With 121 total MAAC Tournament Championships across 15 different sports, Marist Athletics has a long history since joining the MAAC Conference in 1997. That history has been built by a series of specific players, teams, coaches and faculty members that had resounding success representing Marist Athletics.
It has become a goal of Marist athletic director Tim Murray to give those individuals and teams in the athletic program’s history a more formal recognition. As such, he recently took charge of creating a Hall of Fame.
Murray’s vision is to dedicate a wall inside the McCann Center to their soon-to-be-established Hall of Fame. The wall will be near the gymnasium and display Marist’s most influential coaches, athletes, teams and contributors as members of the Hall of Fame.
One of the more difficult aspects of creating any Hall of Fame is deciding who is worthy of recognition. It cannot be too exclusive, or there will not be enough great names to fully recognize the history of the University and its 21 Division I teams. However, too many nominees runs the risk of diminishing the honor. In turn, Murray carefully put together a unique nomination system.
Murray plans to have an annual induction on the Friday of homecoming every year in the McCann gymnasium. The committee loosely agreed on a maximum of six inductees per hall of fame class, with the possible exception of the inaugural class.
Murray acknowledged that even a six-person hall of fame class is extensive. Many schools keep the number as low as two or three per year, but with the number of teams he hopes to represent in the Hall of Fame, he believes it is necessary.
There will be four categories of nominees: student-athletes, coaches, teams and uniquely, contributors. A contributor can be an alumnus, benefactor, administrator or anyone who played a role in the success of the athletic program at Marist. Classes are not required to have one of each, but the committees are free to select a nominee that represents Marist Athletics from any of those four roles.
To be eligible, student-athletes must be five years removed from enrolling at Marist while coaches must be two years past their coaching tenure at Marist.
There are three steps to the selection process, with the first being a public nomination link that allows people to write in nominees that will be added to a list to be whittled down during the process. Second, the nomination committee, made up of five current Marist contributors, selects a list of nominees. The committee includes three athletic directors: Mike Ferraro, Elizabeth Donohue and Harrison Baker. The other two members are the school’s longest currently tenured head coach, men’s soccer’s Matt Viggiano, and a representative of their booster group, the Red Fox Club, Michael T. Flynn.
This year, the committee had a very difficult task as their original list had over 400 people on it. It is up to these five to narrow the list down to make the subsequent step easier for the next group that is involved in the process.
The third and final step of the process is perhaps the most difficult. After the nomination committee trims down the original list of candidates, the selection committee, made up of 10 Marist Alumni and a board of trustees member, is responsible for trimming the list down to just the induction class.
“The rich history and tremendous group of people that gets to be considered here puts you in a situation where there may be 50 people that can’t be let in, but we have to be disciplined…” said ESPN’s John Lasker, a member of the selection committee.
While the selection committee will be faced with tough decisions for each induction class, Murray is very confident in their decision-making given their experience working in sports.
“One of the things I’m not sure people understand is how well our alumni have done in the sports industry,” he said. “Everyone [in the selection committee] works at a very high level in certain levels of sport.”
This collection of people, including the likes of Lasker, Dallas Wings CEO Greg Bibb and ESPN’s Bobby Marks, is being trusted to narrow down a huge list of Marist greats on a yearly basis. Of all the names that are part of the committee, it is assistant athletic director Mike Ferraro who will have the most responsibility with this process.
“Mike is our resident historian. He has incredible recall. So he’s going to be working very closely with the selection committee, as he has up to this point,” Murray said.
Ferraro has been involved since the conversations around this project started.
“Going back over the past couple of years, there have been discussions about it and, in terms of this getting to where it is now, I think that over the last year and a half to two years is when the momentum really grew on this one,” he said.
Ferraro has been guiding the Sports Information Department at Marist for two decades and earned a promotion to Assistant AD/Sports Information in 2016. He is a valuable member of the nomination committee, but he will also be in close contact with the selection committee throughout their part of the process.
Still, younger voices can also provide a valuable perspective. Baker, a fellow nomination committee member, started working with Marist Athletics full-time directly after his graduation in 2014. In August of 2020, Baker was named the associate athletics director. His time as a sports information director has helped him gain valuable insight.
“It helped build a barometer of where a Hall of Famer should reside,” Baker said. “There are just so many, and we hope we can do [the nominees] justice… I think everyone who should be honored will eventually be honored in the correct way.”
With the inaugural class being announced later this winter, the pressure to get the first class right is high.
“I think it’s more about setting a tone as we really try to make sure anybody who gets nominated this year is absolutely, 100 percent, deserving. We wanted this class to be undeniable. There is no debate.” Lasker said.
As they evaluate these nominees, it will be key to consider their careers after their time with Marist, to factor in growth, experience and dedication in their athletic career.
“A lot of the candidates here have had great careers with Marist. Some of the candidates have had great careers after Marist, but I think it is important to take all of those merits and be able to combine them and compare them, then make the best decision from there,” Baker said.
The committee is currently making its final selections for the inaugural class which is expected to be inducted in Oct.
Edited by Ava Battinelli and Max Rosen
Graphic courtesy of Marist Athletics
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