LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The traditional garb of the everyday college athletics environment was ditched on Saturday night in favor of elegant dresses, three-piece suits and even bolo ties as Biola Athletics hosted its seventh annual Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on campus.
The Biola Hall of Fame committee held a ceremony celebrating the induction of its 18th and 19th individual members of the Hall of Fame class and its first-ever full-team induction.
Around 100 people gathered in the Andrews Banquet Room to celebrate the careers and legacies of Natalie (Roth) Dell, Kellian Hunt and the 1981-82 Biola Men's Basketball team.
Natalie (Dell) Roth
The evening began as Dell's father, Steve Roth, took the podium to "brag" about his daughter's successes both at Biola and beyond.
"She said 'Dad, don't brag about me,'" Roth described. "I'm not sure how you give a Hall of Fame induction speech without bragging."
Dell had a career worth bragging about, serving as team captain, earning NAIA All-American honors, leading her team to an undefeated Golden State Athletic Conference season her senior year and ending her career as the only Biola Women's Soccer player in history to make the NAIA All-Tournament team at the NAIA Championship tournament.
Roth recounted how excited his daughter always was to come to Biola. He mentioned how Clyde Cook, Biola's past President, visited their church when Natalie was 10 years-old and she told Cook her plans to attend Biola.
The story came full circle when Cook was attending her soccer games while she was at Biola and put off another important meeting he had after the match just to go down and talk to Natalie and tell her how thrilled he was she never changed her mind.
The beaming father went on to pull out several old issues of the Biola Chimes and recount the thrilling 2004 season where Dell and her teammates managed a 16-2-1 overall record and made it to the second round of the NAIA National Championship before bowing out to now NCAA Division I Robert Morris University.
He was sure to convey his daughter's passion for the game and her teammates when sharing about how in that final game against RMU she refused to come off the field when her coach Mike Silzer wanted to give the senior a ceremonious ending to her final game. He recalled her saying "You're not taking me out. You're going to have to drag me off this field." A perfect picture of how she always, always gave everything she had for her teammates.
After his touching tribute, Dell came up and accepted the award being sure to thank her coaching staff, her parents, her family and Erik and Donna Thoennes. Thoennes was Dell's pastor in her time at Biola and invited her to be a part of the small group "grace group" that his family hosted.
She recounted that group being such an integral part of her spiritual and personal journey that she named her daughter Grace in honor of her experience doing life with them.
Kellian Hunt
As the most recently graduated member of this induction class, Kellian Hunt was presented by Biola's current Head Cross Country and Track & Field Coach Sean Henning.
Henning, fresh off the road from the Eagles' track meet in Santa Barbara, took the stage seeking to do justice to the great commitment to excellence and competitive spirit that Hunt embodied during her time as an Eagle from 2012-16.
He described that since his first season at Biola was Hunt's final season he was unsure exactly what he was going to get when he started.
He found out real quick as in his first season coaching Hunt won her second individual Golden State Athletic Conference Cross Country title and the program's second-ever individual national championship in cross country, placing first in a field of over 320 runners at the 2015 NAIA National Championships in Charlotte.
Henning recalled finding Hunt immediately after the race and asking her if she had run and her reply was a casual and unassuming, "yep."
That's just the kind of person Hunt is. She never made it about herself, despite a phenomenal cross country and track & field career that saw her win double-digit all-conference and All-American honors.
"She showed up and was always committed to being great," said Henning. "She told me 'If I wasn't racing, I don't understand why I'd be doing this.' It was her competitive excellence."
Henning went on to describe Hunt's toughness in battling through injuries and illness throughout her career and her willingness to do whatever was needed to help the team. This included two remarkable stories about Hunt's senior track season, which was riddled with injuries early on.
He described her going into the indoor track & field championships having not trained all winter due to some foot injuries. She was not going to run much at the event because of this, but when another runner had to be held out she was asked to step up and take a place in a pair of distance relays.
She answered the call and both relays went on to earn All-American honors with her playing a big role during her leg of both. The other time was at the Golden State Athletic Conference Championships that same year. Hunt had already ran five or six events but Henning entered her in the 5k, the second-to-last event, just in case. Feeling confident in the team's chance to win the meet, Henning told Kellian he did not need her to run the 5k after all.
Hunt, already exhausted after a great meet, pushed back immediately saying she would not want to be the reason the team had to finish second, just because she didn't run.
Ultimately, she ran and finished fifth to earn four points for the team. The Eagles went on to win the meet over Westmont by just 1.5 total points. Hunt made the right choice, and she made it with her teammates in mind.
"She had a great ability to deal with adversity and still come out great for her team anyways," said Henning. "Even right now, she'd rather us not be talking about her at all but you know what, we're here anyways. I'd say it's been a long time coming, but since you just graduated three years ago I guess I can't. But you most certainly deserve this."
After that Hunt took to the podium and briefly thanked her family and teammates. She recounted how she chose Biola during a visit to campus her senior year in high school.
She had the chance to stay overnight in the dorm of some of the young ladies on the team and know Biola was the place she wanted to call home for the next four years.
"What makes a program is the people," said Hunt. "I think Biola has the very best kind of people."
1981-82 Men's Basketball Team
For the first time in the history of this Biola Athletics Hall of Fame a full team was inducted. There was no other team more deserving that Dr. Dave Holmquist and Howard Lyon's 81-82 group. It's a team that won its first 39 games of the season (a record at any level of collegiate men's basketball) and appeared in the NAIA National Championship game.
The leader of Biola Athletics, Greg Vaughan, Special Advisor to the President, has been at Biola since the 1970s and chronicled watching almost every game from that 81-82 season as he introduced the team's speakers Holmquist, Rich Cundall, Pat McDougall and Wade Kirchmeyer.
Holmquist spoke first and was as eloquent as ever as he spoke with great regard to the type of players and type of people that were represented in this 81-82 team. He recounted how the NAIA of the 1980s had over 500 teams, many of which are now NCAA Division I and Division II schools, and how the competition was incredibly stiff with many NBA players coming from the NAIA.
He continued to talk about the incredible level of basketball talent but also the heightened amount of sound leadership on the floor that year. At one point he recognized that even he didn't realize quite how special that group was until they moved on.
The most important quality he pinpointed about the members of that team was the incredible selflessness.
"There's and old quote from President Truman, 'It's amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit,'" said Holmquist. "This is a very special group and that's for reasons far beyond winning 39 games."
After Holmquist came Cundall. Cundall described a tremendous synergism that was present with this team. He talked about how the combined effort of the team was much more than what could be accomplished by the individual parts.
Cundall described the depth of the team in a rather comical way, mentioning that "I couldn't wait for the games, because that meant I had a chance to go up against someone who was actually soft. Every practice of ours was so tough."
For comparison he referenced Belgian draft horses that by themselves can haul 8,000 pounds, but when linked together can carry upwards of 22,000 pounds and even up to 36,000 pounds.
That's what this team was able to do, bond together to create something really remarkable.
McDougall uttered a similar sentiment as he described a "a group of modestly recruited basketball players coming together to accomplish basketball history."
He would go on to retell the story of each night of the grueling NAIA Championship tournament in Kansas City where to win the national title a team is required to win five games in five nights.
The Eagles came into the tournament as the nation's number one seed following their 35-0 regular season and district championship. He mentioned that the NAIA seeding committee made some changes that year to attempt to attract a TV contract with newly formed ESPN.
Due to the changes, Biola had a much more difficult road to the championship game than previous top seeds. The team had to face the No. 17 team in the country on the first night and needed double-overtime to win.
Then they drew a team from Chicago who had not lost since December thanks to three mid-season transfers from the Kansas Jayhawks. The Eagles survived and advanced to face a team with a future NBA player in their starting five and then had to play extra time against Kearney State before winning 84-75 to punch their ticket to the NAIA championship game.
After a trying road to the championship, Biola came up just short in the championship to now-NCAA Division I South Carolina-Spartanburg. In the pre-shot clock era both teams scored 51 or fewer in the championship game.
McDougall recalls that the team returned to La Mirada with a bevy of fans and supporters at LAX to welcome them home and congratulate them on an excellent season. He then went on to explain how much it meant when about a month later the team was invited to come to the US Olympic Training facility in Colorado Springs and participate in a postseason tournament, meaning the seniors' career would not need to end in a loss.
McDougall talked a lot about the basketball, but he ended his time at the podium reflecting on how important the school and its mission was on his life.
"I was not your typical Biola kid. I needed a lot of polish and this university provided it," McDougall said.
Finally, Biola Hall of Famer, Wade Kirchmeyer closed the remarks from the 81-82 team. He was one of two NAIA All-Americans on the squad.
He mentioned how the team was compiled in such a way that every player had made some kind of sacrifice. He recalled that anyone on the team could have started at any university, but that they all came together, accepted their roles and accomplished something special.
Each speaker was also very careful to acknowledge the efforts of the team's two redshirts, Bucky Dennis and Michael Gray. Dennis and Gray won't show up in any of the box scores that year, but each had a significant impact on the team's ability to grow and go out and win games.
After all three inductions and reflections were complete Cundall took the podium one last time to recognize Dr. Dave Holmquist's 40-year anniversary of working in the athletic department at Biola.
A 40-year legacy that includes 973 coaching wins, 21 national tournament appearances and most importantly impacting the lives of over 290 young men who've come through his program.
"Your contributions are worth a whole lot more than accolades," Cundall said. "You're able to get the most out of people. Your players respond. You're more than a coach. You're a friend."
He described Holmquist as a legacy-builder. Talking about how each of the members of the team there tonight ascribe themselves to leading like him and expanding his impact.
Cundall said that among their group was teachers, business leaders, administrators and FOUR pastors.
"Think of how much influence YOU have had on the world through just us," said Cundall. "Now multiply this impact by 40. It's pretty cool buddy."
The full video of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony and full photo album will be made available in the coming weeks. Check this Hall of Fame page for those links, shortly.
Thank you to those of you who were able to join us live.
