Wheeling has room in Hall of Fame for five more legends

It's a tough act to follow when you hit a home run in your first time at bat.

What do you do for an encore when you get another chance?

How about hitting another home run.

Wheeling High School unveiled its first Athletic Hall of Fame class last January and inducted school legends Pat Ritchie, E. E. "Bus" Ormsbee, Jack Bastable, Dana Miroballi and John Peterson.

There were rave reviews for this first class.

The Fab Five will not feel so lonely now. Five more impressive names will be added on Friday, Feb. 1, to the wall of fame just outside the school gymnasium.

Mark Newman, Kristin Stoudt-Hill, Jim Nagel, Keith Vernon and the late Bob Schulze will be honored at halftime of the varsity boys basketball game with Rolling Meadows.

Newman has a conflict and will be unable to attend.

The reception will be held in the cafeteria after the game.

• Mark Newman, a three-sports star in football, basketball and baseball at Wheeling in the school's first two years of operation, has had a distinguished baseball career. He currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations for the New York Yankees.

I'm sorry Mark won't be able to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony because I got to know him in the summer of 1965 and would enjoy recalling those days. He was one of the stars on Lloyd Meyer's Arlington Heights American Legion team that finished 42-6 and fifth in the nation, and I spent a lot of time with that group on the tournament ride.

The outfielder-pitcher hit .520 at the Illinois state tournament in Carmi.

"I learned my intensity from Lloyd," Newman once told me when he was coaching in college. "I try to have the same philosophy with my players, my coaching as Lloyd. He could be hell on wheels on the field, but in the winter he'd drive me around to the colleges. And he knows how to be a winner."

Newman also learned something about intensity and winning from the legendary "Itchy" Jones, his baseball coach at Southern Illinois University, and, of course, his boss George Steinbrenner of the Yankees.

Newman, who was a scholarship player at Southern Illinois, was a successful assistant baseball coach at SIU and head coach at Old Dominion University. He has been with the Yankees' organization since 1989.

• When you talk about the history of swimming in this area and state, the name Kristin Stoudt-Hill has to enter the conversation.

In fact, you could spend the entire conversation on this remarkable swimmer's accomplishments.

She was a five-time IHSA state champion and the only swimmer in state history to win the 100-yard butterfly and 100 freestyle in the same year. She did it twice.

Even after all these years, Kristin's 51.54 (100 free) and 55.62 (100 fly) still rank among the all-time best marks in IHSA history.

Kristin, who was Illinois' Swimmer of the Year in 1988 and national record-holder in the 100 butterfly, holds eight Wheeling records. She went on to become the most valuable swimmer at UCLA.

Sports Illustrated gave her "Faces in the Crowd" treatment in 1986.

• Wheeling has been synonymous with success in cross country and track and field, and Jim Nagel was the architect who helped build the dynasty in the 1980s.

Nagel's girls teams won four state cross country titles and also had a runner-up finish. His boys team finished third in the state in 1984.

He was named girls cross country coach of the year four times, and in 1986 Illinois Runners Magazine honored him as Distance Coach of the Year.

In track and field, Nagel's teams won multiple conference and divisional titles, both indoor and outdoor.

He is credited with starting the Wildcat Cross Country Invitational, MSL indoor meet and Wildcat Relays.

• Keith Vernon will be inducted Feb. 1 as a friend of Wheeling athletics, and no high school could have had a better friend.

A regular at Wheeling events, Vernon was the official clock operator at Wheeling football games from 1965 through 2001 and official scorer at Wheeling basketball from 1965 through 2002. He also was a volunteer girls track and field coach and timer at many events.

Vernon was inducted into the Illinois High School Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame as a "Friend of Basketball."

Keith was a friend to everyone at Wheeling.

• Bob Schulze, who died in May, was a pioneer at Wheeling. He was there when the school opened and spent 28 years as a teacher and coach, retiring in 1992. His three sons were in sports and graduated from Wheeling.

Although he contributed in many sports, Bob, an Arlington High School graduate, was known for his talented wrestling teams with conference, regional and sectional champions. He had 13 individual MSL champs and 14 state qualifiers.

Bob Schulze's legacy will always live on at Wheeling.

Mark your calendars for Friday, Feb. 1, and watch a Hall of Fame grow.

The Fab Five at Wheeling High School will officially become The Big Ten.