Local Inductees and a Conshohocken Legend PA Sports Hall of Fame

Members of the Conshohocken, Plymouth and

Whitemarsh Community are invited to attend the

The Pa. Sports Hall of Fame Montco Chapter

Annual Induction Banquet, Class of 2024

By Jack Coll

9-27-24

     Eight new Montgomery County members of the community will be inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday, October 24, at Presidential Caters, located at 2910 Dekalb Pike in East Norriton.  A number of this years inductees have Conshohocken/Plymouth Whitemarsh ties.  The induction ceremonies begin at 7:00 PM and tickets are still available.

The 2024 inductees include:

Maddy Crippin—Swimming

Marvis Frazier—Boxing

Albert Donofrio—Community Service—Executive Director of the Conshohocken Fellowship House

Bill Racich—Wrestling

Merrill Reese—Broadcasting

Jack Bauerle–Swimming

Erica Dambach Walsh—Soccer

Bill Neely—Track and Field

       The Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Directors view this years class of inductees as a little bit of a Conshohocken, Plymouth and Whitemarsh reunion with five of the inductees having attended high school at Plymouth Whitemarsh or have been or currently local residents.

     The Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame was established in 1962, The Montgomery County Chapter has inducted many local athletes over the years.  Last year’s inductees included Charles Blockson of  Norristown, Kobe Bryant of Lower Merion, Tony Darden a Norristown track athlete known for running the 400 sprint, he became known not just in the United States but around the world. And Dale Hood, a long time member of the Advisory Board for the Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame, just to name a few.

     Two years ago, Bridgeport native Harry Joe Yorgey and Upper Merion High School alum was inducted for his professional boxing career.  Henry Hank Williams, a 1970’s Norristown Basketball standout, along with Steve Harner, Larry Wilson and Lawrence Livers just to name a few more.

     Let’s talk about a few of the 2024 inductees that will be honored at the banquet on Thursday October 24, at Presidential Caters. 

     Conshohocken’s own Maddy Crippen who helped shine a spotlight on Conshohocken when she competed in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney Australia where she placed sixth.

     Maddy was a three time United States National Champion, winning two National Titles in the 400-meter individual medley and one in the 200-meter breaststroke.  While attending Villanova University she won the NCAA Championship in the 400-yard individual medley, won ten Big East Championships and was named the Big East “Swimmer of the Year” twice, in 1999 and again in 2001.

     Maddy was a three-time Villanova “Swimmer of the Year” in 1999, 2001 and 2002.  She was a silver medalist at the 2002 Pan Pacific Championships and Post Olympics, she competed in the 2003 world championships in Barcelona, Spain.

     Maddy was captain of her high school swim team at Germantown Academy with legendary coach Richard “Dick” Shoulberg, she was All American all four years.  She traveled to Sweden in 1997 and competed in Japan and Australia a year later in 1998, she was also a member of the Gold Cup Team in Germany and England.

     Maddy is a member of the USA Swimming Board of Directors, she is on their Athletic Executive Committee and has been inducted into the Pennsylvania Swimming, Villanova, and Germantown Academy Hall of Fame.

     Marvis Frazier was a Plymouth Whitemarsh High School standout in football, basketball and wrestling who followed in his father’s footsteps and became a professional boxer posting a 19-2 record, eight of the victories were by knock-out.

     His only two professional loses were to, two of the greatest heavy weights of their time, Larry Holmes in 1983 and to Mike Tyson in 1986 who was 24-0 at the time.  Marvis had some outstanding victories in his career including a victory over the future World Cruiserweight Champion Bernard Benton.  He also posted a victory over heavyweight contender Jose Ribalta and James Tillis and future champion James “Bonecrusher” Smith.

     After retiring from boxing Marvis became an ordained minister, and became active in prison fellowship ministries and also became a TV producer.  He also served as a minster for a short time at St. John’s AME  Church in Conshohocken located at Eighth Avenue and Harry Street.    

     As most of us know Marvis’s father Joe Frazier was the World’s Heavyweight Champion and his sister, is Judge Jacque Frazier-Lyde, who was also a boxing champion, winning the WlBA title.

   Merrill Reese has been the voice of the Philadelphia Eagles since 1977, Merrill is the longest serving play-by-play broadcaster in the NFL, (National Football League).  He has been inducted into the Philadelphia Eagles Hall of Fame. And while Merrill has had a number of color-commentators over his forty seven years in the booth going back to Stan Waters, his current partner in former Eagles Wide Receiver Mike Quick who joined Merrill in the booth more than twenty-five years ago in 1998, the pair can be heard on 94 WIP radio for every Eagles game.

     Merrill was the recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award and on June 13, 2024 it was announced he was a Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee upon receiving the Pete Rozelle award.

     A little something you might not know is in 2022, Merrill provided vocals on the Eagles Christmas album, “A Philly Special Christmas.”

     Bill Racich is one of the most celebrated wrestling coaches in the country.  He has a coaching record of 532-120-8, and is ranked as the #6, all time winningest coach in the NCAA, and #2 all time winningest of NCAA active coaches.  Bill coached seven East Region Champs, 16 NCAA All-Americans and 74 NCAA Division Three Scholar All-Americans.

     He was named as Centennial Conference Coach of the Year eleven times, Bill was the NCAA East Regional Coach of the year in 2014.  Coach Racich never had a losing season as coach of Ursinus College.

     And by-the-way, Bill has been inducted into nine other Halls of Fame.

     Albert C. Donofrio is perhaps one of the most beloved individuals in the borough of Conshohocken since the borough was incorporated 174 years ago. Donofrio was a Bridgeport native, graduated from Bridgeport High School having lettered in three sports.  He went on-to West Chester State College where he became Captain of the tennis team and lettered in soccer and gymnastics.  Donofrio earned a Master’s Degree in recreation from Penn State and after a short stint in the military he landed a job as a teacher at Conshohocken High School teaching Health and Physical Education.

     In 1959, Donofrio landed a job as Executive Director at the Conshohocken Fellowship House, the borough’s youth center and recreation facility.  He became a Prominent PIAA basketball official, his peers elected him secretary of that organization,   Donofrio also was commissioner of the Ches-Mont High School Basketball League.

     Al Donofrio passed away in July 1976, but his name lives on with the basketball tournament he established back in 1960, called the “Conshohocken Teenage Basketball Classic.”  It started as a three game tournament between Conshohocken and St. Matthew High Schools.  In 1961, a few outsiders from Bridgeport, Norristown, and Plymouth Township showed up to play in the tournament.

     In 1962, Donofrio came up with this silly idea to invite several local college coaches and scouts to give these local kids a look.  As luck would have it Earl “The Pearl” Monroe played in the tournament as part of Melnick’s Esso Team in 1962 winning the championship beating Ray’s Tavern, featuring Fred Carter, who would later play for the Philadelphia 76’ers among other pro teams.  The visiting college coaches and scouts were extremely impressed with Monroe and the small tournament. Monroe was a South Philadelphia playground legend long before attending John Bartram High School before going on the play at Winston-Salem State.   

     In 1976 Donofrio passed away, the cancer caught-up with him.  The following spring the tournament was renamed in his honor, “The Albert C. Donofrio Tournament.”  As the tournament enters its sixty-fourth season, and still regarded as one of the premier high school basketball tournaments in the country as twenty six all-star teams battle it out for the prestige’s Donofrio championship title.

     Nearly 250 participants in the Donofrio Tournaments went onto play professional sports over the years including professional baseball, football and basketball. A few of the names you might recognize include,  Reggie Jackson, Marvin Harrison, John Pergine, Brad Scioli, Jay Wright, Steve Bono, Greg “Bo” Kimble, Jerome ‘Pooh” Richardson, Hank Gathers, (passed away before being drafted) Kyrie Irving, Kobe Bryant, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, (Kobe’s father) Aaron McKie, John Salmons, Rasheed Wallace, Matt Guokas Jr., Matt Carroll, Gene Banks and more than 200 other Donofrio Tournament participants that have gone on to have professional careers.

     In 1973, Donofrio had been battling cancer  when a William Tennent High School quarterback, Buddy Miley, suffered a paralyzing injury in a football accident in a game against Plymouth Whitemarsh High.

     It was Al who instigated the Buddy Miley Fund in this area, a plea that reached the hearts of so many adults and young in our neighborhood.  The fund mushroomed almost overnight.

     When those monies that were volunteered here were set up in a Buddy Miley Trust Fund in his home area, Warminster, the Bucks County administrators saw fit to vote Donofrio a director of that trust, a position that he held to his death.

   In Al’s final days he heard of a team of youngsters that was without baseball uniforms for the season.  They were unable to make contact with a sponsor to outfit them.  Al heard about it and despite his illness, hustled and scratched to make sure there wouldn’t be a disappointed bunch of Conshohocken kids on the ball field without uniforms.

     He never lived to see those kids, proud as peacocks, in baseball uniforms he had engineered.

When Al was laid to rest the lads paid their respects to their benefactor , in full uniform.

     As I flip through the yellowed newspaper clippings of Al Donofrio there are hundreds of stories to be told.  To hear more stories about the late-great Al Donofrio, I’m sure more than a few familiar faces attending the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Banquet will be sharing their stories and antidotes.

     Other inductees being inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame on October 24, at Presidential Caters include:

     Erica Walsh Dambach, a Lower Moreland/Penn State grad who won awards throughout her career as both a soccer player and coach.  She led Penn State to the 2015 National Soccer championship as coach of the Nittany lions Woman’s Team.

     Erica was twice named NSCAA Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2015.

     Bill Neely has been a resident of Abington Township for his entire life.  Bill’s dedication to athletics and education has clearly made a significant impact on the Abington School District and community,  Bill has had a very impressive career both as an athlete and a coach.  To hear a summery of his long, long list of achievements, tune-in at the banquet to hear and see what an amazing community person Bill Neely is.

     Jack Bauerle is a very prominent swimming coach who coached the 2000 and 2020 USA Olympic Swim Teams and is a National Coaching lifetime achievement  Award winner.  He was also Head Coach of the 2003 and 2005 USA World Championship Team. Mr. Bauerle coached 152 All American female swimmers and 92 All American male swimmers.  Mr. Bauerle has a lot of interesting stories to tell and you’ll hear some of them on October 24.

     You can still order your tickets to attend the banquet and catch up with some familiar faces by going to Pa. Sports Hall of Fame Montco, and click on the 2024 induction.  If you are purchasing your tickets by, check you can make the payment to “Montco Sports Hall of Fame” and mail it too:

Montco Sports Hall of Fame

2921 Dermond Road

Norristown Pa  19403

Individual tickets are $75.00 and tables for eight are still available.

Attendees receive a beautiful program book with bio’s and other information on the inductees.  If you are interested in advertising in the program, ads can be e-mailed, simply attach the ad graphic files and e-mail to Montcoshof@g mail.com

I’ll see you at the banquet!!