Larry Csonka rushed for 1,117 yards and earned All-Ohio honors at Stow High School (class of 1963). Csonka was a bruising fullback, breaking school rushing records and earning All-America honors at Syracuse University.
In the NFL, Csonka became the focal point of the Miami Dolphins’ ball-control offense. In 11 seasons, he played on two Super Bowl champions, and was named MVP of Super Bowl VIII after he ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns in Miami’s 24-7 win over Minnesota.
Csonka joins Paul Warfield and Don Shula as the third member of the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins to be inducted into the GCSHOF. His jersey #39 is retired by both Syracuse University and the Miami Dolphins.
Hanford Dixon joined the Cleveland Browns after the team drafted him 22nd overall in the 1981 NFL Draft.
Originally from Alabama, Dixon made Cleveland his home and has became a mainstay in Cleveland.
He paired with Frank Minnifield to form one of the greatest cornerback duos in NFL history, earned First-Team All-Pro honors twice (1985 & 1987), and was selected for the Pro Bowl three times. He is notably credited with coining the phrase “Dawg Pound” for Cleveland’s rabid endzone fans.
Brianne McLaughlin is a 2005 graduate of Elyria Catholic High School, where she played basketball, softball, volleyball, and ran track.
McLaughlin made her mark as a goalie at Robert Morris University. In her collegiate career, she set the NCAA record for saves (3,809) and finished with a .910 career save percentage.
She went on to earn All-Star honors as a member of the NWHL Buffalo Beauts, and finished her professional career winning the 2017 Isobel Cup (NWHL version of the Stanley Cup) and was named MVP of the Playoffs. The 6-10-1 Beauts upset the 16-1 Boston Pride in the championship game.
McLaughlin was a teammate of Kelli Stack Jachym on the 2010 and 2014 silver medal USA Olympic teams.
Kelli Stack Jachym, a 2006 graduate of Cuyahoga Heights High School, was a standout in collegiate and international hockey. At Boston College, she broke the school points record and earned Second-Team All-America honors.
As a member of Team USA, Stack received the 2012 Player of the Year Award to go along with five World Championship gold and two Olympic silver medals (2010/2014).
She graduated #1 in her class from the Ohio State Highway Patrol Basic Police Academy in 2020, then joined the Cuyahoga Heights Police Department. She is currently a police officer in Southwick, MA.
Stack was a teammate of Brianne McLaughlin on the 2010 and 2014 Olympic teams.
Jack Turben’s passion for sports, dating back to League Park, shaped a deep belief in what sports can be: transformative, inclusive and enduring. He is a builder of institutions and cultivator of opportunity.
A lifelong racquet sports enthusiast, his love for squash has helped reshape the sport’s footprint in Cleveland.
His decades long commitment and generosity to the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame reflects an understanding of the importance of honoring those whose athletic achievements inspire pride and possibility.
A product of Massillon Washington and the first high school athlete to be featured on a Wheaties box, Chris Spielman went on to be a standout three-time All-American linebacker at Ohio State.
Drafted by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 1988 NFL Draft, Spielman carved out an illustrious pro career. A first team All-Pro in 1991, he was twice a second team All-Pro (1992 & 1994), and was also selected to four Pro Bowls. Spielman logged ten seasons in the NFL, where he led the league in tackles during the 1994 season.
An East Tech star, Wanda Ford was an All-American at Drake University, leading led the Bulldogs to two NCAA Tournaments. Ford became the first to record 1,500 rebounds in NCAA Women’s history—setting the record with 1,887 boards. During the 1986 season, she set the record for most points in a single season with 919. Ford boasts an impressive international resume, playing in Italy, Brazil, Sweeden, and Israel where she was a member of seven league-championship teams.
Ford is also a distinguished Phys Ed teacher at Summit Academy in Parma.
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Tianna Madison was a standout at Elyria High, winning nine state titles. During her time at the University of Tennessee, she captured SEC & NCAA titles.
The track star took her talents to the Olympic level. Tianna Madison captured her first Olympic gold in 2012, where she ran the women’s 4 x 100 relay. Madison and her team repeated in the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she also added a gold medal in the long jump to her resume. She also captured two long jump gold medals at the World Championships in 2007 & 2015, and earned bronze in 2017.
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Stipe Miocic was a dual sport athlete during his time in college, becoming an NCAA Wrestling Tournament qualifier at Cleveland State and hitting .344 on the baseball diamond at Trevecca Nazarene. His star began to shine as he turned his attention to Mixed Martial Arts. Miocic reached the pinnacle of the sport, capturing the UFC Heavyweight title at UFC 198. He defended the belt a record setting three consecutive times. He would again become the top contender reclaiming the title and notching a UFC record 4th successful title defense.
Jim Donovan grew up in the Boston area aspiring to be a hockey play-by-play announcer. It turned out that calling games at the NHL level of the sport he most loved as a kid was one of the few things he didn’t accomplish in his long and illustrious career.
After radio stints in Minnesota and Vermont out of Boston University, Jim accepted a weekend sports anchor role at WKYC Channel 3 in 1985. Within weeks he was calling Cleveland Browns preseason games for the station. Those relationships would last more than 39 years and establish Jim as one of the most recognizable and trusted voices in Cleveland sports.
When the Browns came back as an expansion franchise in 1999, Jim was named its radio play-by-play announcer. He was known ever since as the Voice of the Browns, a role he cherished as the “crown jewel” of his career. His signature calls have been rebroadcast over countless national media platforms and have been ingrained in the minds of Browns fans of all generations.
All the while, Jim’s television career extended to anchoring the Channel 3 sports segments on daily news programs and eventually anchoring the station’s 7 p.m. news. Jim also enjoyed an 11-year run at NBC Sports from 1987 to 1997. He was tabbed by the network to call play-by-play on NFL games and also to call swimming, water polo, soccer and baseball in Olympics Games in 1992 and 1996, and the 1994 World Cup.
Jim has earned multiple local Emmy Awards and has been inducted in the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame (2005) and the Cleveland Press Club Journalism Hall of Fame (2009). He was honored with the Cleveland Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Jim, 67, retired from WKYC in June but will continue as radio Voice of the Browns.
He said his career goal now is to call the Browns winning the Super Bowl.
