Players, coaches, teams could be honored
Individuals interested in starting an athletic hall of fame at International Falls High School have begun meeting in an effort to turn that idea into a reality.
FHS athletic director Don Rolando, Bronco sports booster and math teacher Timm Ringhofer and a few others have held two meetings this month to discuss the details of what an athletic hall of fame at the school should include.
Ringhofer said the idea of forming a hall of fame originated from discussions he had with local sports personality Roger Jerome, prior to Jerome’s death last year.
“We had too many good athletes out of this area, and we should have a hall of fame,” Ringhofer said. “We started pushing around that whole idea. We always said, ‘We’ll get to it. We’ll get to it.’
“We never got to it before Roger passed away. Over the winter it kind of started to bug me a little bit that we hadn’t done anything and that something should be done.”
The group looking to form FHS’s athletic hall of fame has reviewed materials from halls of fame in Hibbing and South St. Paul to get an idea of what to have in one set up in International Falls.
A written proposal circulated by Rolando at Wednesday’s meeting lists the possible criteria for nomination and election of nominees.
As proposed, to be nominated, “All inductees must, during and following their career, have exemplified the pride and spirit that is Bronco Athletics.”
Four categories have been proposed for nomination to the hall of fame. They include being a player, coach/director/advisor, at-large and team.
For nominees to be elected, the proposal calls for a selection committee comprised of seven members to vote on a maximum of six nominees in the first year and a maximum of four in subsequent years.
Of the ones elected to the hall of fame, the proposal also directs the selection committee to select no more than two coaches/directors/advisors per year, or none if it desired.
In addition, the selection committee would be allowed to pick no more than one team per year for hall of fame induction, which would require a five-sevenths majority vote of the committee.
All nominees not selected in one of the categories would remain on the selection list. There would also be no limit on the number of nominations accepted in any given year under the proposal.
The group meeting Wednesday discussed possible options for when an induction ceremony should take place, such as whether to recognize a team being inducted into the hall of fame on a Friday evening the Broncos would have a home game for that respective sport.
As for where to display the plaques of the inductees, Ringhofer has suggested placing them on the wall area just outside of the FHS gym entrance so that they would have the most visibility.
Ringhofer is urging people interested in being a part of the group looking at forming an FHS Athletic Hall of Fame to attend the group’s next meeting set for April 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the FHS library.
