EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - Five athletes including a two-time national champion and two coaches make up the 2013 class of inductees for the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Hall of Fame.
The new class, which will be inducted September 28, includes former Director of Athletics and tennis and track coach Marilyn Skrivseth, wrestling coach Don Parker, football player Darrel Snell, basketball players Rick Dahl and Tanya (Bauer) Longo, diver Kari (Albers) Madden and national track champion Jason Slaikeu.
This group represents the 37th class of men's inductees and the 24th class of women's inductees and brings the number of athletes, coaches and administrators who have been honored to 200.
The Blugold Hall of Fame was established in 1973 to pay tribute, give deserved recognition and enhance school tradition by honoring former athletic letterwinners, coaches or administrators who showed distinctive, unique or exceptional ability while on the campus at Eau Claire and have distinguished themselves in their profession or personally since leaving the institution.
For women athletes, there must be a lapse of 13 years from their final season of eligibility before they can be considered for induction and for men 15 years.
The class will be recognized at halftime of the football game vs. Pacific Lutheran Saturday, September 28 and inducted that night during a banquet in Davies Center on campus. A social hour will begin at 4:30 p.m. with the dinner at 5:30 p.m. and the program at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the banquet, which will also include presentation of the 2012-13 Blugold Super Six Salute award winners and several other recognitions, are $25 and can be obtained by contacting the UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association at (715) 836-3266 or larsojan@uwec.edu. Former WEAU TV 13 sports director and current UW-Eau Claire Foundation employee Rick Foy will present the 2013 Hall of Fame inductees.
Kari (Albers) Madden
Madden was a four-time conference champion and eight-time
All-American in one and three-meter diving as a Blugold. In four
years of national competition, she never finished lower than fourth
place in the two diving events and was national runner-up on both
boards in 1992, the same year she won both events at the conference
meet. She also never placed lower than fourth in eight conference
competitions.
During her career, the Blugolds won four consecutive Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference crowns and placed among the top five teams at the NAIA nationals each season.
She set the school three-meter record as a senior and was team co-captain and co-MVP in both 1992 and 1993. In 2012, she was named to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's All-Centennial team.
A gymnastics and diving standout at Northfield High in Minnesota, Madden earned a psychology degree from UWEC in 1994. She has a master's degree in education from UW-Stout with certification in special education, communicative disorders and cross categorical K-12 in addition to a coaching certification.
Madden has been a special education teacher at Somerset Elementary School since 2008. She began her teaching career as a special education teacher in West Salem. She also taught in various capacities in the La Crosse, Spring Valley, Elmwood, and Lake Holcombe school districts as well as the Sylvan Learning Center in Menomonie and the Development and Training Center, New Concepts Dungarvin Wisconsin Inc. and Brotoloc Health Care System in Eau Claire. She has coached middle school and high school diving for eight seasons in Eau Claire, La Crosse and Menomonie.
Madden and her husband Shawn, a high school principal, are the parents of two boys, Kade, 14; and Ty, 12.
Tanya (Bauer) Longo
Longo played every game (116) for four years as a Blugold and
started 96 of them for Hall of Fame coach Lisa Stone, scoring 1,022
career points. Three times she was named to the conference's
five-player All-Defensive team and also earned All-Conference and
Kodak All-American honorable mention recognition as a senior.
During her career, the Blugolds shared two conference championships and were runner-up twice while advancing to the NCAA playoffs all four years. Longo was a starter on the Blugolds' national runner-up team in 1997. The Blugolds' record during Longo's career was 98-18 overall, 54-10 in conference play and 12-4 in NCAA competition.
Longo put up her best offensive numbers as a senior when she averaged 13.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. She set the school single season 3-point field goal percentage record (.463) that year as well. She is one of several Blugolds to share the single game free throw percentage record, having hit all 12 attempts in one game against Stevens Point. She was the tournament MVP in the prestigious 8-team First Virginia Bank Tip-Off Classic in Marymount, Virginia during the 1997-98 campaign.
After her playing career was over, Longo launched her coaching career as an assistant to Stone in Stone's final year as the Blugold head coach and then all three years Stone was the head coach at Drake University. When Stone left Drake for Wisconsin, Longo went to Santa Clara University for four years as the first assistant. She then took the head coaching job at UM-Duluth but left after one year for an assistant position at Division I Southern Illinois. She has been the head coach at Division II Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania since 2010.
She was with Drake University for two appearances in the NCAA tournament and with Santa Clara for one NCAA appearance and one WNIT playoff berth.
Longo, a standout at Durand High School, earned her education degree from UWEC in 1998 and is currently working on her master's in education.
She and her husband Phil, the offensive coordinator for the football team at Slippery Rock, are the parents of two girls: Gianna, age 2½ and Macaria, born in June this year.
Rick Dahl
Dahl started 114 of 116 games during his Blugold career, playing
alongside All-American Tony Carr as a freshman and Chester Smith
his junior and senior seasons. He would have started every game
during his career except for a knee injury suffered during his
senior season. That kept him out of two games and curtailed his
playing time in two others.
A guard, who once scored 56 points in a prep game at Altoona High School, Dahl shot 52 percent from the field for his career while scoring 1,074 points. He played before the advent of the three-point line in college basketball. He also had 392 career assists, an average of 3.3 per game.
Dahl was the recipient of the NAIA's Emil Liston Award in 1983-84, an award presented to the top junior student-athlete in the country. He was a two-time All-WSUC pick and three-time team captain or co-captain. He was the Blugolds’ Scholar-Athlete pick to the WSUC in 1984-85 at a time when each school nominated one junior or senior student-athlete for recognition each year. During his career the Blugolds were 90-28 overall, 48-16 in conference play and 8-3 in post-season play.
Dahl earned his marketing degree from UW-Eau Claire in 1985. He is currently owner and president of Metrolift, a company he started in the Chicago metro area in 1991. The company, located in Sugar Grove, employs 45 people and provides state of the art aerial lift and mobile construction equipment. It is one of the largest single location rental companies in the United States and the leading full-service aerial lift company in greater Chicago.
Dahl started his career in sales with Cooper Tire and then worked for Timesavers, an aerial lift equipment company before starting his own business. He has served as president of the Illinois Equipment Distributors and an at-large director of the Associated Equipment Distributors. He has been on the Advisory Board for Oxford Bank and an elder at Christ Community Church.
He and his wife Sabina are the parents of two daughters: Jacklyn, age 14; and Paige, age 13.
Jason Slaikeu
Slaikeu was a two-time national champion and four-time conference
champion in the high jump. He still holds the school outdoor record
of 7-1 ½ set in 1996.
A five-time All-American in the high jump, Slaikeu won the 1996 NCAA indoor title with a leap of 6-11 and the NCAA outdoor title the same year at 6-10 ¾. Besides his four conference gold medals, he also had three runner-up finishes in conference competition including one year in which he jumped 7-0 ¼ but lost to Ben Douglas of Stevens Point who cleared the same height but with fewer misses. Slaikeu was a teammate of Jase Graber, who was also a national champion and holds the UWEC indoor high jump mark.
Because of his jumping ability, Slaikeu spent two seasons on Ken Anderson's basketball teams but then dropped out to concentrate on high jumping.
Slaikeu, who was from Cushing and Grantsburg High School, was the WSUC Field Athlete of the Meet in 1996 and the Max Sparger WIAC Scholar-Athlete for track in 1998. He is the only three-time Academic All-American in school history, making one first team and two second teams during his career. In 2012, he was named to the conference's All-Centennial team.
Slaikeu earned his bachelor's degree in biology from UWEC in 1998. He went on to earn his medical degree at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison. He completed his residency in general surgery and his fellowship in vascular surgery at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He began his practice in vascular surgery at Wichita Clinic Vascular Surgery Department in Kansas, but returned to Grand Rapids to join the Spectrum Health Medical Group Vascular Surgery practice.
Slaikeu and his wife Kimberly, who has a doctorate in nursing and urban studies and runs her own consulting business regarding nursing and physician leadership training for hospitals, live in Grand Rapids, Michigan with their daughter Reaghan who will be one year old on Oct. 4.
Darrel Snell
After 60 years, Snell's 95-yard punt return against Whitewater
during the 1953 season still ranks as the longest in school history
and the third longest in conference annals. Snell was the Blugold
MVP in 1953 when the Blugolds finished 5-3 under Hall of Fame coach
Ade Olson.
Snell joins five other Hall of Fame players from those two seasons including Wayne Osness, Russ Knutson, Denny Helixon, Bob Hessler and Jim Bollinger. Snell led the team in rushing (549 yds.) and scoring (43 pts.) in 1954 after finishing second in both categories the previous year. The Blugolds finished with a 6-2 record his senior season.
Following his graduation in 1955, Snell's first teaching and coaching job was at Balsam Lake while he completed his master's degree in education at UW-Superior. In 1957, he took a position at Abbotsford High School, teaching physical education and science and coaching football and basketball for two years.
His longest tenure came at Spooner, where he served from 1959 until his retirement in 1990. He initially taught eighth grade science and coached football, basketball, baseball and track. In 1971, he became the high school principal, returning as football coach in 1976-77.
He previously was inducted into the Spooner Hall of Fame and served on the Spooner School Board from 1993-96.
An avid hunter and fisherman, Snell and his wife Joan have three sons: the late Edward, Joe and Dan and five grandchildren.
Don Parker
For 32 years, from 1977 to 2009, Don Parker directed the wrestling
program at UW-Eau Claire. Unable to detach himself from the sport,
he still serves as an emeritus volunteer coach for the program.
During his Blugold career, he coached one national champion, 13 All-Americans and 15 conference champions. He was forced to coach his final 11 seasons from a wheelchair when a fall from a tree stand after his seat collapsed left him an incomplete quadriplegic.
Parker was also an assistant Blugold football coach for 12 seasons and an instructor in the Department of Kinesiology.
A native of Hawkeye, Iowa and a four-sport letterman at North Fayette County Community School, Parker was a state wrestling champion in high school and then went on to win two NCAA Division II titles at State College of Iowa, now known as the University of Northern Iowa. As a Division II national champion, he qualified for the NCAA Division I tournament where he placed sixth at 191 pounds in 1967. A three-time North Central Conference champion and conference MVP in 1966, he wrestled in the first NCAA All-Star meet.
Before arriving in Eau Claire, Parker spent four years as the head coach at Upper Iowa University following stints at Zion-Benton High School in Illinois, Vernonia High School in Oregon and Hillsboro High School in Oregon.
Parker served as president of the NAIA national coaches association in 1986-87.He was named NAIA District 14 Coach of the Year in 1987 and WIAC Coach of the Year in 2000. He was inducted into the North High School Hall of Fame in 1986, the NCAA Division II Hall of Fame in 2000, the Iowa Glen Brand Hall of Fame in 2007 and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame-Wisconsin Chapter in 2010. He was also a member of the 1964 Northern Iowa football team that was inducted into the Panthers' Hall of Fame.
Don and his wife Carol still live in Eau Claire and have three grown daughters: Kristen, Lesli and Wendy, and four grandchildren.
Marilyn Skrivseth
Skrivseth spent 22 years with the Blugold athletics program as a
coach and administrator, arriving in 1979 as the women's head
tennis coach and assistant women's track and field coach.
She spent 16 years as the head tennis coach and had directed the Blugolds to three consecutive conference championships when she stepped aside in 1996 to become Director of Athletics for the entire men's and women's athletics program, a position she held for six years until 2002. She served as Director of Athletics for the women's program from 1984 through 1996 except for one year when she took a leave of absence to work on her doctorate at the University of Iowa.
During 1980-81, she spent her only season as the women's track head coach and earned conference coach of the year honors after leading the Blugolds to runner-up finishes in both the indoor and outdoor championships. That same year, she was also the conference tennis coach of the year after leading the Blugolds to a conference title. She also earned the tennis coach of the year award her final three seasons as head coach.
Skrivseth served in the Department of Kinesiology through 2007 when she retired from the university. She was the department chair for 10 years.
Under Skrivseth's leadership, the Blugold athletics program earned its highest NACDA All Sports finishes with a pair of eighths in 2000 and 2001. The women's program also won five conference All Sports titles during her tenure. She helped the Blugolds secure bids to host women's national championships in tennis (AIAW), gymnastics (NAIA & NCGA), softball (NCAA in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001) and basketball (NCAA in 1994). During her tenure, the Blugolds expanded the women's sports module with the addition of softball, soccer, golf and hockey. She was involved in the initiation of Blugold Buddies, Blugold Ambassadors, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, the first radio contract for a women's sport and the first class of women inductees into the Blugold Hall of Fame.
At the university, conference and national levels, Skrivseth served on numerous committees. She was president of the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1989 and served as tennis sports chair from 1980-82. She also spent six years on the NCAA Division III Membership Services Committee, one year as chair. She did consulting on sport equity issues and was an active voice in gaining equality for women's sports.
Skrivseth has previously been inducted into the NAIA District 14 Hall of Fame and UW-La Crosse Wall of Fame. She was a member of the WIAC All-Centennial team for badminton which she played at UW-La Crosse along with tennis and volleyball.
The St. Louis Park, Minnesota native obtained her bachelor's degree at UW-La Crosse (1973) and her Master's from the University of Oregon. She taught and coached five years at West Bend East High School before coming to Eau Claire.
Acroynyms
WIAC = Wisconsin Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference
(current conference for men’s and women’s sports,
combined in 1996)
WSUC = Wisconsin State University
Conference
(former men’s only conference)
WWIAC = Wisconsin Women’s Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference
(former women’s only conference)
NCGA = National Collegiate Gymnastics
Association
(Division III women’s gymnastics)
NAIA = National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics
(former national organization to which UWEC belonged through the
1992-93 seasons)
AIAW = Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
for Women
(first national organization for women’s sports)
NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Association (current national organization which UWEC joined provisionally in 1986-87)
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