COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) - Olympians, coaches, star football and hockey players, a champion boxer, and a sportswriter are the newest members of the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.
The dozen inductees plus one member of a previous class will be inducted at a dinner and celebration on April 22. Backgrounds on new inductees are available on the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame website.
Brief descriptions of the 2017 members:
___
JOHN CALDWELL
Known as the father of Nordic skiing in the United States, Caldwell competed and coached at the national and international level for nearly 50 years including skiing in the 1952 Olympics in Oslo, Norway, according to the Hall of Fame. He taught and coached at Lyndon Institute in Lyndonville, Vermont and The Putney School, his alma mater; and served as an Olympic coach.
___
BERNIE CIEPLICKI SR.
Cieplicki was a standout basketball player at St. Michael’s College and became one of the top high school coaches in Vermont at Rice Memorial High School from 1960 to 1978, according to the Hall of Fame. He led the boy’s team to nine league titles and three division championships in 1968, 1970 and 1971.
___
LINDY COCHRAN KELLEY
The skier, of Richmond, won the U.S. national slalom championship in 1973 and the giant slalom in 1976. She also was the top American finisher in the slalom, coming in sixth, and giant slalom, coming in 12th place, in the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. She joins her three siblings, fellow skiers, in the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame.
___
TAD COFFIN
The Olympic equestrian, formerly of Strafford, won two gold medals at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. He also was a gold medal winner in the individual and team events at the Pan Am Games in Mexico in 1975.
___
CLARENCE DeMAR
The Olympic distance runner is the 2017 Historical Pioneer Inductee. The Hall of Fame says he spent his teenage years running the back roads of Grand Isle and South Hero, Vermont, going on to win the Boston Marathon seven times, first in 1911. He competed three times in the Olympics, winning the bronze in the 1924 Paris games.
___
DON FILLION
Fillion was an award-winning sportswriter, primarily for The Burlington Free Press. He was honored with five Vermont Sportswriter of the Year awards from the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and by the New England Associated Press, ski organizations and several colleges. He died in 2015.
___
MISSY FOOTE
Foote spent nearly 40 years as a coach and administrator at Middlebury College, leading the women’s lacrosse team to 14 straight NCAA Division III final fours and five NCAA titles. She also led the women’s field hockey team to its first NCAA championship in 1998.
___
GUY GAUDREAU
Gaudreau was a star hockey and soccer player for North Country Union High School in Newport and Norwich University. He finished his Norwich soccer career with 30 goals, second all-time when he graduated. In hockey, he ended his Norwich career with 144 points on 88 goals and 56 assists, putting him in the program’s top five in points.
___
HELMUT LENES
Lenes, of Shelburne, is the David K. Hakins Inductee for his contributions as a business leader in exceptional promotion and development of sports, athletics and recreation in Vermont, the Hall of Fame said. Lenes was a mountain guide and ski instructor in Austria before moving to Vermont in 1968, where he later established Climb High in Shelburne, a company that promoted mountain and rock climbing and other outdoor pursuits.
___
ED MARKEY
Markey was a standout athlete in the late 1940s at St. Michael’s College, where he went on to serve as a coach in the 1960s and 1970s and the school’s athletic director until 1997, according to the Hall of Fame. He led the men’s basketball team to the NCAA College Division tournament three times, including a trip to the national Final Four in 1965 and Sweet Sixteen in 1967, the Hall of Fame said.
___
TONY ROBITAILLE
Robitaille, of Newport, dominated the Vermont and New England Golden Gloves heavyweight boxing scenes in the late 1970s and ’80s, winning four consecutive state titles in Burlington, backing up each with a regional title at the New England Golden Gloves in Massachusetts, according to the Hall of Fame. He reached the national Golden Gloves quarterfinals in 1979 and the semifinals in 1980.
___
BETSY SNITE RILEY
Riley became the second American woman to win an Olympic medal in alpine skiing. She won the silver medal in slalom in the 1960 Winter Games at Squaw Valley, California, and placed fourth in the giant slalom. She died of cancer in 1984 at age 45.
___
MARTHA ROCKWELL
Rockwell, of Putney, was a member of the first USA women’s Nordic ski team. She competed at the Olympics in Sapporo, Japan, in 1972 and again in 1976 in Innsbruck, Austria. She won her first international race in 1973 in Castelrotte, Italy.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.