Springfield Illinois Sports Hall of Fame

Springfield’s first state champion high school swimmer, a couple of guys who played professional baseball, a three-sport female standout, a guy who earned a scholarship to play football at the University of Illinois and a highly successful former high school football coach are part of the list of the 22nd induction class for the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame.

Cathedral High School graduate Jim Crawford, Springfield High alums Mike Suppan and Steve Jeffers, Lanphier graduates Jennifer Smith and Gene Strode, and Griffin alumnus Rich Suhs will extend the list of Hall of Famers to 167.

Named as Friends of Sport were Bruce Richards and Dr. Richard Meckes. The 1997 state championship Springfield High boys soccer also will be honored.

The Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremonies will be March 26 at the Crowne Plaza. Tickets, priced at $40 each, can be reserved by calling Lesa Schaive at 529-0008. Four-time U.S. Olympian Jackie Joyner Kersee will be the featured speaker.

Four-time Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, a member of the Track and Field Hall of Fame, will be the featured speaker at the Springfield Sports Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremonies.

The 22nd annual event will be March 26 at the Crowne Plaza. Tickets, priced at $40 each, can be reserved by calling Lesa Schaive at 529-0008.

Joyner-Kersee, a 1980 graduate of East St. Louis Lincoln High School, is one of the most decorated female athletes in history. She dominated track and field on the international circuit for 13 years, winning three gold, one silver and two bronze medals spanning four Olympic Games.

Joyner-Kersee won the silver medal in the heptathlon at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. At the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, she won gold in her signature events, the heptathlon (setting a world record) and the long jump.

She followed that up at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain, by winning gold in the heptathlon and bronze in the long jump. In her final Olympic appearance at the 1996 Atlanta Games, she won the bronze medal in the long jump.