A basketball player, football player, swimmer, tennis player and tennis coach will be inducted into the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Hall of Fame November 1.
The 14th class of women inductees into the Hall of Fame includes national champion swimmer Brenda Dahl-Erickson.
The men’s inductees are basketball player Tom Peck, football player Mike March and tennis player Ken Cychosz.
The coach is long-time men's tennis head man Robert Scott.
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 the men 15 years. Since 1973, a total of 82 men and 43 women have been honored prior to this year’s class which brings the current number of inductees to 130.
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ROBERT SCOTT
Dr. Robert Scott was a professor of Kinesiology at UW-Eau Claire for 35 years. He served 26 of those years as the Blugold head men's tennis coach, leading the team for all but two seasons between 1966 and 1994. During that time the Blugolds won 10 Wisconsin State University Conference championships and nine NAIA District 14 championships. Scott took players to the NAIA nationals in Kansas City on 10 occasions.
Blugold teams became the dominant tennis power in the WSUC during the 1970s and 1980s, replacing UW-Oshkosh as the tennis kingpin. In addition to the conference titles amassed by Scott, the Blugolds were runner-up six other times. His athletes won 34 singles titles and 24 doubles championships in conference play and from 1975 through 1982, the Blugolds won 47 consecutive conference dual meets.
But tennis was not Scott's only passion. He coached men's gymnastics at the university for six years. He was also active as a curler. He brought club curling to the university and eventually was appointed National Coordinator of Coaching for Curl U.S.A., the development arm of the United States Curling Association which is the governing body for the sport. He was instrumental in the construction of the Eau Claire Curling Club's indoor facility which was completed in 1996.
Scott also spent a good deal of his career working with youth, in particular, developmentally disabled. He was responsible for founding the local chapter of Special Olympics which is currently flourishing under Bob Lesniewski.
Scott was also involved in establishing the university's summer Gym and Swim school for local youth.
The Canadian-born Scott gained some fame as an inventor as well. He developed a climbing apparatus used in elementary school gym classes. The Scott Agility Climber earned a patent in Canada.
His most recent invention was the Curling Brush Buddy or CUBB, a device used as a kickstand for the curling brush, the tool used by the sweeper in that sport. The CUBB has earned a patent in the United States.
Scott retired from the university in May, 2001.
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KEN CYCHOSZ
Ken Cychosz was the only men’s tennis player in Blugold history to win three conference singles titles, taking the No. 2 crown in 1980 and 1981 and the No. 1 title in 1982. He was one of two Blugold players to win an NAIA District 14 singles title, doing that in 1982 just days after his father died. The only other player to win an open flight district championship was John Christopher, another Blugold Hall of Famer.
Cychosz was the winningest player on the team as both a junior and senior when he fashioned 22-5 and 21-8 season records. He concluded his career with a 77-30 singles mark and a 66-34 doubles record. He played on three consecutive conference and district championship teams and played in the NAIA nationals four straight years. He was a member of Blugold teams that were involved in a 47-match conference dual meet victory streak.
Cychosz has continued to excel in the sport of tennis since leaving Eau Claire. In the Northern Section of the USTA, he has held the No. 1 ranking in Men's Open Doubles four times and the No. 1 ranking in Men's 35 Doubles eight times. Nationally, he has earned 10 team/doubles championship or runner-up titles. In 2001, he reached the round of 16 in the National 40 Grass Courts tournament.
Cychosz, who attended Wisconsin Rapids Assumption as a prep athlete, graduated from UW-Eau Claire in 1983 with a degree in finance. He is currently International eCommerce Manager for GMAC-RFC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation-Residential Funding Corporation) in Bloomington, Minnesota. He has been with GMAC-RFC since 1995 after spending nine years with Prudential Home Mortgage as a senior underwriter.
Cychosz began his career as assistant manager at Wisconsin Finance Company in Chippewa Falls. He became branch manager at Community Credit Company in Edina and then moved on to his position at Prudential in 1986.
Cychosz was cited with a Principle Player Award in 1991 while working for Prudential and an ACE Award in 1998 and a Partner Award in 2000 while working for GMAC.
Cychosz and his wife Pam, have two children: Sam, age 10, and Jacqueline, age 7.
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TOM PECK
Tom Peck may be the only Blugold men's basketball player to make an All-Conference team without being a starter.
The 6-8 Peck, who prepped at Racine Horlick High School, was a key rebounder on the Blugolds' NAIA national runner-up team in 1972 when he came off the bench to earn NAIA All-Tournament second team, All-Conference and NAIA All-District 14 recognition. He repeated as an All-District and All-Conference pick in 1973. He was the WSUC rebound champion in 1973 and his 12.1 rebound average that year is the sixth best single season average in school history. He is the school’s third-leading rebounder, ranking behind Hall of Famers Mike Ratliff and Mike Morgan. He still ranks 37th on the all-time career scoring list with 963 points for an 8.8 average.
He played in 100 victories during his career as the Blugolds forged a 100-10 record during his four-year stint. With Peck on the team, the Blugolds won four straight conference championships and fashioned a 61-3 conference mark including a 49-game conference win streak.
After his senior season, Peck was drafted by both the Houston Rockets of the NBA and the Denver Rockets of the ABA. He ended up trying out with Denver. He toured Europe with a Midwest All-Star team in 1971 and toured Israel with an NAIA All-Star team in 1973.
Peck is currently a Senior Residence Hall Director in Murray Hall on the UW-Eau Claire campus, a position he has held since 1989. He was also a residence hall director at North Texas State University from 1976-78 while working on his master's degree in education. He obtained a master's in recreation administration from UW-La Crosse in 1988.
With three athletically talented sons, Peck has been involved in the Eau Claire community as a youth coach in baseball, basketball and soccer. He also coached basketball at various levels at Cumberland and La Crosse Aquinas high schools in Wisconsin, R. L. Turner High in Carrollton, Texas and Caledonia High in Minnesota.
Peck's wife Sue is a professor in the UWEC nursing program. They have three sons: Matthew, age 23, a graduate student in Spain; Spencer, age 20, a member of the current Blugold basketball team, and Jeremiah, age 17, a senior at Eau Claire Memorial High School.
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MIKE MARCH
Mike March was an NAIA first team All-American defensive back on the Blugolds' 1981 conference championship team. He gained national acclaim that year when he intercepted five passes in a game against UW-Stout. The Blugolds lost their season opener that year, then rebounded with nine straight wins, going unbeaten in conference play. They missed the NAIA playoffs when they were ranked No. 9 in the final poll and the top eight teams advanced to the playoffs.
During his junior season of 1981, March set a school single season record with 10 interceptions. He finished with 17 for his career which still ranks third on the all-time picks list. The 1982 Blugolds finished second in the conference and March was named to the NAIA All-American second team for a season in which he returned two punts for touchdowns.
March also competed two years in track, demonstrating his all-around athletics ability by winning the WSUC outdoor pentathlon in 1983 after placing third indoors. He placed fourth outdoors in 1984 when he also served as a track captain.
March graduated from UWEC with a degree in geography and land management. He is currently substitute teaching and working on his teaching certification in Colorado. He is also a football coach at Palmer High School in Colorado Springs. He and his brother Pete have operated March Enterprises since 1990. They have developed restaurants, bars and clubs for investors from the Caribbean to Hawaii. During the late 1980s, March lived in Lexington, Kentucky, working and training race horses.
Over the years, he has also volunteered as a coach in football, basketball, baseball and track, helping programs in Florida and Colorado from the junior high to the senior high level.
March will join his prep football coach Gordy Schofield as a member of the Blugold Hall of Fame. Schofield, inducted in 1979, coached at Antigo High School where March was an All-State defensive back and helped the Red Robins to a 12-0 record and a state championship in 1978.
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BRENDA DAHL-ERICKSON
Brenda Dahl-Erickson was a national champion backstroker for the Blugolds and helped the team win an NAIA team championship in 1983 and finish second in 1984.
As a freshman in 1982-83, Dahl-Erickson made an immediate impact as she won both the 100 and 200 backstroke at the conference meet in both conference and school record time. The Blugolds more than doubled the team score of runner-up UW-Green Bay in winning the conference championship. The next year, Dahl-Erickson repeated her wins in the 100 and 200 backstroke as the Blugolds edged Green Bay by two points for the team title.
In the 1983 NAIA Nationals in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, Dahl-Erickson shattered the national record in winning the 200 backstroke. She also broke the school record in placing fourth in the 100 backstroke. Her 46 points at the nationals helped the Blugolds edged Pacific Lutheran for the team championship.
The following year, she broke the school record in the 100 backstroke and won the national championship in that event while finishing third in the 200 backstroke. She contributed 48 teams points as the Blugolds were national runner-up.
Dahl-Erickson did not return to the swim program after her sophomore season but graduated from the university in 1988 with a degree in physical education.
She has been involved in aquatics for 24 years, teaching and coaching on all levels. She worked on the physical education staff at Eau Claire North High School for seven years. She currently teaches Red Cross CPR and First Aid to the district staff and has done that for the last 14 years. She is certified as an instructor in CPR/First Aid, Lifeguard Training, Safety Training for Swim Coaches, AED-Oxygen Administration, Water Safety Instruction and Prevention of Disease Transmission. She is a certified pool operator which she put to use at the Eau Claire Golf and Country Club for 14 seasons. She recently started another career at the Safety and Respect Driving School.
She and her husband Tony operate a hobby farm and have two children: McKenzie, age 9; and Karly, age 6.
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