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Hall Doors Open Again
SPORTS
Hall Doors Open Again
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STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Umpire Rob Landaw makes a call during a softball game at Keith Sports Park in West Bloomfield.
One of the most anticipated annual events on the area’s sports calendar is returning after a two-year absence.
The Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame banquet, last held in 2019 before it was canceled in 2020 and 2021 by the COVID-19 pandemic, will be held Oct. 24 at a site that will be announced soon.
Don Rudick, executive director of the Michigan Jewish Sports Foundation, which oversees the Hall of Fame, said this year’s Hall of Fame inductees won’t be separated into classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022. They will all be 2022 honorees.
So will the Pillars of Excellence recipients, Dr. Steve and Evelyn Rosen Stars of Tomorrow scholarship winners and Jewish News High School Athletes of the Year, who also are honored at the banquet.
The banquet will look much like it has in previous years.
“We want to re-start a tradition. The banquet is so well organized. Why change something that’s working?” Rudick said.
Applications for the Hall of Fame, Pillars of Excellence, Stars of Tomorrow scholarships and Athletes of the Year are on the foundation’s website, michiganjewishsports. org. The applications can be filled out online, which is something new.
There’s no need to fill out another application if one was turned in the past two years.
“But you can if you want,” Rudick said.
The 2020 banquet was a goner because of the virus, but there was hope the 2021 banquet could be held.
“Then there was a virus surge in the spring,” Rudick said. “That put the kibosh on the banquet. There were just too many risks to hold it.”
The first Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame class was the 1985 group of Hank Greenberg, William Davidson, Benny Friedman and Harry Newman.
Larry Stark was inducted in 1986.
He was a tennis standout at Berkley High School and Michigan State University and a nationally ranked tennis and squash player.
Now the boys tennis coach at Frankel Jewish Academy, he’s taken the Jaguars to the Division 4 state tournament five times in his seven years in charge of the team.
Stark is glad to see the Hall of Fame banquet return. He’s been to many of them.
“The banquet is a great event,” he said. “A lot of very interesting people are there, and it raises money for the foundation.”
Rob Landaw was a Pillars of Excellence award recipient in 2016. That was the same year Rudick received the award, in part for his extensive involvement with the JCC Maccabi Games.
The award, first presented in 2012, goes to folks who have contributed to sports in a variety of ways including coaches, officials, administrators and media members.
Landaw has been a softball umpire in the area for more than 40 years. He’s been the umpire-in-chief for the Inter-Congregational Men’s Club Summer Softball League for many years.
He’s also glad the Hall of Fame banquet is back.
“I was in seventh heaven to be honored at such a wonderful event,” he said. “I’m sure there are a lot of well-deserving people out there have honors coming their way this year and in future years.”
Stars of Tomorrow scholarships are awarded to high school seniors who have excelled athletically and academically.
The scholarships were funded originally by a donation made in honor of Dr. Steve Rosen, a Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame member who died in 2016.
He was a track star at Mount Clemens High School and the University of Michigan.
The foundation’s 31st annual Hank Greenberg Memorial Golf and Tennis Invitational will be held June 6 at Franklin Hills Country Club in Farmington Hills, returning to its usual date after being canceled in 2020 and held in the fall in 2021.
Honorees include Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Ted Simmons, a Southfield High School graduate, who will receive the Hank Greenberg Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award.
Openings remain for individual golfers and foursomes. The deadline is May 20. Go to the foundation’s website or Facebook page or call Rudick at (248) 390-5981 for more information.
The invitational benefits the Karmanos Cancer Institute at the Lawrence and Idell Weisberg Cancer Treatment Center in Farmington Hills.
ROB LANDAW
Please send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo. com.
