The 1965-66 men’s basketball team, coached by Ken Mast, posted the best winning percentage in modern Bluffton history, going 17-6 and winning the Mid-Ohio League title. The Beavers’ 9-1 mark in the MOL represented the only league title won by a Bluffton men’s basketball team in the previous 50 years.
The team holds school season records for most wins (10) and best winning percentage (.833) in Founders Hall, most rebounds (1,317), highest rebound average (57.3), highest rebound margin (9.4), and highest averages for free throws made (20.2) and attempted (28.7). Bluffton put together two six-game winning streaks and scored 100 or more points three times.
Team members Lynn Martin, Jim Sommer and Alex Clark were first-team All-MOL. Martin was also first-team all-district, while Clark received second-team all-district honors.
Martin and Sommer, along with teammate Mark Froning, are among the top 10 Bluffton career scorers and in the Athletics Hall of Fame. Sommer and Clark are ranked first and fourth, respectively, in career rebounding.
He received two national awards his senior year, gaining second-team NAIA All-American recognition and honorable mention Little All-American. Only he, Elbert Dubenion ’59 and Greg Gilcrease ’89 have received first- or second-team All-American honors among Bluffton football players.
In 1985-86 she set the season mark—also still standing—for field goals made (165) while earning first-team Western Buckeye Collegiate Conference honors. The previous year she was second-team All-WBCC and honorable mention all-district. She led the team in scoring her last two years and was at the top in six statistical categories as a senior. An outside hitter on the volleyball team, she led Bluffton in service aces in 1985.
Bluffton won the Oberlin Early Bird Tournament, was second in the Defiance Invitational and placed third in the Ohio Northern Invitational. The Beavers went 5-0 in the Western Buckeye Collegiate Conference during the regular season and 3-0 in the WBCC tournament before ending the year with a 1-1 record in the NAIA District 22 tournament.
He was undefeated in regular-season play during his college career, with his only loss in the quarterfinals of the NAIA national tournament. He went on to win the Lima city singles and doubles titles several times in the 1970s.
A graduate of Shaker Heights High School near Cleveland, where he lettered in football and basketball and was an all-league standout, Collier was urged to attend Bluffton by another Shaker Heights student, Henry Freeman. He became a four-year football letter winner at Bluffton, earning Hoosier-Buckeye Collegiate Conference and NAIA District 22 honors twice. He also was an honorable mention All-American, played in
Gilbert was a powerful attacker for Coach Kim Fischer’s volleyball teams from 1979-82, but was exceptional at all positions on the court. In her senior season, she was named first-team All-NAIA District 22 after leading Bluffton to the 1982 district championship and a 25-7 record. She led the team in kills (53), aces (13), serve reception percentage (.804) and digs (195) that season and was a team leader in almost every statistic throughout her four-year career.
00 points in four straight seasons. Gilbert twice led her team in assists and free throw percentage, and she is one of only a handful of juniors to serve as a Bluffton captain.
With more victories than any coach in Bluffton history, Kim Fischer took her place in the Athletics Hall of Fame just one year after her departure from campus.
A native of Antwerp, Ohio, Hollabaugh scored 687 points and grabbed 421 rebounds in her career at Bluffton. Her point total ranked fourth when she graduated and her rebound total ranked third. Hollabaugh’s .771 career free throw percentage was a Bluffton record when she graduated and today is tied for fifth, while her 140 steals now rank eighth.
the time of his graduation in 1989, Hemmert held 24 school records. His career totals that still rank among the best in Bluffton football history include: 5,614 yards of total offense (fourth), 4,951 passing yards (fourth), 290 completions (fifth), a .522 completion percentage (seventh), 39 touchdown passes (second) and a pass efficiency rating of 141.1 (second).
Following stints at Ottawa-Glandorf and North Central high schools, Rob moved his family to Bucyrus, Ohio, and took over as head basketball coach at Wynford High School—a position he held for 24 years. In addition to coaching, Sheldon served as assistant principal and athletics director at Wynford.
out volleyball player from 1983-86. Blosser’s 1985 volleyball team was enshrined in the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996. She was also a three-year letter winner on the basketball court.
Jackson graduated from Bluffton in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was a three-sport athlete as a Beaver, with his greatest accomplishments coming on the hardwood. In the first basketball game in Founders Hall, Jackson scored the winning basket against Ashland. In addition to being a four-year letter winner and captain of the basketball team, he lettered three years on the baseball diamond and once in track and field.
After attending Bluffton, he completed his compulsory military service as a paratrooper and then continued his higher education at The Adelphi College, obtaining a master’s degree in social work. Most of his professional career was spent with human service organizations. Prior to his death, he was on the teaching faculty of Youngstown State University’s sociology department, working closely with the urban studies program.
Stan held master financial planner status with American Express Financial Advisors Inc. prior to his retirement in 2000. He is a long-time member of the local Lions’ Club, having served three times as president, and recently received the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. In Bluffton, he served as Bluffton United Fund chairman, Mennonite Memorial Home Fund Drive treasurer, Bluffton Family Recreation Board president and Bluffton Child Development Board’s director of finance.
arned all-district honors twice. He is Bluffton’s career leader in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He also leads Bluffton ballplayers in triples and ranks sixth all-time in doubles.
orr was a two-sport athlete at Bluffton. Knorr played football all four years and was named honorable mention all-conference in 1955. He was co-captain in 1956, when Bluffton won a conference title with Knorr starting at both fullback and defensive end. He also played baseball for the Beavers and was a two-year letter winner.
She participated in volleyball for four years, earning two letters. She averaged 2.66 kills per game, and her career total of 806 kills ranks 16th all-time at Bluffton.
ict honors in 1991 and 1992. She continues to hold the second-best high-jump height of 5’3″.
Al Beitler, Greenbelt, Md., was a member of the Bluffton baseball team from 1973-76. Beitler was a pitcher who also compiled what remains the second highest Bluffton batting average in a season, going 17-for-34 (.500) at the plate in 1976. Beitler earned first-team All-Hoosier-Buckeye Conference honors and was named to the NAIA All-District Team.
ball teams of the early 1970s. In 1972, the four-year letterman helped lead the Beavers to a conference championship and was named first-team all-NAIA District 22. He also lettered one year each in basketball and baseball. A high school coach from 1973-87, he returned to Bluffton as offensive line coach from 1988-2006 and is now the Beavers’ running backs coach and director of academic support. He has been an adjunct instructor at Bluffton as well.
education from Bluffton and, in 1983, a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton. He and his wife Melanie live in Ottawa, where he also taught at Ottawa-Glandorf High School from 1979-2005 and was athletic director for three years.
education, he was Bluffton’s leader in career assists (306) and among the top 10 in career scoring (1,192 points). He now ranks third in assists and 14th in scoring, as well as second in career steals (155). He is the only player in Bluffton history with at least 1,000 points, 300 assists and 150 steals.
luffton in 1946 after serving in World War II. The Bluffton native played basketball, football and tennis, earning multiple varsity letters. He was named the outstanding athlete of 1947 at Bluffton, where he was also involved in music and theatre, among other campus activities.
ois and Missouri. Along the way, he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in education from Bowling Green State University and Ohio State University, respectively.
Beavers went to the NAIA national playoffs for the first of two consecutive years—and represent the third-most interceptions in a single season at Bluffton. A four-year letter winner, Williams was twice named to the NAIA District 22 first team and was a member of three Bluffton teams—the 1985, 1987 and 1988 Beavers—that have been inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame.
selection in both sports. He is already in the Bluffton Hall of Fame as part of the previously inducted 1965-66 basketball and 1967 baseball teams. Eighth on the career basketball scoring list with 1,414 points, he averaged 17.2 points per game and scored at least 20 points in 39 of his 82 games. He is still first in career free
throws made, with 424, and second in attempts (550). As a junior in 1966-67, Froning was named second-team NAIA District 22 as well as first-team all-MOC.
in opponents’ batting average (.216) and shutouts (tied, with nine); third in wins (38), strikeouts (365) and complete games (finishing all 64 games she started); and fourth in earned run average (
2.47). Also second on the fielding percentage list (.991) and a .286 hitter during her four years, Baker was named first-team all-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference in both 1999 and 2000; Most Valuable Player of the 1999 HCAC tournament, won by Bluffton; and conference MVP during the Beavers’ second-place season in 2000.