Eddie Finnigan was an all-around athletic standout at Cleveland John Adams High School and Western Reserve University. He starred in three sports at WRU, achieving his greatest success in basketball, where he was a first team Little All-American. Eddie also earned Little All-American honors in football and starred in track, and garnered new fame as the head track coach at Baldwin-Wallace College, where he produced Olympic champion Harrison Dillard.
As Athletic Director of the CYO of Cleveland from 1972 to 1985, Richard Hyland doubled the number of programs during his tenure. An innovator, he introduced free substitution for baseball and softball (later adopted nationally), girl’s soccer, cross-country and co-ed hockey. He was instrumental in the development of the CYO Coaches Certification Program, the first of his kind in the U.S. Dick also served as Secretary of the Cleveland Baseball Foundation.
After a successful career as a gymnast with the American Turners, Swiss Turner Gymnastic Society, and Kent State University, Joe Gura launched into a coaching career spanning, at present, 13 years. Thirty-eight of his club gymnasts have competed in national gymnastic championships, producing three national champions. At Magnificat High School. he led the team to state titles in 1991 and 1992.
Teaming up with three different skating partners spanning approximately two decades, William Fauver was consistently among the top skaters in the nation and the world. Multiple Olympic participations included a 12th place in the Innsbruck Games. He also competed in the 1984 Games and subsequently turned pro. Bill is currently Director of Pairs Skating at the Broadmoor Rink in Colorado Springs.
Jack Howlett has had a long career of service in support of Speed Skating, Luge and Bobsledding, which included selection as the coach and manager of the 1972 USA Olympic Luge Team. He served as that sport’s national secretary for 15 years. His efforts to develop speed skating in the area led to the Ohio Speed Skating Association fielding the second largest number of registered competitors in the United States.
Carl Fischer ranked as one of the greatest softball managers ever in Cleveland. Among many other famous teams, he put together and managed the nationally known “Bloomer Girls” who, in 1935, won the first national women’s title (fast pitch) for Cleveland.
One of the legends in the annuls of Ohio High School wrestling, Euclid coach Clarence Eckert had a dual meet record of 246-42-4, ranking among the top coaches of all time. Three state titles and six district crowns were included among his successes.
Cleveland’s flyweight champion in 1920, 1921 and 1922, Phil Goldstein earned the right to compete in the National AAU Boxing Tournament in Boston in 1923. He fought his way to the semifinals of that tournament before losing a split decision to Fidel Labarbra, who went on to win the AAU crown, the 1924 Olympic championship and eventually the world professional flyweight title. A distinguished professional career followed with successes against some of the most imposing opposition.
In a competitive career spanning 21 years, Phillip Franz consistently was ranked among the nation’s best in this difficult and dangerous sport. Three times he was the runner up at the national championship and placed within the top four in 82% of his races.
A ten-time All-American pick at ASA National Slow Pitch Tournaments, Ida Jean Hopkins was chosen as the tournament’s most valuable player in 1967, 1968 and 1970, when she was the tourney’s leading hitter with a .704 average. She played fastpitch softball for ten years before switching to slow pitch in 1960. Ida began managing slow pitch teams in 1964, and coached her teams to eleven Regional ASA Tournament wins in 12 years and the national tournament in 1967.