Two ex-NFL players among Delaware Sports Hall of Fame 2023 inductees.
Two former Nationwide Soccer League gamers from First State excessive colleges will probably be among the many 9 2023 inductees to the Delaware Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
Newark Excessive graduate Kwame Harris, who was later a first-round San Francisco 49ers draft choose, and Harmony alum Paul Worrilow, an undrafted linebacker who grew to become one of many NFL’s prime tacklers, will probably be honored Might 18.
They’re joined by golfer Chris Anderson, NCAA champion shot-putter Christina Hillman, official and girls’s sports activities advocate Ruth Lajoie, swimmer Ray Peden, sprinter and hurdler Ginger Smith, boxer Joe Tiberi and curler skating champion Charles Wahlig.
The Delaware Sports activities Museum and Corridor of Fame is situated at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington. The forty seventh corridor of fame banquet is slated for Might 18 throughout the road on the Chase Middle on the Riverfront.
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Tickets are $75 every with tables of eight accessible for $550. They might be bought at www.desports.org/occasions or by mailing a verify to DSMHOF, 801 Shipyard Drive, Wilmington, DE 19801. Social hour, silent public sale and memorabilia show start at 5:30 p.m. adopted by the dinner and ceremony at 6:45.
Here’s a breakdown of the 2023 inductees.
CHRIS ANDERSON
Golf Digest named Anderson one in all Delaware’s prime three all-time golfers together with Porky Oliver and Dave Douglas. As an A. I. du Pont Excessive freshman, Anderson received the Delaware Junior championship in 1977. He then received the Delaware Open a report seven occasions from 1983 by means of 2004 and is the one Delawarean to win the Philadelphia Beginner in its 125-year historical past. He turned professional in 1984 after graduating from the College of Virginia. Anderson received the 1991 Founders Membership Match Play Championship at PGA Nationwide Golf Membership. He joined the Ben Hogan Tour in 1992 and received the Selection Membership Event of Champions of Philadelphia and was second in a playoff within the Fort Wayne Open. He additionally performed on the Canadian PGA Tour in 1988 and certified for the 1996 PGA championship at Valhalla Golf Membership in Louisville. After resuming his novice standing, Anderson received the Delaware Beginner in 2005.
KWAME HARRIS
Main faculty soccer coaches not often visited Delaware till Harris emerged as a four-year, two-way standout on Newark’s groups from 1996-99, the final three being state Division I champions. He was first-team All-State 3 times and state Offensive Participant of the Yr as a senior, the primary lineman so honored. Recruited by the entire nation’s faculty soccer powers, the 6-foot-7, 320-pound Harris went to Stanford, the place he was a three-year starter and Morris Trophy winner as the highest Pac-10 offensive lineman as a junior, when he declared for the NFL draft. He was chosen twenty sixth general by the 49ers. Harris performed in 86 NFL video games with 55 begins in six seasons, the final with Oakland.
CHRISTINA HILLMAN
Hillman received three discus and three shot put state out of doors titles at St. Thomas Extra, in addition to Penn Relays and New Stability Indoor Nationals titles. At Iowa State, she was a seven-time All-American, highlighted by her 2014 indoor and out of doors NCAA championships within the shot put. She additionally received Massive 12 indoor and out of doors shot put titles in 2014 and received indoors once more in 2016. Hillman additionally positioned second and fourth (indoors) and fourth and sixth twice (outside) at NCAAs. Her Iowa State shot put report (59 ft 6¾ inches) nonetheless stands, as does her 49-1 Delaware highschool mark.
RUTH LAJOIE
LaJoie is a long-time official in subject hockey and basketball who stays lively in each sports activities and has advocated for girls’s sports activities and people concerned. She acquired the Delaware Pathfinder Award in 2006 from the Nationwide Affiliation for Ladies and Ladies in Sport and the DIAA State Award for Excellent Service from the Nationwide Federation of Excessive Faculty Sports activities in 2017. The Penns Grove (New Jersey) Excessive graduate performed subject hockey, basketball, lacrosse and tennis at West Chester and made the U.S. Reserve staff in subject hockey. She is a West Chester Athletic Corridor of Fame inductee. LaJoie helped launch women observe and subject as a highschool sport in Delaware in 1971, created a pioneering sportsmanship award as head of the Delaware Board of Ladies’s Basketball Referees and, whereas teaching basketball at Conrad, efficiently sought equal pay for coaches of girls and boys groups.
RAY PEDEN
The captain of Salesianum’s first state championship swim staff in 1973 went on to set 42 pool data at York School earlier than turning into a champion open-water swimmer. With the Wilmington Aquatic Membership as his base, Peden set the American report within the 26.2-mile marathon swim in 1984 and have become solely the second Delawarean, and 288th particular person, to swim the English Channel in 1986. In 2004, he was third (45-49 age group) within the U.S. Masters open water race. Peden was on the primary relay staff to swim from Cape Henlopen to Cape Might throughout the Delaware Bay, was males’s champ of the 12.5-mile Ocean Water Swim Round Key West, Florida, in 2010, and, 5 years later, was the two.5-kilometer champion within the 60-64 age group within the U.S. Masters Open Water Nationwide Championships. The 29-year state police officer acquired the Order of the First State, Delaware’s highest civilian honor, in 1996.
GINGER SMITH
Smith, the primary Delaware lady to run on the Penn Relays in 1964, then grew to become Delaware’s first runner to qualify for the Olympic Trials that summer time, doing in order a 16-year-old and making the finals within the 80-meter hurdles and 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes. On the rain-soaked 1966 Penn Relays, she anchored Tower Hill to the highschool championship within the 4 x 100-yard relay and received the 440-yard sprint in 58.9 seconds. Later that summer time, she led the Delaware Observe and Area Membership to the Center Atlantic title by successful the 80 hurdles, 440 and 4 x 100 relay. Stanford College didn’t have a girls’s observe staff when she was there so Smith competed for the Millbrae Lions Observe Crew and received the California 100-yard championship in 1967.
JOE TIBERI
Tiberi had an novice boxing report of 44-4-2 with 31 knockouts adopted by an expert mark of 18-5-2 with 13 knockouts through the Seventies and ‘80s. He fought eight undefeated boxers, beating 5. That included knocking out New England welterweight champion Fernando Fernandez on the Boston Backyard and North Philadelphia’s Mike “Youngblood” Williams on ESPN. After his aggressive profession, Tiberi grew to become a profitable coach.
CHARLES WAHLIG
The late Wahlig is the one triple USA Curler Sports activities Corridor of Fame inductee, honored as an athlete, coach and for distinguished service. He started successful nationwide competitions within the Nineteen Fifties, taking USA Nationwide Senior Dance and Nationwide Velocity Skating championships in 1957 and the Senior Dance title with a brand new associate in 1958. He was second within the World velocity competitors in New Zealand in 1959. He then coached over 1,000 state, regional, nationwide and world champions after shifting to Delaware in 1970 and was U.S. Pan American Video games coach in 1979. He later served as president of USA Curler Sports activities, was on the USA Curler Skating Board of Administrators and Worldwide Federation of Curler Skating Velocity Skating Committee and owned three Delaware curler rinks.
PAUL WORRILOW
Worrilow was first-team All-State on each offense and protection, sparked Harmony to the 2006 Division II state title and was state Defensive Participant of the Yr in 2007. However he acquired solely Division II recruiting curiosity and, after one junior faculty season during which he red-shirted, walked on on the College of Delaware. Worrilow grew to become a four-year starter and All-American linebacker for the Blue Hens, graduating fifth in UD historical past with 377 profession tackles. Undrafted, he signed with the Atlanta Falcons in 2013 and made extra tackles than all however 4 NFL gamers his first two seasons. Worrilow performed within the Tremendous Bowl for Atlanta and hung out with Detroit, Philadelphia and the Jets. In 76 profession NFL video games, together with 52 begins, he made 415 tackles, compelled 4 fumbles, recovered 4 and had two interceptions.
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