showcased all 52 names on a board in the facility under the title, Best Jayhawks of all Time.
Then the concept of a Hall of Fame died. The momentum from the previous years vanished in indifference, by the college administration that was needed to support the effort, by the department of athletics that was discouraged with that lack of support. When I retired from the athletics department, and moved to full time Director of Facilities, the Hall of Fame was a memory.
It was a shame.
This year, with another quarter century gone, the JCC Athletics Department resurrected the idea of a Hall of Fame event, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of athletics at the college.
I was not invited to the event. Neither was Greg Fish, or Kathy Stedman or anyone from that original event (Mr. Riggs and Mr. Bataitis have both passed). My national championship golf team in 2000 was not recognized (25th anniversary). No Regional Champions were asked to attend. No coaches from the past, no teams that won championships and set records, no All-Americans, no academic All Americans.
How soon they forget, no? How soon the people who stand on the shoulders of giants believe they are giants themselves. It was a wasted opportunity, by a dismissive, slapdash operation.
It was shame.
Bill Burk's collective writing...and some other stuff. 