UNIVERSITY OF DENVER HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2007

Class Of 2007

UNIVERSITY OF DENVER ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2007

HERITAGE ERA INDUCTEES
Name	Years	Sport(s)
Kenny Jastrow	1946-48	Football, Basketball, Baseball
MODERN ERA INDUCTEES
Name	Years	Sport(s)
Soteris Kefalas	1981-84	Soccer
Kathy Stacey	1974-81	Gymnastics
WOMEN'S INDUCTEE
Name	Years	Sport(s)
Narcisa Sehovic	1993-96	Skiing
TEAM INDUCTEE
1954 Football Team

HERITAGE ERA INDUCTEES

Kenny Jastrow

Football, Basketball, Baseball 1946-48
A three-sport athlete, Kenny Jastrow excelled on the basketball court and the baseball diamond for DU from 1946-48 and played football his freshman year. Named the Robert Russell outstanding amateur athlete for the Northwest Region in 1945, Jastrow went on to two consecutive All-Skyline Conference selections in basketball and matched that with two in baseball at DU. He finished third on the basketball team in scoring in both 1946-47 and 1947-48 and following the 1948 season was named an Honorable Mention All-American by A.A.U Basketball. Selected by the Minneapolis Lakers in the 1948 BAA Draft, he helped lead DU to wins over St. John’s, Notre Dame, and Wyoming that season. DU accepted a bid to the NAIB tournament that season but was defeated by Mankato Teacher’s College of Minnesota, the previous year’s runner-up. Following his graduation from DU, he went to work for Phillips 66, where he worked until his retirement. He has always been an active alum to the University, serving a 6-year term on the DU Alumni Association Board of Directors and one year as its president. 

MODERN ERA INDUCTEES

Soteris Kefalas
Soccer, 191-84
Born in Paralimni, Cyprus, Soteris Kefalas came to the University of Denver in 1981 and left as perhaps the greatest soccer player in DU history. Along the way he broke nearly every school record, most of which he still holds. In his three years as a player, Kefalas scored 104 goals and racked up 230 points, which at the time shattered the records of 77 goals and 164 points, set by Arie DeGroot from 1965-67. In his final season in 1983, Kefalas left an indelible mark on DU soccer the likes of which hasn’t been seen since. He scored 47 goals and tallied 105 points, both season records and breaking marks he himself set in 1982. In 1983 he finished second in NAIA national statistics for goals per game (2.0) and points per game (4.38) and was named a second-team NAIA All-American, the same year he helped lead DU to a 19-4-1 overall record and the school’s first and only appearance in the NAIA National Championships. Kefalas recorded two five-goal games, five four-goal games and four three-goal games in his three-year career and all three of his seasons rank in DU’s top-five for points and goals. His 11 assists in the 1981 season also rank in the top-five. A hotel and restaurant tourism major at DU, he followed his playing career by authoring six books on the hotel industry and working with his family’s hotel and restaurant interests in Cyprus. He has been a professor in the hospitality industry since 1985 and since 2001, he has been the Assistant Head Master in the Hotel and Catering School at Paralimni Technical School in Cyprus.

Kathy Stacey

Gymnastics Coach, 1974-81

In 1972, the landmark legislation Title IX stated that all “Universities must provide equal athletic opportunities for both sexes”. In October of 1974, the DU Athletics Department announced notice of an “organizational meeting for women interested in a gymnastics team” of which Kathy Stacey would be head coach. That was the beginning of the DU gymnastics program, which Stacey started from the ground up in 1974 and it has since blossomed into one of DU’s most successful women’s programs. She began the program with no scholarship athletes and in just four years, helped lead DU to a fourth-place finish at the first-ever AIAW Small College Championships. By 1979 DU was a Division II national power and Stacey was instrumental in laying the groundwork for DU’s future successes. Her work began in 1975, where she fielded a team with just five gymnasts, Mary Troutman, Kathie Friend, Julia Gwinn, Cassie Boggs and Kim Telander, and competed against schools from Colorado. Two years later marked the first season DU was able to field a complete 12-member team and offer scholarships, and the Pioneers won the small college division championships. In 1978, Stacey was the architect of a season that marked the beginning of an extended run of excellence for the Pioneers that would culminate in consecutive National Championships. DU placed fourth in the AIAW Championships that season and had three All-Americans. Following that season Max Vercruyssen took over as head coach to allow Stacey more time to work with the team on specific routines, recruit nationally and have time for her other pursuit, judging. With her help, DU finished second at the AIAW National Championships in each of the next three years and just one year later captured the school’s first-ever national championship. In her seven years as coach/assistant coach at DU, Stacey guided 12 All-America performances.
WOMEN'S INDUCTEE

Narcisa Sehovic
Skiing, 1993-96
In 1993, Narcisa Sehovic came to DU without really knowing about NCAA skiing or higher education in the United States. Having skied to a 16th place finish in the 1991 World Alpine Championships, Sehovic gave instant credibility to Kurt Smitz’s newly reformed ski program, which was reinstated as a varsity sport in 1992. In her first season at DU in 1994, she helped the Pioneers to a seventh place showing at the NCAA National Championships with a pair of All-American performances, finishing second in the slalom and fifth in the giant slalom. It was 1995 when she truly left her mark on the DU ski program. She garnered two more All-America performances at the NCAA Championships, including becoming the first female skier in DU history to win an NCAA Championship of the modern era when she won the slalom. She also finished sixth in the giant slalom. That year she was named the alpine team’s MVP, selected as the 1995 Colorado Sportswoman of the Year for skiing and named the Female Athlete of the Year for DU, the highest honor given an individual each year by Athletics and Recreation. She followed that up with two more All-American performances in 1996 and retired from collegiate skiing with six All-American performances in three seasons of racing. The following year Sehovic was nominated as Colorado’s NCAA Woman of the Year nominee and was awarded the prestigious NCAA Post-Graduation Scholarship Award. She went on to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School and currently lives in London working for Goldman Sachs. 

TEAM INDUCTEE

1954 Football Team
In winning the first outright conference championship since 1917, the 1954 football team virtually rewrote the record books in the process. A total of seven all-time DU records, including one that had been in place since 1914, fell before head coach Bob Blackman’s “Miracle” team. The Pioneers finished the season 9-1, tied for the most wins ever in a season and the best 10-game record in school history. Despite turning down a bowl invitation to the Sun Bowl, DU finished ranked No. 18 in the UPI poll, the highest ranking a football team ever received. The Pioneers set marks for yards rushing (2528 yards), yards per rush (5.27), yards rushing per game (252.8), total offense (3719 yards), rushing first downs (120), team scoring average (39 ppg/10 games), and most points in one game (72). The Pioneers opened the season 2-0 with a school-record 72-0 win over Colorado College and a win over Drake before suffering their only loss that season, at Wyoming on a last-second field goal, 23-21. DU then ran off seven consecutive victories, culminating with a conference-title clinching 34-0 win over Colorado A&M on Thanksgiving Day. Following the victory, DU students staged a walkout and demanded that Denver Mayor Thomas Campbell declare the day, “DU Day”, which he did. DU placed four players on the 1954 All-Skyline First Team - tackle Ed Horvat, defensive end Larry Ross, halfback Fred Mahaffey and quarterback Rusty Fairly - and five more on the Honorable Mention team - tackle Charles DeLuca, guard Jack LaSalle, center Dean Westgaard, quarterback Jim Bowen, and halfback Fred Tesone.