STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: According to its charter, the Hall of Fame has been organized to "promote the enduring values of a thriving athletic program by identifying and recognizing those persons who deserve special acclaim for their conributions to Western State College athletics."
In its 15 classes, 76 individuals and nine teams have achieved induction into the Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame. These inductees include athletes, coaches and friends of Mountaineer athletics.
Help us identify the next class of inductees. Nominations are being accepted for men and women - athletes, coaches or supporters - who have made outstanding contributions to Mountaineer athletics. Call 970-943-2079 for nomination forms.
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Photo Gallery from 2008 Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame Banquet - Photos by Neil Santarella
A three-time national champion, a national runner-up, a national coach of the year, the “Red Grange of the Rockies”, an Alaskan skiing legend and a nationally-renowned water rights expert will be the members of the 16th Induction Class for the Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame. The 2010 ceremony will take place Oct. 8.
Jennifer Michel, Greg Maestas, Carl “Duke” Iverson and Bill Schmalz will be the individual inductees into the Hall of Fame for their accomplishments as student-athletes or coaches at Western State. Jim Mahaffey will receive the Lifetime Athletic Achievement Award while Dick Bratton will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“This class of inductees is special and worthy,” said Athletic Director Dr. Greg Waggoner. “An interesting mix is represented and it is always humbling to the selection committee to learn more about the great achievements of the men and women associated with Western State athletics. These achievements include amazing accomplishments while at Western State and also later in life.”
Jennifer Michel – Cross Country and Track and Field
Michel won three national championships in track and field and earned three cross country All-America honors before graduating in 2001. She won national titles in the outdoor 3,000-meter run in 2000, the indoor mile in 2001 and the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the first year the NCAA offered the event in 2001. She earned another two All-America honors in track and field. She was the RMAC Female Athlete of the Year in 2001 for both indoor and outdoor seasons and led the Mountaineers to a national runner-up finish during the outdoor season in 2001.
Michel was a six-time RMAC track and field champion and still holds the Mountaineer and conference records in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. She competed at the US Track and Field Championships in the steeplechase twice, finishing ninth in 2001 and fifth in 2002.
Michel was the 1999 NCAA Cross Country Runner of the Year. She’s a five-time W Mountain Race winner and set the race record in 2002.
Carl “Duke” Iverson - Football
Iverson won six RMAC football titles during his 12 seasons as head coach from 1988 through 2000, not including a sabbatical year in 1996. He led the Mountaineers to the NAIA Division I national semifinal game in 1991 and two NCAA Division II playoff appearances in 1992 and 1994.
Iverson’s 1991 team led the NAIA in scoring and total offense, and he was named the NAIA Division I National Coach of the Year after the season. He won four RMAC Coach of the Year honors and posted a 79-47-1 record with the Mountaineers.
Iverson was a graduate assistant for the Western State football team in 1967-68 and rejoined the coaching staff under Bill Noxon from 1974-79 and coached the Mountaineers to six conference titles. Of the RMAC-leading 19 football championships Western State has won, Iverson was on the coaching staff for 12 of them. He also made a two-year return under current Head Coach Pat Stewart for the 2006 and 2007 seasons as offensive coordinator.
Greg Maestas - Wrestling
Maestas finished runner-up at 134 pounds in 1973 for the Mountaineers during the NCAA College Division tournament, and qualified for the NCAA University Division championships as a No. 5 seed. He finish fifth at the 1972 national championships, was a two-time RMAC champion and the 1973 Mountain Intercollegiate Wrestling Association champion. He earned RMAC tournament Co-MVP honors in 1973.
Maestas stayed with the Mountaineers as an assistant coach from 1973-76 and coached five All-Americans under Marv Allen and Tracy Borah. He was a part of the 1975 freestyle match between regional wrestlers and the Korean Freestyle Team.
Maestas became the head wrestling coach at North High School in Phoenix, Ariz., beginning a more than 30-year high school coaching career at three different schools. He’s coached two national champions, nine high school All-Americans, 13 state champions, 83 state placers and 191 state qualifiers along with 10 top-five finishes in the state tournament. He was the Colorado Wrestling Coach of the Year in 1988 and 1997 and the National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholastic Division President from 1996-99.
Bill Schmalz – Football
The “Red Grange of the Rockies” started his first career game at Mountaineer Bowl against Adams State Oct. 19, 1957, after Don Miller suffered an injury during the week. His start made national headlines after he scored a program-record six touchdowns 33 years to the day after Red Grange scored five touchdowns for Illinois against Michigan.
Schmalz scored touchdowns of 13, 20, 36 and 58 yards on his first four carries of the day. He made a 10-yard touchdown reception, returned a punt for 80 yards and had a 67-yard punt return for a touchdown nullified because of clipping. He scored three touchdowns in each of the next two games against Nevada and Colorado College and finished the season with an RMAC-high 90 points. He finished one point away from tying the program record set by Bill Rhodes two years earlier.
Schmalz received interest from the Chicago Bears but signed with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Professional League after graduation.
Jim Mahaffey – Lifetime Athletic Achievement
Mahaffey was a member of the 1956 Western State cross country ski team that won the NCAA championship. He won the first biathlon race held in the United States in 1956 at Camp Hale, Colo., and was an alternate on the 1960 biathlon team at the Olympic Games held at Squaw Valley, Calif. After spending a year coaching the alpine skiers with Sven Wilk in 1962, Mahaffey accepted the coaching position at Alaska-Fairbanks.
As an assistant professor and ski coach at Fairbanks, Mahaffey was one of the founders for the Equinox Marathon that held its 47th annual race last fall with more than 420 runners. He went on to teach and coach at Alaska Methodist from 1967-77 and developed the first women’s collegiate cross country ski team in the United States.
Mahaffey coached Alaska Methodist to numerous Northwest Collegiate Ski Conference titles and several victories throughout the Pacific Northwest. He coached six AMU skiers who went on to compete in the Winter Olympics (Gene Morgan, Barbara Britch, Margie Mahoney, Allison Owen, Lynn Spencer and Bill Spencer).
When Alaska Methodist reorganized to become Alaska Pacific University and dropped the intercollegiate athletic programs, Mahaffey stayed to assist student-led ski groups, which included trips to Austria from 1986-91. The ski trail system that he helped develop in the 1960s was named in his honor on his retirement in 1992.
Mahaffey served as the assistant Chief of the Course for the men’s cross country event during the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games. He was also the technical delegate at the 1992 World Masters Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. He coached the Alaska Junior National Ski Teams from 1963-71, was the regional U.S. Ski Team Coach from 1971-75 and coached Alaska cross country skiers for the Arctic Winter Games.
Dick Bratton - Lifetime Achievement
A three-sport athlete in football, wrestling and track and field for the Mountaineers in the 1950s, Bratton has become one of the most respected experts on water right issues in the state of Colorado and western United States. Also an active community member, he helped form the Western State College Foundation and the construction of the Aspinall-Wilson Center, which featured a dedication from President Gerald Ford. He also successfully received approval for the Gunnison Rising Annexation Project last fall.
Bratton served as President of the Colorado Water Congress in 1975 and received the Wayne N. Aspinall Leadership Award from the organization in 2002. He successfully argued before the Colorado Supreme Court the water right usage for environmental and recreation use, specifically related to the Taylor River. In 1975, he teamed with Duane Vandenbusche started the Western State Water Workshop.
Bratton was appointed to chair the Upper Colorado River Commission by President George W. Bush in 2002 and was instrumental in resolving issues related to a drought on the river in 2007. The commission works with the Lower Colorado River Commission and provides oversight over Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
Bratton served on the Board of Trustees for the State Colleges of Colorado from 1963-75, which at the time included Western State. He was part of the Colorado Water Resources and Power Development Authority from 1983-90, the co-founder for the Agricultural and Rural Law Roundup of the Colorado Bar Association in 1991 and is the chair of the Water Law Section and the Agricultural Law Section of the Colorado Bar Association.
Bratton received an honorary doctorate from Western State in 1975 and was the Outstanding Alumnus in 1989 and earned the University of Colorado’s Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1991. He earned the Award of Merit for the Young Lawyers Section of the Colorado Bar Association in 1961 and more recently earned the President’s Award in 2009 from the Colorado Foundation for Water Education.
