18 memorable IU athletes to be added to the Hall of Fame

The 30th IU Athletics Hall of Fame induction dinner will be Friday night at the Henke Hall of Champions.
Normally, the inductees consist of one member of administration, three contemporary members and two pioneer members.
However, the classes were expanded this year to one administrative member, five contemporary members and 12 pioneer members.

Why expand the Class this Year?
“There are a lot of athletes who were here in the teens, the 20s, the 30s and even into the 40s who were very good athletes in their day, but because there’s been such a separation of time, nobody saw any of these athletes play,” said Kit Klingelhoffer, assistant athletic director for game management . “What we tried to do in the Hall of Fame this year was an attempt to recognize those athletes who did have superior playing careers here in that era so they could be recognized for their contributions.”
“Because the IU Athletics Hall of Fame didn’t start until the early 1980s, because IU has such a great tradition of athletic success, there’s a whole bunch of people that don’t get in because there’s a backlog,” IU Athletics Director Fred Glass said. “What we decided to do in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the hall of fame, that we would add a number of pioneer people that were highly deserving but in the normal course of events, we would never catch up because we were putting in just two pioneers a year.”

What sets this class apart?
“If you look at the entire body of work for everybody going in with this class, it goes across the board with a lot of different sports,” Klingelhoffer said. “I think that’s the great thing about the people in our Hall of Fame: that they represent every single sport we’ve ever had on this campus.”
“The most remarkable thing to me about this class is definitely its star power,” Glass said.

Contemporary Inductees
Clarence Doninger (athletic director, 1991-2001)
Trent Green (football, 1990-92)
Kristen Kane (diving, 1991-94)
Don Ritter (basketball and baseball (1947-49)
James Sniadecki (football, 1966-68)
Ray Tolbert (men’s basketball, 1978-81)

Pioneer Inductees
Dean Barnhart (men’s basketball, 1909-11)
Fred “Fritz” Batsian (men’s tennis, 1919-21)
Bryce Beecher (track and field, 1929, 1931, 1932)
Eddie Belshaw (wrestling, 1930-32)
George Belshaw (wrestling, 1930-32)
Bob Jones (football,1931-33)
Rodney Leas (cross country, 1928-30, track and field, 1929-31)
Harlan Logan (men’s basketball, 1924-25, tennis, 1924, track and field, 1925)
Bill Menke (men’s basketball, 1939-41)
Gene Thomas (men’s basketball, baseball, football, track and field, 1920-23)
Chris Traicoff (wrestling, 1937-39)
Joe Zeller (football, 1929-31, men’s basketball 1930-32).