News Release

Coaches Fill Five Of The 10 Spots In The 2004 Induction Class Of The Upper Peninsula Sports Hall Of Fame

Escanaba, MI Sep 17, 2003 - The honored coaches include: Kevin Borseth of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the late John L. Gaffney of Houghton, Pat Gallinagh of Bessemer and Ironwood, Joe Johnson of Menominee and Duane Vandenbusche of Rock.

Borseth is a native of Bessemer, Gaffney is a native of Manistique, Johnson is a native of Ironwood, and Gallinagh is a native of Detroit and a former Michigan State University football player.

Joining them at the 33rd induction banquet at the Premiere Center in Iron Mountain April 24, 2004 will be the late hockey standout William (Fred) Barry of Calumet, three-sport athlete Becky (Drake) Cecconi of Kingsford, basketball standout Gary Fors of Ewen, sportscaster Scott Garceau of Ishpeming and football standout Gary Willman of Kingsford and Michigan Tech.

Borseth and Fors were teammates on the 1975-76 Lake Superior State University basketball team which was 27-3 and reached the NAIA Tourney in Kansas City. Borseth played football for Gallinagh and spent two years as Gallinagh's assistant football coach.

Borseth has an overall record of 411-140 as a women's basketball coach at Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, Michigan Tech University and UWGB from 1982 through 2003, when he directed Green Bay to its first victory in the NCAA tournament during a school-record 28-4 season.

Barry is regarded by many as the best all-around athlete in the Copper Country, where he played football, hockey, baseball and fastpitch softball. He died in 1958.

Cecconi has earned championships in gymnastics, track and golf and is regarded as the finest female athlete in Kingsford High School history. She set a Central Michigan University pentathlon indoor record with 3,549 points, and is a four-time Upper Peninsula Ladies Golf Association champion and five-time qualifier for the U.S. Women's Amateur Publinx tournament.

Fors holds Lake Superior State University career (2,113 points) and single-season (716 points). He led Ewen-Trout Creek High School to the 1972 Michigan Class D basketball state championship and averaged 25 points and 18 rebounds in his prep career.

Gaffney directed Houghton High School to the Class C state basketball championship while the Gremlins were in the midst of a 42-game winning streak. He died in 1986.

Gallinagh spent 29 seasons as a high school football coach, compiling a 156-116 record. He has also been an active historian of Gogebic Range athletes.

Garceau is in his fourth decade as a sportscaster. He is currently the play-by-play voice of the NFL's Baltimore Ravens for WMAR and is a former sportscaster for WLUC-TV in Marquette.

Johnson is currently the Menominee High School gymnastics coach and a nationally renowned canoeist. He has won four national canoe paddling championships since 1977, has completed more than 100 marathon runs, and was an NCAA top 15 finisher as a ski jumper and gymnast at Northern Michigan University.

Willman was MVP of Michigan Tech University's football team in 1959 and a four-year letterman in baseball and football at Kingsford High School. He was drafted by three professional football teams, Minnesota (NFL), Boston (AFL) and Saskatchewan (CFL) but sustained a knee injury in the Vikings' camp.

Vandenbusche has been track and cross country coach at Western State College in Gunnison, Colo. since 1971. His men's teams have won five NCAA Division II championships and one NAIA title and his women's cross country teams have won three NCAA Division II titles and one NAIA crown. He is a seven-time national Coach of the Year in cross country.

   Back to top