Six former athletes and coaches were inducted into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame for the class of 2016, IU Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Fred Glass announced Wednesday.
The inducted class represents six different sports, and the inductees are John Laskowski (men’s basketball), Harold Mauro (football), Diane Stephenson (softball), Sara Reiling-Hildebrand (diving), Fred Tyler (swimming) and Albert Robinson (track and field).
All of the honorees will be inducted Oct. 28 at the annual Hall of Fame dinner and recognized at halftime of the IU-Maryland football game Oct. 29.
Laskowski played basketball for the Hoosiers under coach Bob Knight from 1972-75 and averaged 10.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 84 career games played. He played a pivotal part in the Hoosiers three straight Big Ten championships starting in 1973 and on the undefeated regular season team in 1975 that finished 35-1.
Mauro has etched his name into IU football history by being a part of nine of the Hoosiers’ 10 bowl games. A linebacker for his first two seasons, Mauro changed positions to center and started there for IU in the 1967 Rose Bowl.
He returned to IU in 1971 as a freshman assistant coach before moving up to the varsity ranks the year after and named offensive coordinator in 1982. Mauro spent the next 22 years as a senior associate athletics director, before serving as director of football operations from 2005-09.
Another player-turned-coach is Stephenson, who was the first female to earn an athletic scholarship at IU. She led the Hoosiers in batting average for two seasons and became the first IU softball All-American in 1981 after batting .359 and posting a 10-2 record in the circle.
She took over as head coach in 1988 and had three straight winning seasons before winning a Big Ten championship in 1994 and posting the program single season win record.
A couple of aquatic Hoosiers who are being inducted into the hall are Reiling-Hildebrand and Tyler. Reiling-Hildebrand dominated the platform during her time at IU, winning eight Big Ten diving titles and 10 All-America awards. She was a two-time Olympian in 2000 and 2004 while Tyler competed during the 1972 games and won gold in the 800 freestyle relay.
Tyler was also a 15-time All-America selection and four-time NCAA champion while leading the Hoosiers to a 1973 NCAA team championship.
Robinson is the school outdoor record holder in both the 100m dash (10.22 seconds) and 200m dash (20.07 seconds). He earned four outdoor All-America honors and seven Big Ten titles between both indoor and outdoor track and was a member of the 4x100m relay team in the 1988 Olympics.
Zain Pyarali
