2018 MVC Hall of Fame Announcement
The Missouri Valley Conference will honor its past when the league conducts its annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony in St. Louis on Friday, March 2, 2018.
The 21st MVC Hall of Fame class features two long-time administrators in Bill Rowe (Missouri State) and Lois Patton (Evansville); a women’s softball Olympian in Dani Tyler of Drake; two former track/cross country standouts in Mary Ellen Hill-Schupbach (Bradley) and Christian Goy (Illinois State); and Southern Illinois’ Darren Brooks, the only player in league history to win both the Larry Bird Trophy and men’s basketball Defensive Player of the Year honor twice.
The league will conduct its annual Hall of Fame ceremony as part the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championship next March 1-4. The March 2 festivities will begin with an 8:00 a.m. breakfast, followed by the induction ceremony at 8:30 a.m.
Tickets to the 2018 Hall of Fame event – scheduled to be held in the Peabody Opera House which is adjacent to Scottrade Center – can be obtained by calling the league office at (314) 444-4300. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The Missouri Valley Conference has always been recognized for the great success of its athletics programs, with a rich history that dates back more than a century,” said Commissioner Doug Elgin. “Our MVC Hall of Fame has provided us with an opportunity to honor the student-athletes, coaches, administrators and contributors who have played important roles in the Conference and in intercollegiate athletics.
“The individuals we will be honoring in the Class of 2018 are representative of the men and women who have preceded them in our Hall of Fame. They’ve brought significant honor to themselves, their institutions and to the Conference. We are truly humbled to have this opportunity to salute them for their achievements. In a year in which we are celebrating 25 years of women’s athletics in the MVC, we’re excited to announce our six-person class, which includes three women who positively impacted women’s athletics at their institutions.”
DARREN BROOKS, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
A native of St. Louis, Mo., Brooks is the only player in Valley history to win both the Larry Bird Trophy, awarded to the league’s top men’s basketball student-athlete, and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year honor two times, sweeping the awards in 2004 and 2005.
While he was at Southern Illinois (2001-05), the Salukis won four-straight regular-season Conference titles, made four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and won three NCAA Tournament games, including a Sweet 16 run in 2002 (defeating Texas Tech and Georgia as an 11 seed).
Brooks finished his career ranked fifth in all-time scoring at SIU with 1,761 points; he remains the school’s career steals leader with 258, and he ranks fourth in career assists with 410, eighth in career 3-pointers made with 156 and 12th in career rebounds with 673.
He was a two-time AP Honorable Mention All-American (2004, 2005), a three-time member of MVC All-Defense team (2003-05) and a two-time member of MVC All-Tournament team (2004, 2005).
Brooks is a member of both the SIU All-Century Team, announced in 2013, and the Missouri Valley Conference All-Centennial Team, announced in 2007. He is a member, too, of the Saluki Hall of Fame.
He currently is an athletics director and K-12 teacher in the Dallas area where he lives with his wife Danielle and daughters Darionne, Nevaeh, Niah and Nadiah. In addition to his duties as athletics director, Brooks coaches the boys and girls basketball teams, and he also operates the Brooks Basketball Academy.
CHRISTIAN GOY, ILLINOIS STATE
One of the most decorated track & field athletes in Illinois State history, Goy became the second individual in school history to be named an NCAA champion, when he claimed the 2002 indoor mile title (3:59.43), setting a school record with the championship time.
Throughout his career as a member of the ISU track & field and cross country teams, he earned the 2002 NCAA indoor mile title, three All-American accolades, won 12 Missouri Valley Championships in the 800m, 1500m, mile, 3000m and cross country, received three Verizon All-American honors, two Academic Athlete of the Year awards, was the 2002 State Farm Scholar Athlete of the Year, and in 2003, received the Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award.
Goy, a native of Rheinsberg, Germany, holds the MVC championship indoor mile record with a time of 4:02.10 in 2001, and he holds the top-two fastest times in the indoor mile at ISU with 3:59.43 (2002) and 3:59.61 (2001).
A two-time Drake Relays champion in the 1,500-meter run, he also ran the first leg for the 1999 Illinois State distance medley relay team which finished second at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Additionally, he recorded the second-fastest 3,000-meter run in school history with 8:02.46 (2002) and was a member of the distance medley relay that holds the school record of 9:33.52.
Goy garnered the 2001 and 2002 Milt Weisbecker Illinois State Male Athlete of the Year Award and the Doug Collins Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year recognition, was the MVC’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year in 2002, the league’s Most Valuable Track Athlete in 2001-02 and the MVC’s Most Outstanding Track Athlete in 2000-01.
Goy, who currently manages the Behavioral Science Lab (of which he is co-founder) and serves as Vice President on the Gazelle Foundation Board in the Austin, Texas, area, was inducted into the Illinois State Athletics Percy Hall of Fame in 2010 and was selected to the Valley’s All-Centennial Track and Field and Cross Country teams, announced in 2007.
MARY ELLEN HILL-SCHUPBACH, BRADLEY
Mary Ellen Hill-Schupbach is the most-accomplished female student-athlete in Bradley Athletics history and arguably one of the most-accomplished female student-athletes in Missouri Valley Conference history
A 10-time MVC individual champion in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, Hill-Schupbach also was a two-time track All-American and a seven-time Academic All-America honoree.
The 1998 and 1999 MVC Cross Country individual champion, she helped Bradley to the first women’s Conference championship in any sport in school history by leading the Braves to the co-title with Drake at the 1998 MVC Championship.
Hill-Schupbach set four Valley records during her career, setting the bar in cross country (17:18), the outdoor 3,000 meters (9:34.81), indoor 3,000 meters (9:35.61) and outdoor 5,000 meters (16:08.72).
She gained All-America status by finishing ninth in the 5,000 meters at the 1998 NCAA Indoor Championships and fourth in the 5,000 meters at the 1998 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
The three-time pick for MVC Track Athlete of the Meet (1998 and 1999 MVC Indoor Championships and 1998 MVC Outdoor Championship), Hill-Schupbach was the 2000 Illinois NCAA Woman of the Year and she won the inaugural MVC Dr. Charlotte West Scholar-Athlete Award, as well as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
Originally from Princeville, Ill., she currently is a middle school geometry teacher in Normal, Ill., where she and her husband Schuyler Schupbach are the parents of five adopted children: Tyraina, Shayna, Alexis, Krynn and Tyler.
LOIS PATTON, EVANSVILLE
Lois Patton is the pioneer of women’s athletics at the University of Evansville. She started at UE working in the Physical Education Department before joining athletics.
Patton started the women’s basketball, women’s tennis, softball and volleyball programs at UE, and she spent time coaching all four programs while simultaneously serving as professor of Health and Physical Education and the Director of the Women’s Sports Program.
She was instrumental in expanding women’s athletics at UE to six varsity teams in the early 1980s and coached until 1981 when she moved into an administrative role as Women’s Athletic Director at UE.
While at Evansville, she expanded the curriculum as the head of the Department of Physical Education and that work helped the program expand to include majors such as athletic training, sport studies and exercise science.
Patton retired in the late 1990s, but continues to play an active role in UE athletics where she serves on the Hall of Fame committee, acts as a photographer and supports all of the Aces programs. The new volleyball and women’s basketball floors are named in her honor – Lois D. Patton Court -- while one of the most prestigious awards for the Purple Aces – the Lois D. Patton Award – is given annually to the top female senior student-athlete.
Patton was previously honored by the Conference as the 2016 recipient of the John Sanders Spirit of the Valley Award.
BILL ROWE, MISSOURI STATE
Bill Rowe retired from Missouri State on June 30, 2009, at which time his 47 years on staff made him MSU’s senior employee in point of service. The recipient of an MSU Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, he spent 52 years at MSU from the time he entered as a freshman in 1957 until his retirement from a school founded in 1905.
His Lifetime Achievement Award was added to an MSU Outstanding Alumnus Award he received in 1988. He was the 2004 recipient of the MVC’s John Sanders Spirit of the Valley Award and is a member of five Halls of Fame, including the American Association of Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame, MSU Athletics Hall of Fame, Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Fame and National Association of College Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame.
In May 2016, Rowe was honored as the 34th person to become a Missouri Sports Legend by Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, while he was named to the Missouri State University Wall of Fame in 2015.
Rowe the first person to have his MSU baseball number retired (#22) and the indoor training facility at Springfield’s Hammons Field was named Bill Rowe Training Center.
He capped a career in which he served as head baseball coach and athletics business manager for 19 years before taking over as director of athletics in 1982 when MSU moved to NCAA Division I status.
As a coach, he took seven Bears’ teams to the NCAA Division II baseball tourney, including four which reached the Division II World Series, and he produced the baseball program’s first two major leaguers.
Notably, his AD tenure matched the longest in school history and his work was vital in making Missouri State a charter member of the Association of Mid-Continent Universities when that league was founded in 1982, and he spearheaded the effort for MSU’s invitation to join the MVC in 1990.
Rowe had four-year tenures on NCAA championship committees for baseball and I-AA football, and he was chairman of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee;
MSU teams won nearly 100 conference regular season or tournament championships in his years as AD, with some 50 post-season team appearances and more than 80 qualifications by individuals to NCAA competition.
Rowe’s facility work included involvement and departmental leadership in the building of Hammons Student Center (basketball-volleyball-swimming, 1976), Forsythe Athletics Center (locker room complex, 1980), two-phase renovation of FAC (1998-00), four-phase renovation of Plaster Sports Complex (football-track, 1987-91), Hammons Field (baseball, 2004) and his final legacy with his work on the 11,000-seat JQH Arena (basketball, 2008); and he oversaw a departmental budget which grew to some $11 million annually, and his fund-raising and revenue-generating leadership efforts produced the biggest part of that money from non-university dollars.
DANI TYLER, DRAKE
Tyler, a native of River Forest, Ill., is the most recognized softball player in Drake and Missouri Valley Conference history, and she became first MVC player selected for the U.S. Olympic Team (1996).
She helped lead United States to its first-ever gold medal in softball in 1996, hitting a home run against Australia and was also a starter on the USA team that earned a gold medal at the 1994 Pan American Qualifier. Tyler was a member of the USA Softball National Team from 1994-2000 and was also an alternate on the US Gold Medal Olympic Team during the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The Women’s USA National Team won gold medal in the 1998 World Championships.
Tyler was a three-year starter for Drake and powered the Bulldogs to consecutive MVC Tournament titles (1993 and 1994) -- the first time in MVC history that had been accomplished.
She was named Missouri Valley Conference Rookie of the Year in 1993; and was a unanimous first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference selection in 1994 and 1995. She was a member of the 1995 MVC All-Tournament team after hitting .556 and twice earned All-Midwest Region honors (1994 , 1995).
As a sophomore in 1994, Tyler paced Drake to its second-consecutive MVC Tournament crown and the Bulldogs’ first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. That year, she set then Bulldogs and MVC single-season records for home runs (9), RBI (50), hits (73), at-bats (190) and fielding assists (169). She remains Drake’s single-season record holder for RBI, hits and at bats. She also established then Drake career marks for homers (21), batting average (.395), RBI (115) and assists (444). Tyler is Drake’s all-time leader in career batting average and assists, and she is second in RBI and sixth in HR.
She was the recipient of Drake’s Jerry Howlett Award in 1994 as Drake’s most outstanding overall athlete and is a member of the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame.
Tyler, who received bachelor of science degree in business administration (accounting) from Drake in 1997, also was honored by the school with the Drake Double-D Award in 2012. She currently is a Partner at the CPA firm of Bansley and Kiener, LLP in Chicago. She has won numerous athletic and humanitarian awards throughout the United States, has been a motivational speaker for several organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, and she is actively involved in several charitable and civic organizations throughout the Chicagoland area.