Power lifter, Phillie Phanatic, sportswriter among Delaware Sports Hall of Fame 2024 class
A world-class powerlifter, the original Phillie Phanatic and a sportswriter for Delaware Online/The News Journal are among the nine 2024 inductees to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame.
Jonathan Stoklosa, a gold medalist at the 1999 Special Olympics World Games, and Dave Raymond, the sports mascot pioneer, will be honored May 23.
They are joined by nationally recognized sportswriter Kevin Tresolini, field hockey Olympian Caitlin Van Sickle, baseball player Cliff Brumbaugh, hurdler Eric Cannon, swimmer Gary Chelosky, gymnastics judge Cheryl Hamilton and gymnast Marcy Levine.
Here is a breakdown of the 2024 inductees.
Cliff Brumbaugh
A William Penn and University of Delaware graduate, Brumbaugh played more than a decade of professional baseball, including stints in South Korea, Japan and Mexico.
The Texas Rangers selected Brumbaugh in the 13th round of the MLB draft in 1995. Five times the third basemen earned All-Star honors in the minor leagues before playing for the Rangers and the Colorado Rockies in 2001.
He then ventured to the Korea Baseball Organization, winning league championships with the Hyundai Unicorns in 2003 and 2004. Brumbaugh later played in the Japan Pacific League and the Mexican League before retiring from professional baseball at age 36 in 2010.
In his three years at Delaware, the Blue Hens compiled a record of 117-48 and won two North Atlantic Conference titles. Brumbaugh hit .428 in 1994 and .442 in 1995. He ranked 31st on Delaware Online/The News Journal's 2022 list of the top 100 University of Delaware male athletes of all time.
As a William Penn senior in 1992, Brumbaugh led the state with a .509 batting average and earned first-team All-State honors.
Eric Cannon
The greatest high hurdler in Delaware history, Cannon won the 55-meter hurdles at the national high school indoor meet and six times earned All-American honors at the collegiate level.
At Delcastle, he won four state titles in both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Cannon's 55-meter hurdles time at the 1985 National Scholastic Meet remained the state record for 35 years. His performance in the 110-meter hurdles at the New Castle County meet the following spring was the state record for 34 years.
At Pittsburgh, Cannon won the 110-meter hurdles at the 1989 Penn Relays and placed second at the NCAA Championships. His time of 13.21 was the third-fastest ever run by an American collegiate. Cannon holds four Pitt records.
Gary Chelosky
Chelosky set national marks as a youth swimmer, won state championships at Salesianum and became a four-year All-American at Florida. He represented the U.S. at the 1971 Pan-American Games and was a finalist in the 1972 Olympic Trials.
At 10 years old in 1962, Chelosky set a National AAU record in the breaststroke swimming for Del-Vets Pool, a community swim club in Brandywine Hundred. He was the first Delawarean to hold a national age group record, The News Journal reported.
In 1969, as a Salesianum senior, Chelosky set three meet records at the state swimming and diving championships. The following summer, he won four events at Delaware's AAU championships.
At Florida, he won Southeastern Conference championships in the 200-yard breaststroke in 1971 and the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke in 1972. Chelosky held school records in those events and the 200-yard individual medley. He was named Florida's most outstanding athlete for the 1971-1972 academic year.
Chelosky died in 2019 at age 67.
Cheryl Hamilton
Hamilton is an internationally recognized gymnastics judge. She has officiated four Olympics and more than a dozen world championships.
Hamilton has been appointed as the USA judge for the Paris Olympics in 2024. It will be her fourth consecutive Olympic Games and fifth overall (she also judged the 1996 games in Atlanta).
Hamilton played a major role in writing the Code of Points rule book for USA judges for more than 25 years. She has been a gymnastics judge since 1977.
Marcy Levine
Levine, a Brandywine graduate, led Penn State to three national championships and placed among the nation's best individually.
As a Nittany Lion freshman, Levine won the floor exercise at the national AIAW collegiate championships. She placed third in the floor exercise and fourth in the all-around competition the following year and missed the competition as a junior due to injuries.
In 1982, the first year the NCAA sponsored a women's gymnastics competition, Levine finished 12th in the overall competition to pace Penn State's third-place finish.
Dave Raymond
The original Phillie Phanatic, Raymond pioneered the sports mascot industry.
The Phillies intern worked his first game as the Phanatic in April 1978 and developed the character into a cross-generational hit through 1993. He then started his own business that designs mascots and coaches performers. His business has developed more than 130 mascots for professional and college teams. One of Raymond's latest successes is the Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty, which debuted in 2018.
Raymond helped create the Mascot Hall of Fame in Whiting, Indiana, in 2005.
From 1976-1977, he punted for the University of Delaware. At Newark High, Raymond earned all-conference honors as a kicker.
Jonathan Stoklosa
Born with Down syndrome, Stoklosa did not talk until he was 11. He started lifting weights when he was 12.
Five years later, he won the gold medal in the bench press at the 1999 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Raleigh, North Carolina, the crowning achievement in a long career in powerlifting.
Later, Stoklosa won four gold medals at the 2010 USA Games and three golds and a silver at the 2014 USA Games. A regular winner at Delaware Special Olympics competitions, he was named Special Olympics Delaware Outstanding Athlete in 2006.
With lifetime bests of 385 pounds in squat, 425 in bench press and 425 in dead lift, Stoklosa excelled in powerlifting competitions outside of Special Olympics, too. He has also trained as a boxer, competed in swimming and wrestled at the varsity level at Newark High. He is an advocate and mentor for people with disabilities.
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Kevin Tresolini
Over 43 years at The News Journal, Tresolini has established himself as Delaware's preeminent sportswriter.
The National Sports Media Association has recognized him as Delaware Sportswriter of the Year a record 14 times. Six times Tresolini's work has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors in its national Top 10 writing awards.
Tresolini served as The News Journal's primary high school sports reporter from 1986 to 1999. He has covered University of Delaware basketball since 1993 and Blue Hen football since 1999. He has contributed to coverage of Philadelphia pro teams and has reported from six Olympics.
Tresolini's work exemplifies the essence and importance of journalism and is made possible through his commitment to reporting from a posture of empathy.
His stories have chronicled the danger of cutting weight in wrestling, developmental issues for female distance runners, a coach raising two sons after his wife's sudden death, a three-sport high school star's sudden cardiac arrest and subsequent recovery from the brink of death and K.C. Keeler's stunning firing as Delaware football coach.
Other stories have detailed the 1914 death of a Wilmington Friends graduate playing football for Johns Hopkins, the death of a racehorse at Delaware Park under mysterious conditions, two state wrestling champions overcoming family trauma and a high school lacrosse player succeeding in a sport that his late father adored though it left him paralyzed.
Tresolini joins Morning News, Evening Journal and News Journal sportswriters and editors Al Cartwright (inducted in 1980), John J. Brady (1993), Izzy Katzman (1993) and Matt Zabitka (2000) in the Hall of Fame.
Caitlin Van Sickle
Van Sickle was a three-time first-team All-American field hockey player at North Carolina and a 2016 Olympian.
She helped the Tar Heels to Atlantic Coast Conference titles in 2011 and 2012 and assisted on North Carolina's game-winning goal in the 2009 NCAA Championship. Then she embarked on a career with the U.S. National team that spanned six years and 148 international appearances.
At Tower Hill, Van Sickle won Delaware Player of the Year in field hockey and lacrosse. She was also a second-team All-State basketball player. She has been a field hockey coach at North Carolina since 2022.
Ticket information
The Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame is located at Frawley Stadium in Wilmington. The 48th Hall of Fame banquet is scheduled for May 23 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.
Tickets to the banquet are $75 each with tables of eight available for $550. They may be purchased at www.desports.org/events or by mailing a check to DSMHOF, 801 Shipyard Drive, Wilmington, DE 19801. Social hour, silent auction and memorabilia display begin at 5:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and ceremony at 6:45.
Brandon Holveck is a high school sports reporter. Contact him at bholveck@delawareonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware Sports Hall of Fame adds 9-member class of 2024
