BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University Athletics Department has announced the latest class of inductees into the Athletics Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025. The class of 2025 will recognize the first Legacy inductees, representing the pre-Title IX and AIAW era. The Legacy inductees include Leanne Grotke Andreas, Sue Hager,  Betsy Miller Ryan, Carole Huston, and the 'First Five' (All Americans Betsy Fisher, Barb McKee, Valerie Newell, Gail Sailer and Becky Siesky). The 2025 induction class will also include Scott Hamilton, Omar Jacobs, Greg Kampe and the 1969-72 men's cross country teams.

The induction ceremony and related events will take place on the weekend of Oct. 10-11, 2025, with the induction ceremony set for Friday evening, Oct. 10, and the inductees recognized at the football game vs. Toledo on Saturday, Oct. 11. Details on the induction ceremony will be announced at a later date.

"Congratulations to this very accomplished group of former student-athletes," said BGSU Director of Athletics Derek van der Merwe. "It is so important we effectively recognize the achievements of this class because who they are and what they have accomplished is an important part of our history and legacy.

"Our Hall of Fame represents the best of what we have achieved in athletics during our 115-year University story. We are honored to recognize these individuals and this team for their contribution to this amazing story."    

Grotke Andreas, a native of Sylvania, Ohio, was a member of the first women's varsity intercollegiate basketball team (1962-63), the intercollegiate field hockey team, and Delta Psi Kappa, national professional physical education society before graduating in 1963. She enrolled in grad school at Indiana University and after earning her master's degree in 1966, stayed on at IU as an assistant professor for women's physical education. In 1969, Grotke played a pivotal role in establishing IWISO, the Indiana Women's Intercollegiate Sports Organization, and in the 1973-74 school year, Grotke was named the first full time Associate Athletic Director for Women's Athletics in the Big Ten. She was hired as director of athletics for women at Cal State Fullerton in 1978 and, after the department was reorganized, was named associate athletic director in 1980. She spent 13 years at Fullerton before retiring in 1991. Grotke's experiences also include being commissioner of national championships for the AIAW, and she served six years on the NCAA Executive Board. She was named to the IU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012.

Hager joined BGSU  as an instructor in the department of Women's Physical Education in 1968. She spent two years (1969-71) as coach of the softball team, and in 1971 she took the reins of the women's intercollegiate basketball team, a position she held until 1976. By the end of her tenure as basketball coach, she had amassed a record of 55-20, and BGSU had finished second to Ohio State in two of the first three OAISW (Ohio Association for Intercollegiate Sports for Women) championships. Along the way, her Falcons defeated Ohio State in a 1975 victory that she has identified as among the most memorable moments of her coaching career. During later seasons, Hager was also the Director of Women's Intercollegiate Athletics. In addition to these duties, she also served as an instructor and later reached the rank of tenured professor. She continued to be involved in Women's Athletics and Physical Education once her tenure as coach was over in 1976. She retired from the university as an assistant professor in 1991, and was granted emeritus status. Hager, along with Larry Weiss, co-wrote and co-produced a documentary about the women's basketball program. The documentary, "BGSU Women's Basketball: A Legacy of Excellence," aired on WBGU-TV in 2010.

Hamilton, a native of Bowling Green, is  a world-renowned figure skater, sports analyst/commentator, and businessman as well as an honorary degree holder from BGSU in 1994. At age 13 he left home to train for national competition. From 1980-84 Hamilton a veritable plethora of won every national and world competition, capping his career with a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. He also won the World Championships, held in Ottawa, Canada, in that same year. Hamilton turned professional after his Olympic victory and created his own professional ice revue, The Scott Hamilton America Tour, which evolved into the touring spectacle Stars on Ice. His ebullient personality, humor, and showmanship revolutionized the role of the male figure skater and helped create a vast new audience for figure skating. Mr. Hamilton currently serves on the Board of Directors for Special Olympics International. Hamilton was a 2008 inductee into BGSU's Paul J. Hooker Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Hall of Fame. Hamilton has won over 70 titles, awards, and honors, including the U.S. Olympic Spirit Award, the Jacques Favart Award, and the Thriver Award. He was inducted into both the US Olympic Hall of Fame and the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1990.

Huston, a native of Dayton, is a two-time graduate of the University. She earned a degree in theater arts in 1962, then earned a second degree in health and physical education in 1966. Huston competed on the tennis team at BG, and after teaching at the high-school level, she spent three years as a coach and teacher at Ashland College (now University). In 1970, Huston was hired at Eastern Michigan University as a physical education instructor. She served the first of two stints at EMU from 1970-76, coaching the school's women's tennis and women's swimming teams. In 1975, Huston became the school's first women's athletics director. The next year, (1976), she came to BGSU as an associate athletics director. That '76 year saw the first athletic scholarships awarded to women at BGSU, and there was a merger of the women's and men's intercollegiate athletic departments. Huston was the first woman in the United States to be hired as a full-time administrator at an NCAA Division I institution when she oversaw BGSU's women's and men's non-revenue sports, and she served a stint as the interim athletics director. Huston returned to EMU in 1991 as senior women's administrator, a position she held until her retirement in May of 2003. Huston served as EMU's interim athletics director from 1997-99, and her experiences also included serving as the AIAW commissioner of national championships. She was inducted into the EMU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.

Jacobs earned three football letters for the Falcons, and authored a record-setting 2004 season. After redshirting the 2002 season, he played in four games in 2003, spelling fellow BGSU Hall-of-Famer Josh Harris. Jacobs had an amazing 2004 campaign, when he was named the MAC's Offensive Player of the Year. Jacobs led the nation in touchdown passes that fall, with a then MAC-record 41, and he also led the entire country in points responsible for per game (22.5). A First-Team All-MAC selection, he was a CNNSI.com honorable mention All-American, and also  was named MVP of the 2004 GMAC Bowl. In addition to TD passes, Jacobs also set a MAC single-season record with a total of 45 touchdowns responsible for, and he finished second nationally in total yards per game (358.5). Jacobs also was second in the country with 4,002 yards passing, and he was third nationally in passing efficiency (165.47). And, with 41 touchdown passes and just four interceptions, he set a record for the best TD-to-INT ratio in NCAA Division-I history. Jacobs completed a school-record 224 passes without an interception during the season. A semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien Award in 2005, he tied for the MAC lead in total offense (294.8) and was second in passing yards (287.9), efficiency (150.9) and TD passes (26) despite missing several games due to injury. A second-team preseason All-American choice by The Sporting News, Jacobs also was a preseason candidate for the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award. He left BGSU after his junior year and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fifth round. At the time, he was the all-time BGSU career leader in TD passes with 71, as well as the active NCAA career leader in total offense (295.6), passing yards per game (277.5) and passing efficiency (162.5).

Kampe was a two-sport standout for BGSU in the mid-1970s. He was a punter and a defensive back for the football Falcons, and was a two-time All-MAC Second-Team selection at the latter spot. He set the school record (since broken) with a 77-yard punt in a 1975 win over Southern Miss. On the hardwood, Kampe earned three letters at BG. Kampe is the longest-tenured Division-I men's basketball coach in the country, as the 2024-25 season was his 41st at Oakland University. In the '23-24 campaign, Kampe guided the Golden Grizzlies to the first outright Horizon League regular season title in program history, and OU went on to capture the program's first Horizon League Tournament Title. Oakland advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in Kampe's tenure, and 14th-seeded Grizzlies defeated third-seeded Kentucky, 80-76, in the program's first-ever Round of 64 win. He was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, and was also enshrined in the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan (BCAM) Hall of Fame that same year. He won his 700th career game on Nov. 4, 2024, and concluded the 2024-25 season with a total of 715 career victories.

Miller Ryan, a native of Cleveland Heights, came to BGSU in 1976, and competed in both cross country and track for the next several years. In 1979, she married and stepped away from athletic competition to give birth to Lisa, her first child. She was awarded an undergraduate degree in 1979, and returned to the cross country and track teams in 1980 as a graduate student. Miller Ryan had been named Most Valuable member of both the track and cross country teams in 1978 and repeated as Most Valuable member of the latter team in 1980. She won three consecutive races in that '80 season, culminating with a first-place finish in the MAC championships as BGSU won the team title. In track, she won 12 intercollegiate championships in seven different events, set 18 school records in seven different events (sometimes breaking her own previous records) and seven meet records, won three state championships and two MAC Invitational championships, and qualified for one AIAW National Championship. In cross country, she won first place in three meets, set one school record and one course record, won a MAC championship, was named All-MAC and All-Region, and qualified for AIAW Nationals twice. Miller Ryan was the first-ever woman to win a MAC individual title, as she was the individual winner at the 1980 MAC Cross Country Championships, the first sport to hold a championship in the first year that the MAC offered championships in women's sports. BGSU, as mentioned, won the team title that season. Miller Ryan earned her undergraduate degree in three years, as an elementary education major, and received a Master's degree in special education.

The men's cross country program, under head coach Mel Brodt had a dominant run as a national power from 1969 through '72. During that time, the Falcons went 33-4 in dual meets, and BGSU placed ninth, eighth, seventh and sixth, respectively, at the NCAA Championships during those four years. BGSU joined Oregon as the only teams to finish in the top 10 during all four seasons. The Falcons won the MAC Championship in 1969, and captured two All-Ohio titles (1970-71), one NCAA District Four championship (1972), three-straight Notre Dame Invitational titles and two Central Collegiate Conference crowns during that span. Sid Sink was a three-time All-American, finishing ninth (1968), 12th (1969) and eighth (1970) at the national meet. Dave Wottle finished 12th at the national meet in 1971, with Craig Macdonald placing 12th in '72 to earn them both All-America accolades. Sink was the MAC individual champion in both 1968 and '69, with Wottle earning the MAC individual crown in '71. McDonald was the MAC runner-up in 1972, and the Falcons had four All-Ohio champions in a five-year span in Sink (1968 and '69), Wottle (1971) and Macdonald (1972).

The 'First Five' – women's swimming standouts Betsy Fisher, Barb McKee, Valerie Newell, Gail Sailer and Becky Siesky – became the first female All-American athletes at BGSU, earning a total of 21 All-America and one Honorable Mention All-America accolades in three individual events and six relay events in 1974 and 1975. The quintet earned All-America honors at the 1974 AIAW Swimming and Diving National Championships, hosted by Penn State University, then turned in repeat performances at the 1975 AIAW Nationals held at Arizona State. As had been the case in 1974, four of them earned All-America honors in more than one event. These swimmers were also repeat champions in numerous state and regional championships. At the 1975 Midwest Championships at Central Michigan, the 200-yard freestyle relay team broke the national record, shaving 1.35 seconds off of the previous mark.
 
Fisher was a five-time All-American in three events, including the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay events in both 1974 and '75. She also earned an All-America honor in the 200-yard medley in 1975, swimming the butterfly portion of that race. McKee also was a five-time All-American in three events, earning the honor in the 100-yard backstroke and the 400-yard freestyle relay in both 1974 and '75, while picking up an A-A accolade with the backstroke portion of the 200-yard medley relay in 1975. Newell was a four-time All-American, earning the honor in both 1974 and '75 in the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay. Sailer was a two-time All-American in the 200-yard freestyle relay in both '74 and '75. Siesky was a five-time All-American in three events, including the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay in both 1974 and '75. She swam the freestyle portion of the 200-yard medley relay in '75. The BGSU "Swimmin' Women" won the state championship every year from 1974 through '80.