Vandals announce Hall of Fame class
MOSCOW — The Idaho athletic department recently announced the Vandal Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2016.
The class includes basketball standouts Ken Maren and Kelli Johnson, football’s Tom Hennessey and Doug Fisher (football and track and field), Bud and June Ford (lifetime contributions), Packey Boyle (athletic training), and the 1959 Pacific Coast Conference Northern Division men’s golf championship team.
Bud and June Ford of Coeur d’Alene have been generous and enthusiastic supporters of Vandal athletics. They were key figures in leading the Kibbie Dome renovations and are honored with the Bud and June Ford Room, which not only provides a social setting for Vandal football games, but is a venue used for receptions and banquets throughout the year.
Maren came to Idaho from Milwaukee, Wis., in 1957 and become one of the most dominant big men in Vandal history. He was an assistant coach after graduation and eventually turned to teaching. He first taught at Post Falls High before returning to Wisconsin where he coached and taught until retirement.
Johnson, a native of Moscow, was a standout guard — and 3-point shooter — for the Vandals from 1994-98. After graduation, she turned her attention to sports broadcasting and is a highly regarded reporter for CSN Bay Area. Her career has taken her around the country into the nation’s top markets.
After 30 years, Hennessey’s single-season record of 180 tackles still stands and he remains third on the all-time career list. A stellar athlete out of Boise, he was a key component of Idaho’s highly successful run in the Big Sky Conference in the 1980s.
Fisher, a dual-sport athlete from Lewiston High, not only left his mark on Idaho athletics as a football player and discus thrower, but after graduation he built a legacy of kindness and generosity as a teacher and coach in Moscow. He was an NCAA qualifier in the discus. He passed away earlier this year.
The late Boyle was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame and was an athletic trainer for the U.S. Olympic ski team. His career started in Sun Valley. He was an athletic trainer at the University of Arizona before taking the head job at Idaho. He died in 1972.
The 1959 golf team was the lone championship team in that sport for more than 40 years. The group of John Rosholt, Rusty Sheppard, Don Modie, Ray Kowallis, Bob Pierce, Dave Smith, Jim Kraus and Norm Johnson posted a record of 7-1-1 en route to the title.