Colorado College's 17th Hall of Fame class was officially inducted on April 27, 2013, in a ceremony at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.
It was one of the school's largest and most diverse HOF groups ever, featuring honorees who earned the prestigious distinction with credentials running the gamut from competing to coaching to officiating.
CC announced in February that the 1995-96 Tigers hockey team, which steamrolled to the NCAA championship game before suffering a 3-2 overtime loss to the University of Michigan, will join former football standout Ryan Haygood '97, men's lacrosse great Ted Nusbaum '94, basketball player/longtime women's lacrosse coach Michelle (Giarratano) Secor '80 in the Colorado College Athletics Hall of Fame this spring.
A "veterans" selection committee later added Guy Gibbs '51, who went on to become the winningest prep coach ever in the state of Colorado during a distinguished career at Regis High School, and legendary hockey coach Cheddy Thompson (1945-55) to the list of inductees who will be enshrined officially later this month.
Haygood, a freshman defensive end on the football team that went 8-1 in 1993, earned All-America and Academic All-America accolades as a senior in 1996. He led the Tigers that season with 102 tackles, including 48 unassisted and 12 for losses, as well as nine sacks and three recovered fumbles. Now an attorney, he also returned an interception for 55 yards. He lettered all four years, helping Colorado College post a 19-16-1 record during his career.
With 276 career points, including 153 assists, Nusbaum still reigns as the lacrosse team's most prolific playmaker of all time. Both figures represent school records almost two decades later, while his 123 goals places him among an elite group of 11 CC players ever to reach the century mark. As a senior in 1994, he led the Tigers to their fourth of six titles in the old Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association with 87 points (29g,58a).
Secor lettered three seasons (1976-79) as a guard during the infant stages of the women's basketball program, helping Colorado College win the AIAW Region 7 Championship and reach nationals her freshman year. After graduating in 1980, she coached the women's lacrosse club team on a volunteer basis for 14 years before the Lady Tigers achieved varsity status in 1995, then continued to assist head coach
Susan Stuart Elliott for many seasons after that. She also has served multiple terms as a alumni representative on the Hall of Fame selection committee.
Gibbs, who played baseball and basketball at CC, retired in 1997 after 40 years at Regis. In addition to coaching four sports over a span of 28 seasons (1956-84) there, he also spent 26 officiating in the Western Collegiate Athletic Conference. His Regis basketball teams posted a 473-156 record and .752 winning percentage with him at the helm.
Thompson guided the Colorado College hockey team to the program's first NCAA championhip in 1950, when the Tigers demolished Boston College (10-3) and Boston University (13-4), respectively, in the national semifinals and finals at the old Broadmoor Ice Palace. The team went 149-72-6 (.670) with six NCAA bids during his decade behind the bench.
The 1995-96 icers, coached by Don Lucia and captained by current CC assistant
Eric Rud '97, went undefeated (15-0-3) in their first 18 games overall before running away with an unprecedented third consecutive regular-season championship in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Their 33 victories - including two against UMass-Lowell (5-3) and the University of Vermont (4-3 in overtime) in the NCAA playoffs - still stands as a school record. Two senior All-Americans - goalie Ryan Bach '96 and forward Pete Geronazzo '96 - were among eight Tigers to earn All-WCHA recognition that season, when Rud was honored as the league's Defensive Player of the Year and freshman forward Brian Swanson '99 was voted Rookie of the Year.
