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Bulldog Bites
2005 Bulldog Hall of Fame Inducts Eleven
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The Bulldog Hall of Fame 2005 honorees include (seated, from left) Sherri Jones, Tanya Johnson, Dr. Rhonda (Filius) Little and Jim Knapp; (standing, from left) Jim Miller, Randy Merrfield, Russell Hildensperger, Tom Walsh, John Sonntag, John Dawe and Jesse Mangham.
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Ten athletes plus a veteran coach were included in the Bulldog Athletics Hall of Fame Class this past fall. A committee of faculty, staff, alumni and community members chose the inductees and selected a longtime volunteer and former University dean to receive an Athletics Special Service Award.
Following are a few highlights of the new inductees.
John Dawe, Ferris' 1,000-yard indoor
record holder, claimed the league's outdoor championship and set the first
conference record in the two-mile walk at the 1974 outdoor meet. He works
as a staff pharmacist and clinical instructor for the University of Michigan
Health Systems and lives with his wife in Whitmore Lake.
Russell Hildensperger earned four
varsity football letters from 1946 to 1950, starting all but one game
during his four-year career - in that game an appendix attack kept him
sidelined, but only for the first half. He began his Ferris career following
a four-year stint with the Marine Corps. After college, he served a year
in the Korean War. He currently lives in Grand Blanc, Mich., with his
wife, Dolores.
Tanya Johnson twice led the women's
basketball team in scoring and holds the school record for career rebounding
average. The Big Rapids native later played for the Milwaukee Does, New
Jersey Gems and Chicago Hustle of the first women's professional league.
She is girls' varsity basketball coach at Chicago's Loyola Academy College
Prep High School, where this past season she recorded her 500th career
coaching win. The Round Lake Beach, Ill., resident was inducted into the
Illinois High School Basketball Association Hall of Fame in April.
Sherri Jones, a three-time NCAA Division
II Track & Field All-American, earned NCAA-II Indoor All-America honors
in the 4x400-meter relay in 1987, and NCAA-II Outdoor All-America accolades
in both 1987 and '88. Jones holds the school's all-time outdoor 400-meter
hurdle record, and tied for first among 600-yard run performers. She presently
serves as a social worker for the Muskegon Public School system where
she resides along with her daughter.
Jim Knapp lettered as a varsity reserve
member of Ferris' first-ever undefeated football team in 1968. Since 1985
he has served as men's track and field head coach at Central Michigan
University where he earned Conference Coach of the Year honors seven times
and led the Chippewas to the 2003 MAC Outdoor Track and Field championship.
During the 2004-05 season, Knapp guided CMU to conference championships
in men's cross country, indoor track and outdoor track a first in league
history. He resides in Mount Pleasant.
In addition to earning NCAA-II Outdoor All-America
honors at the 1983 NCAA-II Championships, Dr. Rhonda (Filius)
Little holds the school's indoor and outdoor high jump records.
A member of the American Board of International Medicine, Little currently
resides in Waterford, Mich., with her husband, Dr. James R. Little. They
have two sons.
Jesse Mangham ranks second on the
men's basketball team's all-time career scoring leaders list and fifth
in rebounding. He averaged a school-record 30 points per game during the
1968-69 season and holds the school's single-game scoring record with
a 51-point performance versus Adrian in 1969. He later became one of the
first Ferris student-athlete to be drafted by a professional team when
the Detroit Pistons selected him in 1972. Mangham resides in Spring, Texas.
Randy Merrifield ranks 10th in career
scoring among Ferris icers with 151 points, and recorded a school-record
53 assists. Merrifield played two years in the East Sweden Ice Hockey
League for Bofors of Karlskoga, leading the team in scoring both seasons.
In 1986 he co-founded System Solvers, Ltd., which was cited as one of
Michigan's Top 100 Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies in 1997. He
resides in Warren with his wife, Michele, and two sons.
Ed Philion registered 335 tackles
and 29 sacks during his Ferris playing career and holds school records
for fumble recoveries in a game and career tackles for loss. Philion has
played the last seven seasons for the CFL's Montreal Alouettes and helped
them win the Grey Cup Championship in 2002. The defensive tackle led the
Rhein Fire to the inaugural NFL Europe World Bowl title in '98 and was
an all-league selection. He and his wife, Ann, live in Lorraine, Quebec,
with their three sons.
During a 1974 gridiron contest against Eastern Illinois,
John Sonntag compiled a school-record 30 tackles. His
18 solo stops in that contest also stands as a school record. Sonntag
led Ferris in total tackles three consecutive seasons. The Ann Arbor native
garnered a personal career-high 166 stops in 1972, which included 98 solo
tackles. Sonntag now serves as sheriff of Mecosta County and lives in
Big Rapids with his wife, Joyce. The couple have two children.
Dr. Jim Miller served as Ferris' final
head wrestling coach from 1984 to 1994, leading the Bulldogs to seven
GLIAC Championships and seven top-12 national finishes, including a second-place
effort in 1989. Miller was a two-time Pan-American and three-time U.S.
Olympic Festival medalist. The nine-time U.S. National Open All-American
was a two-time national champion. Miller currently serves as professor
and clinic chief of Sports Vision Services at Ferris' Michigan College
of Optometry. He lives in Big Rapids along with his wife, Cindy.
Tom Walsh received Ferris Athletics'
Pete Peterson Pride Award in 1986 for his service to Bulldog Athletics.
He was Ferris' commencement coordinator from 1972 to 1996 and served as
the school's dean of student life. A friend of coaches and student-athletes
alike, Walsh was also the dean of men at Ferris during his tenure.
The Hall of Fame enshrined the inductees during the sixth annual Induction Banquet on Sept. 23 at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Big Rapids.
Epps and Gill Receive NCAA Degree-Completion Awards
Carlton Epps
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Navreet Gill
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The NCAA has chosen two Bulldog student-athletes who recently completed their collegiate eligibility to receive Degree-Completion Awards.
Carlton Epps and Navreet Gill
are the school's first-ever recipients of the award and two of 91 applicants
to receive degree-completion funds for the 2005-06 term. Epps played his
final season of collegiate basketball for Ferris in 2004-05, while Gill
concluded her Bulldog softball career during the 2005 spring season.
The Division II Degree-Completion Award program provides financial assistance to deserving student-athletes for the completion of their first baccalaureate degree. Students must have completed their athletics eligibility and received financial aid for athletics. In addition to solid academic credentials, the awarding committee also considers financial circumstances, athletics achievement and involvement in campus and community activities. The funding must be used to complete undergraduate degree requirements at the Division II institution where the applicant last competed.
"We are very pleased to have Navreet and Carlton as our first-ever NCAA Degree-Completion recipients," said Athletics Director Tom Kirinovic. "When we bring student-athletes to campus, we tell them that their primary goal is to gain a degree. The awards will assist both Navreet and Carlton to reach that goal and allow us to help other deserving student-athletes."
The Division II Degree-Completion Award Program was founded in 2001, when 32 awards were distributed.
An all-around player, Epps concluded his collegiate career ranked among Ferris' all-time leaders in scoring, rebounds, steals, assists, free throw percentage, three-point field goal percentage, made three-pointers and blocked shots. Epps became only the sixth player in Bulldog history to score more than 600 points in a campaign.
Gill hit a personal career-high .283 as a starter at shortstop in all 51 contests in 2005. In the field, Gill compiled a career-best .926 fielding percentage with 81 putouts and 118 assists. The three-time GLIAC All-Academic Team honoree also was a two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete recipient.
Sun to Lead Women's Tennis Team
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Amy Sun |
The Ferris Athletics department has appointed Jing "Amy" Sun
as the school's 12th head women's tennis coach. Sun, who served during
2004-05 as an assistant women's tennis coach at her alma mater, Brigham
Young University-Hawaii in Laie, Hawaii, will also serve as co-head tennis
professional for Ferris' Racquet and Fitness Center, the Professional
Tennis Management program and assistant director for summer camps. She
replaces former head coach Dave Ramos, who last spring filled the vacant
men's tennis head coaching post after five seasons at the women's helm.
A native of Beijing, China, Sun helped lead the BYU-Hawaii Lady Seasiders to three consecutive national championships (2002-04). She claimed Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division II Singles All-America accolades by posting a four-year singles record of 123-0 in dual match competition.
"We're extremely excited to have Amy join our staff," said Athletics Director Tom Kirinovic. "Our goal will be to take the lessons she's learned in that setting at BYU-Hawaii and work to raise our program to the same heights."
"I'm so excited to be a part of a really great program at Ferris State," Sun said. "This is a tremendous opportunity for me. I enjoy working with students, coaching and being involved in a club atmosphere so this really is a good fit."
As an assistant coach in 2004-05, Sun helped guide the Lady Seasiders to a national runner-up performance. The program had won 130-straight dual matches, including 101 consecutive wins during Sun's playing career, prior to falling to Armstrong Atlantic State (Ga.) 5-3 in the 2005 NCAA-II Championships. BYU-Hawaii has presently claimed six national titles and earned two runner-up showings in the last eight years while compiling a 233-2 dual match record during that span. The squad was 137-1 during Sun's four-year playing career.
A 1995 graduate of Beijing 222 High School, Sun was a member of China's National Women's Team from 1993-95. She served as a summer tennis specialist at Camp Walt Whitman in Piermont, N.H., since 2001 and was the assistant director in 2005. She also worked as a fitness center supervisor at BYU-Hawaii from 2002-05. Sun, a certified USPTA P-1 teaching professional, also has experience as a tennis club professional in Beijing and previously attended Beijing Sports University.
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