Every year since 1999, Jesuit sports stars, past and present, come together for a night of food, laughter, and family in an annual toast to the rich history of Jesuit athletics, known as the Blue and Gold Banquet. Each year, numerous past Jesuit athletes are honored by being inducted in the Hall of Fame, joining an elite fraternity of men who represent the Rangers in an exceptional manner. However, many people may wonder how exactly one is chosen to be inducted into the Jesuit Sports Hall of Fame. The process is a long, thorough one, a process taken on by a special group of gentlemen, the nomination committee.
The first step of the process is known as the nomination period where the committee receives the nominations. The nomination form was found on Jesuit’s website and could be filled out by a friend or family member of the nominated athlete. The only requirements are that the nominee must have graduated from Jesuit Dallas, no longer attends college, and is a graduate for a minimum of five years.
The form asked for the nominator to state why the nominee should be inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame, offering questions about the person’s athletic accomplishments (both Jesuit and beyond), but also about the character of the men, how he was a Man for Others. Once the committee received all the forms and nominations, the group of gentlemen journeyed through the extensive process of researching each nominee. The committee is directed by the President of the Lettermen’s Club, Mr. Ted Talboka ’80. Making up the rest of the committee are past inductees of the Hall of Fame, former coaches, and other various alumni. Each gentleman on the committee takes on the task of researching each nominee, in order to find the worthiest alumni to enter the Hall of Fame.
Once the nominee pool was completed, usually with about 45-60 people, the research began. Each committee member begins to research his assigned athlete. They begin their research with phone calls, contacting friends, family, ex-coaches and ex- teammates, to try and create an accurate extensive portfolio of each person. With this information, the researchers then achieved a thorough grasp on what kind of man the athlete was, which they then reported to the committee. After all nominees were reviewed and examined, the committee trimmed the list down to the best 20 men. These 20 nominees, from the narrowed pool, were then reassigned to a committee member.
The committee researched every aspect of the athletes’ profiles. This task can range from finding newspaper clippings about the athletes to contacting members of the nominees’ graduating classes to find out the athletes’ reputations. After researching their high school careers, the committee began researching the college years, learning about a nominee’s collegiate athletic career, talking to ex-teammates and college coaches to get a sense not only of the skill of the player, but also the work ethic and character of the candidate.
Once finished, the board focused on the post-graduate years. Has he played professionally? How has he been a Man for Others in his workplace and corporate world? Once the research was all said and done, they returned to the committee to present their findings. Once each board member presented their research, the committee began the very difficult job of choosing who gets to be elected. A positive in this, however, is that there is no certain cap of number of people they can induct, but rather they are only to elect those they believe to be inducted.
Once the votes were counted, and the inductees decided, the committee members called the person and released the great news to them, asking that they be present at the banquet. If the person cannot attend the ceremony, they are not allowed to be inducted. This rule has proved important in the past few years as Michael Hollimon ’01 has been a constant in the inductee list.
However, since he is currently a minor league baseball player for the Minnesota Twins, he is unable to attend the ceremony, since it conflicts with the baseball season. Overall, it was a long and difficult process taken on by the committee to ensure that only the best of the best receive an invitation into the Jesuit Sports Hall of Fame. If you would like to see the fruits of this labor then sign up and purchase your ticket for the 2013 Blue and Gold Sports Banquet, where the 2013 class will be inducted.
