SCHENECTADY,
N.Y.–Bill Carmody ('75), Craig Jeffries ('76), Dan Stewart ('85), Courtney
Lynch ('89) and former head football coach Al Bagnoli will be inducted along
with posthumous member Joe Milano ('36) on Saturday, September 18, 2004, at the
third annual Union College Athletics Hall of Fame ceremonies.
The event will
begin with a welcome reception and induction luncheon in Alumni Gym starting at
3:00 p.m., and will conclude with medallion presentations during a halftime
ceremony at the Dutchmen's home opening football game versus Muhlenberg; game
time 7:00 p.m.
Union's
inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame class in 2002 included Sigmund “Sig” Makofski
('26), Ken Whalen ('49), Jim Tedisco ('72), Rich Romer ('88), and Robin
Romer-Chudy ('92). Last year's
ceremonies saw the inductions of George Daley (1892), Ralph Semerad ('35),
Samuel Hammerstrom ('40), Gregory Olson ('67), Robert Moffat, Jr. ('78), and
Julie Benker-O'Brien ('93).
Tickets for the
Hall of Fame Induction ceremony, which will cost $60.00 per person, are still
available by calling the Union College Department of Athletics at 518-388-6284.
BILL CARMODY
Bill Carmody, Class of 1975, led the Dutchmen to a
three-year record of 59-11, including back-to-back 20-4 seasons during his
junior and senior campaigns, while starting at point guard. In 1972-73, Carmody's first year as a
starter, he helped the Dutchmen win the first-ever Eastern College Upstate New
York basketball championship. While his
junior team finished second in the event, he helped lead his 1974-75 squad to
the program's only other ECAC tournament title.
Carmody, who graduated with all of the Dutchmen's assist
records (single game-13, single season-146 and career-326), was captain during
his senior season and earned first-team All-ECAC recognition. He capped his outstanding career by being
awarded the William B. Jaffe Medal, which is presented to the senior
male athlete voted by the athletic department to be the outstanding athlete of
the year, while taking into account the character and motivation of the
individual in addition to athletic excellence.
A native of Spring Lake, N.J., Carmody served as the head
coach of Fulton-Montgomery Community College and led the team to a 17-10 record
and conference title in his only season there. He returned to Union the
following year as an assistant coach before joining the Princeton staff as an
assistant coach in 1982. While he was an assistant under the legendary Pete
Carril, the Tigers made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament, which included
their memorable win over defending national champion UCLA in 1996.
Carmody became head coach at Princeton prior to the 1996-97
season and guided the Tigers to an overall record of 92-25 (.786) and an Ivy
League mark of 50-6 (.893) during his four-year tenure; leading them to the
postseason each year. Included in his
record at Princeton is an 81-48 victory over Union in 1999.
Carmody led the Tigers to a 24-4 record in his first season,
the third-best first year mark for a Division I head coach in 30 years. He followed that up with an even better
sophomore campaign when he directed Princeton to a 27-2 record, a Top 10 national
ranking and the second round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament.
Princeton had winning streaks of 20 games and 19 games under
Carmody, the two longest streaks in school history, and his teams set 31 school
records during his tenure. Carmody was named the United States Basketball
Writers' Association District II Coach of the Year and the New Jersey Coach of
the Year each of his first two years.
Carmody is one of four men to coach a team to a perfect Ivy League
record; he is also the only coach to do so in his first year.
Most recently, Carmody was voted by a panel of media as the
Big Ten 2003-04 Coach of the Year — the first time a Northwestern mentor has
been honored in the 31-year history of the award.
Playing with just one senior on the roster, and picked to
finish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings, the Wildcats finished
conference play at 8-8, the best mark by an NU team since the 1967-68 team went
8-6. Those eight wins came against seven different Big Ten teams, the second
time the program has pulled off the feat in Carmody's four years. As a result,
the 'Cats tied for fifth place in the conference standings, their highest
finish since the 1968-69 team also tied for fifth. Overall, the Wildcats
compiled a 14-15 record, which left them just shy of postseason eligibility.
As a team, the 2003-04 Wildcats led the Big Ten in steals
per conference game (7.81) and turnover margin in conference games (+5.12), and
also led the conference in three-pointers made per game overall (7.07). The
team set a school record with 238 steals and drained 205 treys, which is second
on the school's all-time list. The Wildcats' 1.32 assist-to-turnover ratio is
also a school best in the time that both statistics have been kept.
Sports Illustrated has called him the best offensive
coach in college basketball, and during the 2001-02 season SI's college
basketball writer voted him one of the 15 best coaches in the college game.
That list included only one other Big Ten coach-Michigan State's Tom Izzo.
CRAIG JEFFRIES
Craig Jeffries, Class of 1976, is the soccer program's
all-time leading scorer in both points (105) and goals (45). He holds a 15-point advantage over
second-place David Tewksbury (Class of 1988) in overall points and a 10-point
margin over Tewksbury in goals scored.
His standard of 17 goals in a season, accomplished during his senior
campaign of 1975, stood until 2001, and his record of 38 points in a campaign
held up until it was tied, also in 2001.
A regional “Most Valuable Player” selection while in high
school, Jeffries passed up numerous college athletic scholarship offers to
merit academic acceptance at Union and joined the soccer team as a “walk-on” (a
player who was not recruited). With
Jeffries in the lineup, the Dutchmen produced a four-year record of 31-13-2,
including a standard of 22-4-0 during his junior and senior campaign. The '74 Garnet finished with a 10-2-0 record
and finished second in the Eastern College Athletic Association Upstate New
York championship tournament.
Co-captain during both his junior and senior seasons, Jeffries led the
Dutchmen to a 12-2-0 record and the ECAC championship. The dozen wins established a single-season
record, a mark that stood until the 1986 Dutchmen won 13 games.
Named to the All-New York State team in his final three
seasons, Jeffries became the first Dutchman ever to earn All-American status
following a senior campaign that saw him score in all but one game (he was one
of just 55 players in the country to be named as an All-American as there was
no distinction between Divisions I, II, and III). His final career goal came in
the Dutchmen's 8-0 romp over Plattsburgh State in the ECAC championship, which
was played on Daley Field. Schenectady
Gazette sportswriter Rich Stellrecht, who covered Union throughout Jeffries
career, described the goal as follows:
“Craig Jeffries bowed out (of his career)
with the most picturesque Dutchmen goal of the year. Jumping high to meet Jim Manning's short free kick, talented
Jeffries coiled himself in mid-air and flicked the ball, then five feet off the
ground, past (Plattsburgh goaltender) Ellman.”
The New York Cosmos, who a year earlier had landed Pele,
then considered the world's greatest soccer player, selected Jeffries in the
North American Soccer League draft in the summer of 1976. The Arlington, Virginia, native, who
graduated with a double major of biology and psychology, was in England, doing
graduate work in biology, at the time of his selection.
DAN STEWART
Dan Stewart, Class
of 1985, was a four-year starter at quarterback, graduating with six of the
Dutchmen's all-time passing records.
The career leader in wins with a record of 31-9-1 (which currently ranks
third), Stewart led Union to its first non-losing season in over a decade when
his freshman team of 1981 compiled a record of 4-4-1. Among those wins was a 10-7 victory over Albany State, a
preseason NCAA tournament participant selection, which is generally regarded as
“THE” game that turned Union's program around.
Since that season, the Dutchmen head into 2004 with a streak of 23 consecutive
non-losing seasons and an overall record of 181-53-1, a winning percentage of
.773.
As a junior, Stewart led the 1983 Dutchmen to their
first-ever NCAA invitation and to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Division III
National Championship game. Despite
Union's 21-17 loss to Augustana in the final three minutes of the contest,
Stewart was recognized by the media as the Dutchmen's “Outstanding Player of
the Game.”
Stewart completed his outstanding career by leading the 1984
Garnet to the semi-final round of the NCAA tournament where the Dutchmen lost
to homestanding Augustana.
Stewart was voted as the Dutchmen's “Most Valuable Player”
by his teammates following both his junior and senior seasons. Captain as a junior and senior, Stewart was
awarded the William B. Jaffe Medal, which is presented to
the senior male athlete voted by the athletic department to be the outstanding
athlete of the year, while taking into account the character and motivation of
the individual in addition to athletic excellence, and the William A. Pike
Memorial Trophy, which is presented to a junior male athlete for attitude,
ability, participation, and achievement in intercollegiate sports.
Named as the Albany Times Union's “Player
of the Year” in 1983, Stewart was voted as an All-American by the Associated
Press following both his junior and season campaign. Sports Illustrated recognized him in their “Faces in a
Crowd” column after he threw touchdown passes in 30 consecutive games, breaking Steve Young's (of Brigham Young and the San Francisco 49ers) all-division NCAA record in that category.
At the time of his graduation, Stewart held
Union records in career attempts (835), career completions (307), yards in a
career (5,547), and touchdown passes in a career (55). He currently ranks third, third, third, and
second all-time in those categories respectively. Stewart's 1,846 yards in 1983, which is sixth all-time, ranked
second at the time of his graduation.
COURTNEY LYNCH
Courtney Lynch, Class of 1989, was a four-year starter for
both the field hockey and lacrosse teams.
Selected to the New York State All-Tournament team in field hockey
following her freshman and senior seasons, Lynch became the first woman at
Union to be voted as an All-American when she was selected to the Mid-Atlantic
First-Team. An All-State First-Team
selection, Lynch was voted to the National All-American second-team. She led the 1988 field hockey team to a Union
record, 17-1 season, and to the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Mid-Atlantic
Region championship. Lynch, who helped
the Dutchwomen qualify for the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic
Association Tournament during each of her four seasons in a Garnet uniform, led
Union in scoring in 1988 with 16 points on 10 goals and six assists. She finished her outstanding career with 22
goals, 10 assists, and 54 points, which left her second on Union's all-time
scoring list at the time of her graduation (she currently ranks fifth in all-time
scoring and is tied for fourth in goal-scoring).
Lynch, who graduated with a double major of English and
political science, finished as the college's all-time leading scorer in women's
lacrosse with 167 points on 139 goals and 28 assists. Currently fifth on the all-time list, Lynch's goal output left
her second to Holly Howard's total of 147 in what was then the 14-year history
of the sport (she is currently fifth).
She led the Dutchwomen in both goal and overall scoring during each of
her final three seasons after finishing second as a freshman. As a junior, the Pelham, New York, native
scored 43 goals, one shy of what was then the single-season record of 44, set
by Howard.
Voted the “Most Valuable Player” in both sports, Lynch was
named the Collegiate Female Athlete of the Year by the Albany Chamber of
Commerce in February of 1989, the first Union student-athlete ever to be so
honored. She was also awarded the
Robert B. Ridings Prize as Union's top senior female student-athlete for
attitude, ability, participation, and achievement in intercollegiate athletics.
AL BAGNOLI
Hired in 1977 as the football team's defensive coordinator,
Bagnoli took over the Dutchmen's head coaching duties prior to the 1982 season
and went on to guide the Garnet to a 10-year record of 86-19-0. During his tenure
Union advanced to the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Division III national
championship game, twice (1983 and 1989), was invited to the NCAA national
championship tournament six times (1983, '84, '85, '86, '89, and '91), won the
Eastern College Athletic Association North Championship in 1990 (the program's
first ECAC title), captured two Lambert Bowls as the best Division III team in
the northern part of the country (1984 and 1989), and helped earn the Dutchmen
the ECAC's “Team of the Year” award in 1983, and '89). He guided the Garnet to four perfect
regular-seasons (1985, '86, '89, and '91), and set a program record for wins in
a season (13 in 1989).
Bagnoli's rookie season was foretelling of things to come
as he coached the Dutchmen to their first winning campaign in 12 years while
tying the program record for wins in a season, which had been a standard since
it was set in 1914 (8-0-0). He was named the New England Football
Newsletter's “Coach of the Year,” the first of several coaching
awards. Eastman Kodak named Bagnoli the
Region I “Coach of the Year” following the 1983 season and honored him with the
same award following both the 1989 and 1991 campaigns.
Team records that were established under Bagnoli's tenure
include consecutive wins (18 from third game of 1990 to 10th game of
1991), consecutive home wins (20 from last game of 1981 to last game of 1985),
points scored in a season (493 in 1991), caused turnovers in a season (53 in
1989), interceptions in a season (32 in 1984), fumble recoveries (25 in 1989),
quarterback sacks in a game (13 in 1982), quarterbacks sacks in a season (61 in
1983), consecutive quarters without allowing a rushing touchdown (61 from
October 23 1982 until September 28, 1984-an NCAA record), least number of
quarterback sacks allowed by Union in a season (7 in 1991). Bagnoli's 1984 Dutchmen led the country in
scoring defense (allowing 4.5 points a game) and his 1991 squad led the nation
in scoring offense (averaging 46.1 points in 1991).
Bagnoli, who, when he left Union on January 2, 1992 to
take the head coaching position at the University of Pennsylvania, had taken
the No. 1 position on the program's 105-year old coaching victory list. Bagnoli recruited and coached most of
Union's modern era All-Americans, Academic All-Americans, and program record
holders including Dan Stewart, Rich Romer (a two-year All-American and Academic
All-American who became the only Union player ever to be drafted by the NFL),
Brett Russ, Rich Kellaher, Anthony Valente, Alex Rita, Tim Howell and Greg
Hallas, to name a few.
Bagnoli,
who enters his 13th season at the University of Pennsylvania in
2004, is second on the Quakers' 127-year old all-time coaching list with 86
wins. His 63 Ivy League victories rank
him first among active Ancient Eight head coaches and fourth all-time in League
history. In addition, Bagnoli's career
record of 172-51 (.771) ranks him second among all active I-AA head
coaches. Last season was Bagnoli's second 10-win campaign at Penn, fourth
nine-win and eighth seven-win year. The 2003 campaign also marked the
eighth first or second-place Ivy League finish for one of his Red and Blue
teams. He possesses a winning record
against all seven Ivy League teams, and 13 of the 17 teams his Quakers have
faced during his tenure. Another number that shouts for attention is 12,
where Penn finished in the 2003 I-AA polls.
Bagnoli
is just the 45th Division I head coach to record 170 victories and just the
12th Ivy League head coach to record 80 wins at an Ancient Eight school.
Ten of the previous 11 Ivy head coaches to win 80 games have been elected to
the College Football Hall of Fame.
JOSEPH MILANO
Joe Milano, Class of 1936, had a love affair with Union
College that lasted until his death on August 23, 2003.
A member of the basketball, football and outdoor track
teams, Milano turned down an opportunity to letter in four different sports
when he declined an invitation to join the lacrosse team in order to complete
his senior outdoor track seasons. “That
is one of my fondest memories and one of my biggest regrets,” Milano told
sports information director George Cuttita two weeks before his passing.
While records and statistics are usually the standard for
which most people are enshrined, Milano's outstanding athletic accomplishments
pale when compared to his total contributions to Union, both as an
undergraduate and as an alumnus.
Captain of the varsity basketball, football and track teams,
Milano was also captain of the freshman gridiron squad. He was a member of Delta Upsilon,
participated in student government, was secretary of the student council his
senior year, was on the Sophomore Discipline Committee and was treasurer of the
Terrace Council as a sophomore.
An obviously active and involved student, Milano, who was a
life-long Schenectady resident, became even more involved with his alma mater
as an alumnus. A long-time member of
the Alumni Council, Milano served both as vice president and then president. He was a Class President, a member of
“Friends of Union Athletics,” an Associate Agent and a member of the Ramee
Circle. A member of the Terrace
Council, he was a member of the council's membership committee, a ReUnion Gift
Committee member and a phonathon participant.
He and his wife, Betty, donated funds for what is known as “Milano
Lounge” in Hale House. The pair frequently attended Schenectady
Alumni Club events and was often seen at various campus events including many
men and women's athletic contests right up until the time of his death.
Milano graduated in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science degree
in social science and earned his masters from the State University of New York
at Albany in 1940 and his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1954. He began his career as a teacher and coach before returning for
his advanced degrees and accepting a position at General Electric, in 1954, and
at IBM, where he was hired as manager of research education in 1958. He retired from IBM in 1978 before going
into real estate prior to his retirement from professional life.
A veteran of World War II, Milano served in the Navy from
1943 through 1946. He was a member of
several professional organizations and was involved in numerous community
service activities, including serving as the Director of the Schenectady Boys
Club and co-Chairman of the 1962 North Westchester United Fund. He was an avid golfer and curler and had a
collection of curling pins from around the world.
Milano was presented with Union's “Distinguished Service
Award” for his “exceptional commitment and loyalty to his alma mater, and for
his significant and diverse contributions to the College over his lifetime” in
2003.