By Tim Petermann, UWEC Sports Information
Eau Claire, Wis. (blugolds.com) - Football, men's basketball, men's swimming, softball and soccer are represented by the six athletes who make up the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Blugold Hall of Fame class of 2019.
The new class, which will be inducted during homecoming weekend, includes basketball player Jeff Lund, soccer player Emily (Mabbitt) Gregerson, football players Clay Iverson and Luke Burger, softball player JoDell Bendickson and swimmer Matt Oglesby. This group represents the 43rd class of men's inductees and the 30th class of women's inductees and brings the number of athletes, coaches and administrators who have been honored to 234.
The Blugold Hall of Fame was established 46 years ago in 1973 to pay tribute, to give deserved recognition and to enhance school tradition by honoring former athletic letterwinners, coaches or administrators who demonstrated 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.
There must be a lapse of 15 years from their final season of eligibility before an athlete can be considered for induction.
The class will be inducted Friday, October 11 and then honored by riding in the homecoming parade Saturday morning and introduced at halftime of the football game vs. UW-River Falls Saturday afternoon, October 12. The induction banquet will take place in the Ojibwe Ballroom of the Davies Center on campus with a social hour at 4:30 p.m., dinner at 5:30 p.m. and program at 6:30 p.m. The parade will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday and the football game at 1:10 p.m. Tickets for the banquet 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 Rick Foy will present the 2019 Hall of Fame inductees.
Lund, a 6-2 sharpshooting guard, hit 49 percent of his field goals in the days before the 3-point line as a three-year starter, scoring 922 points with 373 assists, the seventh best in school history, while playing from 1974-78. Gregerson concluded her four-year Blugold soccer career in 1997 with the school single season and career records for goals scored and total points. She still ranks second in career goals and points. Iverson and Burger were the bookend tackles during the three-year head coaching stint of Bob Nielson that included a run to the semifinals of the 1998 NCAA championship. Bendickson came in as a junior college transfer and earned second team All-American honors in helping the Blugolds to the two winningest seasons in school history, the 40-win campaigns of 1998 and 1999. Oglesby was the NCAA 100-yard backstroke champion in 2002, capping a four-year career that included 15 conference individual and relay golds and 13 conference and individual All-American finishes.
JEFF LUND
The runner-up as Wisconsin's prep basketball player of the year in 1974 and a second-team All-State quarterback in football at Antigo, Lund started on three Blugold teams that won two conference championships and produced an overall record of 67-16. Those talented Ken Anderson teams were roadblocked from advancing to the NAIA tournament in Kansas City by the powerhouse UW-Parkside teams that made four straight appearances in the national tournament from 1975-78.
Lund was part of a freshman recruiting class that also included Guy Rossato, Charlie Novak and Tom Ebbers. He played alongside Hall of Famers Ken Kaiser, Tim Valentyn, Dennis Blunk and Gib Hinz for at least two seasons.
A consistent performer, Lund dished out over 100 assists and shot 49 or 50 percent from the field in each of his three years as a starter. He averaged 10.6, 11.9 and 10.6 points per game in each of those seasons as well. He still shares a conference and school record for single game field goal percentage, hitting all 11 of his attempts from the field in a game against UW-Superior in 1976.
His senior season assist average of 5.1 is the ninth best in school history and his career average of 4.1 per game is the eighth best. During Lund's career as a starter, the Blugolds were 38-10 in conference play and 29-6 in non-conference play against a predominance of teams that are currently NCAA Division I or II programs such as Armstrong State, Valparaiso, UW-Green Bay, St. Cloud State, Mankato State, Southwest Texas, South Carolina State, Northern Michigan, North Dakota State and Augustana, South Dakota among others.
His Blugold awards include being named to the All-Conference team twice, four All-Tournament selections, team captain as a senior and JV MVP his freshman season. He also received honorable mention in the balloting for Academic All-American.
Since 1983, Lund, a 1978 UWEC business management major, has been an agent/owner of McCormick Klessig & Associates, an independent insurance agency in Antigo. He has maintained his association with the sport in which he excelled at UWEC, serving the Antigo basketball program as an assistant varsity, JV, freshmen and middle school coach. The Antigo Basketball Patronage Award is named after him and he was an inaugural member of the Antigo Sports Hall of Fame. He started the Antigo Basketball Youth Program and has been a volunteer youth basketball and football coach. His professional expertise was utilized as a former member of the Mutual of Wausau Insurance Advisory Board. His community involvement has included the Elks Club, Optimist Club and Chamber of Commerce board.
Lund and his wife Anna are parents of three grown children: Natasha, Connor and Jack.
EMILY (MABBITT) GREGERSON
Gregerson was a three-time All-Conference midfielder, playing three years for Scott Martin and the inaugural season for current head coach Sean Yengo. She was a consistent scorer all four years including 27 points (10 goals, 7 assists) as a freshman when the Blugolds captured a share of the regular season conference championship with a 6-0-1 mark. She followed with seasons of 28 (12+4), 25 (9+7) and 43 (17+9) points to finish with career totals of 48 goals, 27 assists and 123 points.
Gregerson led the league in goals (9) and points (20) as a sophomore, was fifth in goals (5) as a junior and fourth in goals (8), second in assists (7) and second in points (23) as a senior. She was the conference player of the week once as a senior, a season in which she also earned NSCAA Central Region third team honors. She was the team co-MVP as a junior and captain as a senior. The Blugolds were 24-5-2 in conference play and 45-30-4 overall during her career.
While more than two decades have elapsed since she concluded her career, Gregerson still ranks second in school career goals and points. She is still fourth in career assists and fifth in single season goals and points.
A member of the Minnesota Olympic Development team and a Rochester John Marshall team captain before she enrolled at UWEC, Gregerson graduated with a Management Information Systems major in 1999. She has worked her entire career at 3M in the Twin Cities and is currently IT Manager of End User Services. She has served in several positions within the company including Analyst, IT Supervisor, IT Project Lead, IT Plant/Lab Supervisor, IT Operations & Quality Manager and IT Manager of three different services.
Gregerson is a three-time Pyramid of Excellence nominee and twice received a Pyramid of Excellence Business Unit Award. She has been a volunteer for several United Way events at 3M and also served as a volunteer mentor for after school kids in the Minneapolis area and as a math tutor for a Woodbury elementary school.
She served on a hospitality team for two years at the Valley Creek Church in Woodbury and as an Awana leader at Faith Community Church in Hudson for three years. Her family has sponsored a child with Compassion International for more than 13 years and now supports the Tutapona ministry for trauma rehabilitation in Uganda and Iraq.
Gregerson and her husband Glen, a product development engineer with 3M, live in Hudson and are the parents of two girls: Chloe, age 11; and Ashley, 9.
LUKE BURGER & CLAY IVERSON
As seniors, the Blugold football program listed bookend tackles Luke Burger and Clay Iverson at 6-5, 325 and 6-7, 285, respectively. Burger was a local product of North High School while Iverson prepped at New Berlin Eisenhower. Both were recruited by Greg Polnasek in 1994 but played their final three seasons for Bob Nielson, starting together for teams that went 5-5 in 1996, 7-3 in 1997 and 10-3 in 1998 after a 2-8 finish in 1994 and a 1-9 record in 1995. Iverson redshirted his freshman season while Burger missed the 1995 season when he enlisted in the National Guard. He spent six years and one month in the Wisconsin Army National Guard before he was honorably discharged.
The Blugolds were an offensive juggernaut in 1997, breaking the school single season records for points, first downs, rushing offense and total offense. They went over the 600-yard mark in total offense three times and had a "worst" game of 414 yards. The Blugolds scored 40 or more points in eight of 10 games that season. Burger and Iverson were blocking for Hall of Fame quarterback Sean Hoolihan and record-setting running back Chad Hoiska during the 1997 campaign.
The 1998 team became the first in school history to qualify for the NCAA championships and continued to be a prolific offensive machine behind Burger and Iverson, who were named to the All-Conference team, the All-Region first team and the Football Gazette All-America first team. Both served as co-captains of the team that defeated Central College, Iowa (28-21) and St. John's (10-7) in the first two rounds of the playoffs before falling to Rowan, New Jersey (22-19) on a late field goal in the semifinals. The Blugolds were forced to play all of their playoff games on the road. The Blugolds did set school records that season for victories in a season, yards rushing in a game (483) and total offense in a game (690).
LUKE BURGER
Once he finished his senior season, Burger left school to play some additional football. In 1999, he played for the Green Bay Bombers in the Indoor Football League but broke his leg. In 2000, he played for the Duluth-Superior Lumberjacks.
After reconsidering, he decided to further his education once his football days were complete but transferred to UW-Stout for its Hospitality and Tourism Management degree. After graduating in May, 2002, he went to work for a restaurant in Elk River, Minnesota, starting as a sous chef. He worked his way up to banquet chef before becoming the Executive Chef. He held that position until the spring of 2014. After the birth of his second daughter, he changed careers to get a better work/life balance and became a crop claim adjuster which brought him to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where he currently resides with his wife Bailey. The couple has two daughters: Evelyn, age 6, and Annabelle, age 4.
CLAY IVERSON
Iverson graduated from UWEC in 1999 with a major in marketing. He later obtained his master's degree in education from UW-Whitewater. Like Burger, he played football two seasons beyond the college level as a player-coach with the Franken Knights in Rothenburg, Germany.
He began his career in education as an offensive line coach at Muskego High School (2001-03). In 2004, he took a position as business/marketing educator and defensive coordinator at Pewaukee High School. After two years, he became the head coach at Pewaukee and held that position for seven years. In 2012, he took a position as head football coach and business/marketing educator at Mukwonago High School, serving as their school to work coordinator. In 2018, he accepted an assistant football position at Carroll College. Realizing he missed the high school athletes, he stepped down after one season and took the head football and educator position at Sauk Prairie High School for the current season.
Iverson has been extremely successful as a head football coach, compiling an 84-33 record heading into the 2019 season. His teams have won four conference titles in three different leagues with five second-place finishes. He has produced two state players of the year, six conference players of the year, 60 all-conference players and nine all-state players. Eight of his players have gone on to play NCAA Division I football including All Big Ten and NFL draft selections, JJ, TJ and Derek Watt. While coaching the Watts at Pewaukee, the program won 22 consecutive regular season games and in 2009 was ranked No. 1 in the state for eight straight weeks.
Iverson has received four conference coach of the year awards and twice has been selected to coach in the WFCA All-Star game. In 2017, he received the WIAA's Marge and Dick Rundle Positive Influence Coaching Award.
Iverson is a national and international clinic and motivational speaker and he has served as a Generations against Bullying consultant and speaker. In his time at Mukwonago, he served as the district fundraiser and has been involved in multiple capital projects. During his career, he has been involved in various charity events including Relay for Life, Coaches vs. Cancer, Justin James Watt Foundation, Children's Hospital, Wounded Warrior Project and Make A Wish Foundation.
Iverson is the father of two boys: Calvin, age 13; and Corey, age 11.
JODELL BENDICKSON
Although playing just two seasons for the Blugolds after transferring from Rochester Community College, Bendickson had a significant impact on the two winningest seasons in school history. The Alden, Minnesota native helped the Blugolds achieve a 40-15 mark in 1998 and a 40-14 record in 1999 with a .378 batting average, .386 on base percentage and .532 slugging percentage.
The 5-5 outfielder swung from the left side of the plate. She set school single season records for games played, at bats and hits in 1998 when she earned a spot on the All-Great Lakes Region first team as well as the NFCA All-America second team. In addition to landing a berth on the All-WIAC team both of her seasons in Eau Claire, she was a team captain and All-Region third team as a senior when the Blugolds finished fourth in the NCAA championships which were held at Gelein Field in Carson Park.
In her first season as a Blugold, she was the team's offensive player of the year while hitting .405 with a .563 slugging percentage. She also landed a spot on the Regional Tournament All-Tournament team that year.
Bendickson graduated with an exercise management degree in 2000. She also attended St. Paul College to earn her license as a respiratory therapist. She worked in cardiac rehab at Westfields Hospital in New Richmond from 2000-06. She has been at Regions Hospital in St. Paul since 2005 and was promoted to Lead Respiratory Therapist in 2013. She received her Adult Critical Care Certification in May, 2015.
Bendickson was involved in the Lakeville Fastpitch Softball Association as a coach and in player development in 2016, 2017 and 2018 while her daughter was playing.
Bendickson and her spouse Robin Bosshart, an IT consultant, are parents of two children: Grace, age 12; and Aaron, age 10.
MATT OGLESBY
Matt Oglesby was a four-year letterman and three-time team MVP for the Blugold swimming team between 1998-2002. The pride of Big Foot Union High School where he was a three-time state champion and state swimmer of the year in 1998, Oglesby earned a spot on the WIAC All-Centennial team in 2012 in addition to being named the WIAC Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete Award winner in 2002. An outstanding student, Oglesby was a two-time Blugold Super Six Award winner.
Oglesby, who was recruited by Tom Prior and followed his brother Mark to Eau Claire, contributed 128 points to the Blugolds' last conference championship in 1999. That year he won three individual conference golds as well as three relay first place medals. Andy Hanson was his coach as a sophomore and Rob Welcher coached him as a junior and senior.
Oglesby won a national title in the 100 backstroke as a senior but he also placed third in the 100 butterfly as a junior. In conference competition, he won three 100 butterfly titles, and two each 200 butterfly, 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley crowns. He swam on six gold-medal winning relays.
At the NCAA championships, he earned 13 All-American honors by placing among the top eight in seven individual events and six relays. In addition, he was honorable mention All-American (9th to 16th place) in two other individual and four relay events. At one point, Oglesby owned five school, five pool and two conference records. He still owns the school 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly records.
Oglesby graduated in 2003 with a biology major and math minor. He began his career as a chemist with Heritage Environment. He then joined his parents' marine business in Lake Geneva, working from 2004-15 as Lakefront Manager, Parasail Captain and Service Manager. In 2015, he became Marine Service Manager at Gage Marine in Williams Bay. Most recently he is employed by Kunes Country RV Center in Elkhorn.
Oglesby is involved in a variety of community and volunteer activities. He is a Delavan Lions Club volunteer, participant of Team Triumph, participant in Swim for Freedom, Santa Cause, and Freezin for a Reason. He is a former swim instructor for the Big Foot Recreation Department and the owner of Ahoy Acres, a farmers market vendor that donates leftover produce to local families in need. He also maintains his fitness, swimming for Wisconsin Masters and competing at local and national events.
Oglesby's wife Katie is a senior branch office administrator at Edward Jones and the couple lives in Lake Geneva.
Acronyms
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)
NCAA = National Collegiate Athletic Association (current national organization which UWEC joined provisionally in 1986-87)
NFCA = National Fastpitch Coaches Association
NSCAA = National Soccer Coaches Association of America
WFCA=Wisconsin Football Coaches Association
WIAA=Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association
