Gymnastics, softball and football will be represented when the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Hall of Fame inducts four new members September 25.
The lone male inductee is football All-American lineman Jeff Wilson.
The 15th class of women inductees includes long-time gymnastics coach and pioneer Mary Mero plus the premier gymnast of the early years of gymnastics at UW-Eau Claire Annette Lostetter Schlewitz. In addition, Andrea Bussler Thompson, an All-American from the Blugolds' first conference championship team in softball, will be enshrined.
The inductions will take place at a banquet in the Davies Center on the UW-Eau Claire campus following the football game vs. UW-Whitewater September 25. The banquet will begin with a social hour at 5:30 p.m., followed by a dinner at 6:30 p.m. and a program at 7:30 p.m. The banquet will also include recognition of the Blugold Super Six Salute Award winners.
Reservations for the banquet can be made by calling the UW-Eau Claire Alumni Association at 715 836-3266. Tickets are $15 per person.
The Blugold Hall of Fame was established in 1973 to pay tribute, to give deserved recognition and to enhance school tradition by honoring former athletic letterwinners or coaches who showed distinctive, unique or exceptional ability while on the campus at Eau Claire and have distinguished themselves in their profession or personally since leaving the institution.
For women athletes, there must be a lapse of 10 years before they can be considered and for men 15 years. Since 1973, a total of 86 men and 44 women have been honored prior to this year's class which brings the current number of inductees to 134.
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JEFF WILSON
Jeff Wilson was an offensive lineman on the Blugolds' conference championship teams of 1981 and 1983 blocking for two of the university's greatest running backs in Roger Vann and Lee Weigel. During Wilson's three years as a starter, the Blugolds produced 9-1, 7-3 and 8-2 records and were unbeaten in their conference games at Carson Park during that stretch, going 21-3 overall in league play. The 1981 squad was one of a handful of WIAC teams to go unbeaten during an eight-game conference campaign.
The 1983 Blugold team MVP was an NAIA First Team All-American that year after being selected to the All-Conference and NAIA All-District 14 teams.
Wilson was coached in high school at Crandon, Wisconsin by current Chippewa Falls High School coach Chuck Raykovich.
While completing his degree in criminal justice, Wilson was an assistant coach for Link Walker's 1984 Blugolds.
Wilson began a distinguished career in law enforcement with the Augusta City Police department in 1986. He joined the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Department in 1988 and has remained with the department since, serving as jailor, patrol deputy sheriff, detective, investigator and field operations supervisor with the West Central Drug Task Force. He has been a member of the Eau Claire County S.W.A.T. team since 1991 and has served as a Defense and Arrest Tactics Instructor since 1997. He has received numerous commendations for outstanding job performance.
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MARY MERO
Mary Mero was the first women's gymnastics coach and women's diving coach at UW-Eau Claire, joining the staff in 1969 when the McPhee Physical Education Center complex was completed. She served as head gymnastics coach for 21 years and women's diving coach for six years.
Mero retired in 2000 after 31 years of service as a member of the Department of Kinesiology. During that period, she taught multitudes of students in downhill skiing, cross country skiing, synchronized swimming, diving, archery, bowling, badminton, dance roller skating, gymnastics, fitness, weight training, ballet, tap and modern dance, racquetball, exercise with music, beginning and intermediate swimming and bicycling. She also was the internship coordinator for the exercise management emphasis for 11 years and handled field observations. She served as an American Red Cross instructor in Community CPR and First Aid, HIV/AIDS Education and Water Safety Instructor and Lifeguard Training.
Mero was the founder and director of the UW-Eau Claire girls gymnastics camp for girls ages 5 to 17 for 30 years. She was also a master teacher for the UWEC Swim and Gym Children's Program for children ages 5 to 12, also for 30 years.
Mero was actively involved in department committees, in the state Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; and served as chair of the conference and NAIA District 14 gymnastics associations.
She was active in the Eau Claire County 4-H program for 18 years, spent eight years with Kinship and has been a member of the Valley Gospel Choir since 1991. She was a volunteer worker at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also has taught and presented many workshops and clinics on bicycle safety.
Mero was director of the 1986 NAIA gymnastics championship which UW-Eau Claire hosted after being named the Wisconsin Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Conference gymnastics coach of the year in 1985.
Growing up in Minnesota, Mero won 22 state AAU one and three-meter diving championships between 1958 and 1963. She was also the Minnesota AAU floor exercise champion in 1962.
Mero received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and spent five years at the College of St. Teresa in Winona before coming to UW-Eau Claire.
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ANDREA BUSSLER THOMPSON
Thompson was a four-year starter at catcher for Blugold coaches Bonni Kinne, Deb Allyn and Bruce Finke from 1988-91, leading the Blugolds to their first conference championship in 1991.
Thompson still ranks third on the school's all-time RBI list with 110. She was a three-time team MVP, three-time All-Conference pick and a second team All-American in 1991.
Thompson played on Blugold teams that were 96-64 overall including a then school-record 28-12 mark in 1991. She batted .320 for her career with a .369 on base percentage and .400 slugging percentage. She struck out only 15 times in more than 500 career at bats and never committed an error as a backstop during her senior season.
Following her graduation from UWEC in December, 1991, the Brownton, Minnesota native earned a Masters of Arts Degree in Communication, Business and Sports Studies from Oregon State. In 1995, she accepted a position as the Coordinator for Intramural Sports at the University of Maryland. She worked herself up to Associate Director for Facilities, overseeing the construction of the $45 million Campus Recreation Center. She now has supervision responsibilities for 22 acres of outdoor recreation space and over 400,000 square feet of indoor facilities, including the recent addition of the historic 12,000 seat Cole Fieldhouse. Thompson continues to be active in recreational sports at the university and in the local community, participating in softball, flag football, basketball and golf.
Married in 1998, Thompson and her husband Byron have two children: Taylor, 3; and Travis, 1.
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ANNETTE LOSTETTER SCHLEWITZ
Annette Lostetter Schlewitz was the all-around champion four consecutive years in what was a state gymnastics meet prior to the establishment of the Wisconsin Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference gymnastics championship.
UW-Eau Claire won the state meet in both 1970 and 1971 and finished second in 1972 and 1973. Competition at that time involved both optional and compulsory routines. In four state meets, Schlewitz took first in seven of a possible seven floor exercise competitions, six of seven uneven parallel bar competitions and five of seven vault competitions.
Schlewitz was the Blugold team co-captain her junior and senior seasons and the team MVP as a senior.
After graduating magna cum laude from UWEC with a bachelor’s degree in office administration, Schlewitz coached gymnastics at Altoona High School for four years, leading the Railroaders to three Cloverbelt Conference titles. Her 1974-75 team finished fifth in the state meet when there was only one level of competition.
Schlewitz returned to UW-Eau Claire to obtain her Master of Arts in Teaching degree in 1976 and completed additional majors in comprehensive business education and physical education.
Schlewitz currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee where she is a business teacher at Centennial High School and has had dual careers in teaching business in public education and computer training in the private sector. Her teaching career included stops at Altoona and Mondovi High Schools.
She was elected to the Altoona School Board in 1993 and served as a board member until her move to Tennessee in 1995.
She became a USGF nationally rated judge after finishing college and judged high school as well as college competitions.
She has two sons: Sam, 27, a practicing lawyer in social security law in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Nicholas, 23, a sales engineer in Louisville, Kentucky.
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