Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame to Induct 7
Class of 2012 Includes Former Pro, College and International Standouts
The Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame announced seven members of the Class of 2012 on Wednesday. The new inductees will be honored during the 17th Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame banquet on July 14 at the Frank J. Pasquerilla Conference Center.
The Class of 2012 includes former major league umpire Frank Dezelan (posthumous); veteran wrestling official Bruce Haselrig; WNBA assistant coach and former University of Maryland basketball star Sue Panek; former Wake Forest University football standout Ed Stetz; former Penn State University women’s basketball pioneer Mag Strittmatter; former three-time junior national champion and Penn State gymnast Kristal Uzelac; and Wake Forest University baseball coach Tom Walter, who recently received national acclaim for donating one of his kidneys to a player in need of a transplant.
The Hall of Fame also will recognize the accomplishments of five PIAA state championship teams including the 1985 Bishop McCort girls basketball team; the 1987, 2002 and 2003 Bishop Carroll girls basketball squads; and the 1985 Cambria Heights girls volleyball team.
Frank Dezelan
He was a major league umpire for six seasons from 1966 to 1971 until a brain tumor cut short his career. A Bon Air native, Dezelan was behind the plate for San Francisco Hall of Famer Willie Mays’ 600th homer in 1969; was part of the umpiring crew in the 1970 All-Star Game that ended when Pete Rose ran over catcher Ray Fosse in the 12th inning at Riverfront Stadium; and he was the first base umpire for the inaugural game played at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium on July 16, 1970 when the Pirates played the Reds.
Dezelan had a 10-year career umpiring in the minor leagues prior to his major league call up. When he advanced to the majors, there only were 24 Major League umpires in the National League.
Bruce Haselrig
Haselrig joined the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Pennsylvania Chapter in 2007. Haselrig started the Pitt-Johnstown wrestling program that has since developed into a national power. He coached the college’s first All-American in any sport in 1975.
Haselrig has been an official for 39 years, overseeing some of wrestling’s premier events, including 19 PIAA championships, six NCAA Division II national championship events and numerous NCAA Division I and II regional qualifying tournaments. He’s been the wrestling rules interpreter for District 6 for the past 28 years and serves as president of the NCAA Eastern Wrestling League Officials Association.
Sue Panek
After leading Bishop Carroll to a Class A state basketball title as a player in 1987, Panek played under scholarship at Division I University of Maryland. She helped the Terrapins advance to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances including one Final Four and an Elite Eight showing.
After her playing career ended, Panek began coaching, first as an assistant coach at Florida State (1993-96) and Maryland (1996-97). She made the jump to WNBA as an assistant with the Charlotte Sting for five seasons (1997-2001) and Washington Mystics (2005-06). Panek has been a member of the WNBA Atlanta Dream staff for four seasons (2008-11 to present).
Ed Stetz
Stetz is the all-time leading tackler in Wake Forest University school history and a member of the 1970 ACC championship team. He was inducted into the Wake Forest University Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.
A 5-foot-11, 206-pound senior linebacker in his playing days, Stetz holds Wake Forest records for career tackles (460), single-season tackles (203, 1971) and he shares the school record for career solo tackles (271). A first team All-ACC selection in 1970 and 1971, Stetz was instrumental in leading the Demon Deacons to their first ACC championship in football in 1970. Following the 1971 season, he was invited to play in the Blue-Gray All-Star Game.
Mag Strittmatter
Strittmatter was a Penn State University women’s basketball standout and was among the early group of women in the country to earn an athletic scholarship after the introduction of Title IX. She averaged 27 points a game at Cambria Heights High School. Strittmatter was Penn State’s leading rebounder all four years she played, averaging at least 10 a game each season.
She led Penn State with 18.3 points and 15.3 rebounds a game as a freshman in 1974-75. That rebounding mark still stands as the single-season best at PSU. Her career average of 10.3 rebounds is a Nittany Lions record. She holds PSU rebounding records of 260 in the 1977-78 season and ranks fifth on the single-game chart with 20 rebounds in games against Edinboro and East Stroudsburg, and ninth with 19 rebounds against Pitt. Penn State went 21-5 during her senior year in 1977-78.
Kristal Uzelac
Uzelac became the first ever three-time Junior National Champion in women’s gymnastics after winning the U.S. National Championship event in 1999, 2000 and 2001. She was tabbed as a U.S. Olympic hopeful for the 2002 Olympic Games in Sydney – her scores at the junior national championship would have ranked third against the seniors – but a newly implemented age rule prohibited the then 15-year-old from vying for a spot on the Olympic Team.
She competed in her first U.S. National Championship in 1998 and earned bronze in the all-around in the junior division. Uzelac entered Elite competition at age 11 in 1997 and competed in France and Australia as well as throughout the U.S. She took Bronze in the 2001 Visa American Cup and was part of gold-medal winning U.S. Team in the 2002 Pacific Alliance Championships, where she won individual gold.
Uzelac earned a gymnastics scholarship to Penn State and was the Big Ten champion in the uneven bars and balance beam in 2005 before a serious head injury cut short her college career. She now trains gymnasts at facilities in Richland Township and Altoona.
Tom Walter
Walter has faced his share of adversity as a NCAA Division I baseball coach. He was named head baseball coach at Wake Forest University in 2009 after returning the University of New Orleans program to national prominence after the school was devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
In 2011 he made national news by donating one of his kidneys to Wake Forest player Kevin Jordan, who needed a kidney transplant. Weeks later, Walter began his second season as coach of the Demon Deacons and guided WFU to the ACC Tournament. Walter entered his 16th season as a head coach this spring with a career 469-396 record.
In five seasons at University of New Orleans his teams went 153-147 and earned NCAA Tournament appearances in 2007 and 2008. In eight years as coach at George Washington, Walter had a 275-184 record. He played at Georgetown University, started four seasons and was two-time team captain. The Johnstown High graduate was a AAABA Tournament player and Johnstown Junior League MVP who entered the AAABA Hall of Fame last summer.
CCSHOF Facts
Including 2012
First Banquet: 1965
Number of Banquets: 17
Total Inductees: 125
Number of Female Inductees: 16.
Number of Male Inductees: 109
Largest Class inducted (18): 1965
Largest Sport Inducted (38): Football
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