MILWAUKEE – Four former Milwaukee student-athletes and a longtime staff member will be inducted into the Bud K. Haidet Milwaukee Athletics Hall of Fame, hosted by Holiday Inn Milwaukee Riverfront on Saturday, Nov. 9. The members of the Class of 2019 include
Molly Finn (swimming),
Tenia Fisher (track & field),
Scott Gillitzer (baseball) and
Clay Tucker (basketball), as well as long-time athletic trainer
John Ochsenwald.
Interested parties can now make plans to join the festivities and register through the following attendance
LINK.
Finn closed out her illustrious career in February of 2009 with school-record swims in the 100 butterfly, 200 fly and 200 IM at the Horizon League Championships. She became just the sixth athlete in league history to win conference titles four times in the same event when she claimed the title in the 200 fly, setting a new league record in the process. Finn graduated holding seven school records and one league record.
She won six individual league titles overall in her time as a Panther and also placed runner-up in the 200 IM and third in the 100 fly at the league championships. A two-time team captain and Team MVP as a senior, she placed first 13 times and took second in 11 other races her final season, never finishing below third place. A regular member of the Horizon League Academic Honor Roll, Finn played a significant role on three different relay teams (800 free/200 and 400 medley) that set school records.
A six-time Horizon League Swimmer of the Week, Finn burst on the scene as a freshman. During that first year, she won league titles in the 400 IM and 200 butterfly and was runner-up in the 200 IM at the Horizon League Championships. She swam on MKE's league championship 400 free and medley relay teams, helping set school and league records in both. Most impressively, she reset school, freshman or Klotsche Natatorium records 22 times over the course of her first season.
Fisher put together some amazing accomplishments during her time as a Panther from 2003-06. It starts with the team accolades, as she played a key role in leading Milwaukee to three Horizon League Championships (2003 Indoor & Outdoor/2006 Indoor), as well as runner-up positions in her other five career championship appearances.
Individually, Fisher was tabbed the Horizon League Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year in 2006 and the Horizon League Indoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year in 2006, 2005 and 2004. A three-time NCAA Regional qualifier (individual & relay) and two-time team captain, Fisher was pegged the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year in 2003.
A nine-time Horizon League champion, she claimed the top spot on the podium in the Indoor 800m (2006/2005/2004), Outdoor 400m (2006/2003), Indoor 400m (2006) and Indoor and Outdoor 4x400m relay (2006). She also graduated with five school records: Indoor 400m (55.69), Indoor 600m (1:33.56), Indoor 800m (2:07.20), Outdoor 400m (54.80), Outdoor 800m (2:08.97). In addition, she set Klotsche Center standards in the 400m and 600m.
Gillitzer put together an amazing two-year career as a Panther after transferring into the program following time at Madison College (then MATC), where he batted .412 over his first two junior college years. With the Panthers in 2000 and 2001, he led the team to back-to-back Midwestern Collegiate Conference regular-season titles and a spot in the NCAA Tournament in 2001. In 110 career games, Gillitzer batted .392 – still second in program history – hit 21 home runs and recorded 107 RBI.
A Second-Team All-MCC and MCC All-Newcomer Team selection as a junior, he led the team in runs scored and home runs, batting .349 in 53 games. He recorded 60 hits, 15 doubles, 11 home runs, 41 RBI and scored 45 times.
He topped that as a senior with one of the best single-season performances in school history. Gillitzer was named a member of the All-MCC First Team and MCC All-Tournament Team, was the MCC Tournament MVP and set school single-season records for average (.424), runs (68) and hits (97). In addition, he drove in 66, had 18 doubles and cracked 10 home runs. The runs record still stands 18 years later, while the hits and average marks are currently second. He capped his collegiate career by being selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 22
nd round of the Major Baseball Draft.
Tucker was arguably the greatest basketball player to wear a Milwaukee uniform. During his career, which spanned from 1999-2003, Tucker averaged 16.0 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.7 steals per game and helped the Panthers to their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth as a Division I program in 2003.
Tucker was a two-time First Team All-Horizon League pick and collected National Association of Basketball Coaches All-District 11 accolades in 2001-02. A two-time Horizon League All-Defensive Team selection, he was tabbed Most Valuable Player of the 2003 Horizon League Championship.
He finished his career as the leading scorer in program history with 1,788 points and still holds career records for field goals made (614) and attempted (1,504), three-pointers made (264) and attempted (744), as well as steals (194). Tucker closed out his time as a Panther by averaging 18.3 points per game his senior campaign.
Following his college career, Tucker went on to enjoy a long professional career overseas, as well as time in the United States in the American Basketball Association and the NBA D-League. In his honor, the program renamed the yearly Team MVP Award the "Clay Tucker Most Valuable Player Award" in the spring of 2017.
Ochsenwald retired in August of 2018 as the Director of Sports Medicine after 26 years with the Milwaukee Athletic Department and 36 years in the profession. He completely transformed the entire culture of athletic training at Milwaukee, not only making sure Milwaukee's student-athletes received top-notch care year-in and year-out, but also creating the university's current athletic training academic program completely from the ground up.
When Ochsenwald came to Milwaukee in 1992, he had just one other athletic trainer on staff. Both were part-time employees in an athletic department that recently moved to Division I, also working part-time with the school's kinesiology department. He also fought early on to add athletic training education courses, creating the entire curriculum from scratch and teaching the first year with little to no additional pay to prove his belief in its value.
At his retirement, he had six fellow athletic trainers as part of his staff in a facility he worked with developers and architects to help design, with one of his current athletic training employees earning her degree from a program he helped create.
The Hall of Fame banquet honoring these five individuals will take place at an afternoon luncheon on Saturday, November 9, at the Holiday Inn – Riverfront (4700 North Port Washington Rd, Milwaukee, Wis.). For more information on attending, please contact
Chris Roche, Associate Athletic Director, Development at
rochec@uwm.edu.
Interested parties can now make plans to join the festivities and register through the following attendance
LINK.
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The Milwaukee Athletics Hall of Fame is named in honor of
Bud K. Haidet, the retired MKE Director of Athletics who made many contributions to Panther athletics during his 21 years in charge of the department.
Haidet was officially inducted into the hall and learned of the naming honor in the spring of 2009, just prior to his official retirement from the University. After being hired in 1988, Haidet led Milwaukee to unprecedented athletic and academic heights. He guided the program from NAIA status back to NCAA Division I competition and then established MKE as a powerhouse in the Horizon League.
Along the way, Haidet helped Milwaukee Athletics build a national reputation, highlighted by a men's basketball run to the Sweet 16 in 2005. The Panthers won the Horizon League's McCafferty Trophy five times under Haidet, while with him in charge UWM teams won 85 league regular season and tournament championship titles, while Panther coaches claimed 67 league coach of the year honors.
MKE teams also excelled on the national stage. Panther squads made 27 NCAA Tournament appearances while Haidet was the AD, while individual athletes appeared in the track & field national championships seven times.