|
2001 Hall of Fame Inductees |
Eleven sports figures entered the new
Rice Lake Sports Hall of Fame at the first induction banquet on
Sunday night at Lehman's Supper Club. Seven of the charter members
were present to accept their hall of fame plaques, while three
sports legends-Francis "Pug" Lund, Harold "Ole" Olsen and Clayton
Perry- were inducted posthumously. John "Blackie" O'Brien was unable
to attend.
|
Todd Geisness:
Todd graduated as Valedictorian from RLHS in 1982 and as a three-sport
letter winner in hockey, football and baseball. He led the Warriors to a
20 and 2 record in 1979-80 and their only appearance in the State Hockey
Tournament, finishing runner-up to Madison Memorial. During his high
school career, Todd scored a total of 215 points, consisting of 111
goals and 104 assists; a record that still stands today. He was named
First Team All State, All Northwest and All Conference. At Eau Claire,
Todd led the Bluegolds to the 1984 N.A.I.A. National Hockey Championship
as a sophomore. He was a N.A.I.A. All American in 1984, all N.A.I.A.
District 14 in 1984 and All WSUC in 1983 and 1984. As a junior and
senior he skated for the Wisconsin Badgers, receiving the All Hustle
award as a senior, scoring 9 goals and 6 assists. In football, Todd
played halfback for the Warriors, gaining over 1000 yards as a junior
and 837 yards in his senior year. He was named First Team All Northwest
in 1981. In baseball, Geisness pitched the Warriors to a 2 to 1 win over
Eau Claire Memorial to earn a trip to the State Tournament in 1982.
|
William Ferris:
Will Ferris holds the all-time record at Rice Lake High School for
football wins as his teams compiled an 84 and 20 record in his 10
seasons at Rice Lake. His teams won 7 Heart O’ The North conference
champions, four of them in succession from 1979 to 1982, one State
Championship in 1979 and two state runner-up teams in 1980 and 1982. He
graduated from Carthage College where he lettered four years in
football. Ferris spent two years as an assistant at South Beloit and
five years as head coach at Stillman Valley, Illinois where his teams
won three championships. In 1986, Ferris left Rice Lake to coach
Hayward, where he won the Division III State Championship in 1987 with a
12 and 1 record.
|
Pete Hugdahl:
Pete is the only prep player from Rice Lake to be selected to the
Wisconsin All-State Basketball First Team by the Associated Press, the
United Press
International and coaches polls. Those awards came in 1961
as Pete, a 6’ 1” guard, led the Rice Lake Warriors to a number 4 ranking
in Wisconsin and a school record 24 game winning streak before being
defeated by the Milwaukee Lincoln Comets 77 to 75 for the 1961 Wisconsin
State High School Basketball Championship in Madison. Pete was also an
excellent shortstop in baseball (4 year letterman) leading the Warriors
to the school’s first trip to the State Tournaments in the spring of
1961. In May of 1961, Pete accepted an appointment to the U.S. Air Force
Academy at Colorado Springs. While at the academy he was a two-year
starter for the basketball team. Following a career in the Air Force,
working with the United States Air Force Intelligence Agency, achieving the rank of Colonel,
Pete is retired and working in the security field as a second career and
living in San Antonio, Texas.
|
Dick Kaner:
Nominated as “A Friend of Sports”, Dick retired on December 28, 2000
from radio station WJMC after 43 years of broadcasting; Kaner spent much
of his career covering area sports. He only missed one or two broadcasts
of basketball games in 43 years. He was the “Voice of the Rice Lake
Warriors” as he gave the play by play of over 1000 Warrior basketball
games since the early 60’s. In addition, he did the play-by-play of over
250 football games. It is estimated that Dick has done over 1500 games
in his career. During his final broadcast of a Warrior basketball game
in February 2000, he received recognition for his sports contributions
at halftime from the Warrior Booster Club.
|
Francis "Pug" Lund:
Pug Lund graduated from Rice Lake High School in 1931 where he starred
in football, basketball and track. Number 22 went on to become number 45
at the
University of Minnesota and became know as “Pug” by his
teammates. Lund was named an All-American in both his junior and senior
years. He was captain and the teams MVP of the undefeated 1934 National
Champions. Lund starred in the East-West Shine game on January 1, 1935.
He was named to the Helms Football Foundation Hall of Fame at Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 1991 be became a charter
member of the University of Minnesota’s Sports Hall of Fame and was also
inducted into the Minneapolis Star Tribune Sports Hall of Fame that
year. On October 19, 1979, the Rice Lake High School athletic field was
officially dedicated in his honor, Francis “Pug” Lund Field. He died in
1994 at age 81.
|
John "Blackie" O'Brien:
Blackie graduated from RLHS in 1935 as a three-sport star in football,
basketball and track. O’Brien’s lifetime career in education and sports
was launched
at UW-Madison where he graduated in 1939. He is one of only
2 athletes from Rice Lake to have been a 3-year major letter winner in
football for the Badgers. He played both ways and was called the “Watch
Charm Guard of the Big Ten”. In addition to playing football for the
Badgers, Blackie was also on the university boxing team. After his
college career, he taught and was line coach at Chippewa Falls. In 1948
he returned to Wisconsin to teach and coach at Ladysmith for 13 years.
In 1961 he went to the Barron County Teachers College in Rice Lake and
then on to Stout State University in Rice Lake. While at the campus, he
coached basketball for 8 years in addition to coaching baseball and
golf. He served the campus as Athletic Director from 1961 to 1980 when
he retired as a professor.
|
Harold "Ole" Olsen:
The Rice Lake High School gymnasium was dedicated in his honor on
December 11, 1992. He was one of 15 charter members in the Naismith
Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959, being inducted posthumously, 6 years
after his death. He was voted All Big Ten twice as a player and earned
the Collegiate Coach of the Year honor in 1945. Olsen was a basketball
and football standout at RLHS before attending college at UW-Madison.
His coaching career began at Ripon College where his teams won 3
consecutive titles between 1919-21. He coached at Ohio State, winning 5
Big Ten titles. His teams went to the Final Four NCAA Tournament in both
1944 and 1946. In 1946, Olsen coached the professional basketball
“Chicago Stags” for 3 years. He then returned to the Big Ten in 1949
rebuilding Northwestern University until his death in 1953.
|
Clayton Perry:
Clayton Perry is the only Rice Lake-born player to ever appear in a
major league baseball game. Perry played in five games late in the 1908
season for the Detroit Tigers American League Champions that season and
shared the dugout with the legendary Ty Cobb. Perry remained with the
Tigers through the 1908 World Series. He was a star baseball player for
Rice Lake, graduating in 1898. He then went on to play baseball and
football at UW-Madison and is the first person from Rice Lake to earn an
athletic “letter” in both sports there. He was a central figure in Rice
Lake amateur baseball for 30 years. Besides promoting baseball, he
served as a scout for several big league teams. Perry died on January
13, 1954.
|
Bob Sandberg:
Bob starred as a quarterback, halfback and defensive back for RLHS on
the Conference Champ teams of 1938 and 1939. After
graduation in 1940 he
went to the University of Minnesota where he played under legendary
Coach Bernie Bierman. Rice Lake’s “Pug” Lund scored the first Gopher
touchdown of the Bierman era in 1932 and Bob Sandberg scored the last in
his senior year as captain in 1946. Sandberg was recognized by the Big
10 Conference for academic and athletic excellence. His senior year he
played in the East-West Shrine game. Drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers
and Chicago Rockets, he opted instead to play Canadian pro-ball for the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers for several seasons. He is a member of the Blue
Bombers Hall of Fame and the winner of the Jeff Nicklin trophy as the
MVP of the Canadian Football League in 1947. Bob is a semi-retired
architect, residing in Mountain Iron, MN.
|
Jack Thomas:
Jack graduated from RLHS in 1939. He was assistant baseball coach,
worked track meets and was the P.A. announcer at football and basketball
games for over 20 years. He was the head boy’s golf coach from 1956 to
1986. His teams won 196 dual matches against 64 losses. Jack coached the
Warriors to 6 Conference Championships and 11 State Tournament
appearances. On June 1, 1990, Jack was one of the first 8 coaches in
Wisconsin to be inducted into the Wisconsin Boys High School Golf
Coaches Hall of Fame.
|
Bob Tone:
Inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame
on September 16, 2000, Bob distinguished
himself as a successful head
basketball coach at RLHS for 12 years, from 1957 to 1969. His overall
record was 187 wins and 77 losses. His teams conquered 7 regional and 2
sectional tournaments. They were conference champs five times and
qualified for state twice, finishing with 4th place in 1960 and 2nd
place in 1961, placing second to the Milwaukee Lincoln Comets (77-75
OT), a game referred to recently in the Milwaukee Journal as “perhaps
the greatest state championship game”. Bob Tone taught drivers education
for 32 years, retiring in 1989. He was the first athletic director at
RLHS and he started the Warriorettes in 1963. He was a basketball
official for 8 years, volleyball for 14 years, softball for 12 years and
baseball for 4 years.
|
|
|