J-Club Hall of Honor | Event Registration

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Ten individuals and one team will be inducted into Saint John's University's J-Club Hall of Honor on Saturday, Oct. 14, as part of Homecoming festivities.

The dinner and enshrinement ceremony begins with a social at 4:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and program at 5:15 p.m. in Guild Hall (Old Gym) following the Johnnies' Homecoming football game against Carleton in Clemens Stadium. 

Registration is $75 per person before Oct. 8 ($100 per person after) and includes dinner and beverages. All proceeds go to the J-Club to support SJU athletics. – Register to Attend

Each member of the Hall of Honor class will be highlighted in the weeks leading up to their induction with stories and videos on gojohnnies.com starting on Sept. 6. This year's class was selected by a vote of the J-Club's board of directors, who considered nominations which can be made by any club member.

Founded in 1959, the J-Club is a dues-based booster organization of former Johnnie student-athletes, parents and fans, and plays a key role in supporting SJU varsity programs, intramurals and club sports. 

Those honored (listed alphabetically) include: 

-Lou Adderley '55: A rare MIAC individual champion in two sports at SJU, Adderley (Nassau, Bahamas/St. Augustine's) was a three-time conference champion in tennis and won the MIAC wrestling title at 130 pounds as a junior in 1954. He was on track to repeat his championship as a senior in 1955, but he suffered a back injury in his semifinal win and had to medical forfeit the championship match. After graduating in 1955, he returned to The Bahamas where he served as a coach and as the director of athletics at Saint Augustine's College, a secondary school for grades 7-12.

-Paul Bernabei '69: Bernabei (Dalzell, Ill./St. Bede Academy) earned a starting spot at point guard as a freshman during the 1965-66 season and ended his career third in program history with 1,413 points, which is now good for seventh. Along the way, Bernabei was a two-time All-MIAC selection and led the Johnnies to their first MIAC basketball championship and national postseason appearance (NAIA Tournament) as a senior in 1968-69. He was named the 1969 MIAC Most Valuable Player.

-Jon Dold '94: Dold put together one of NCAA Division III's best offensive performances ever in 1993. The two-time All-MIAC pick led the nation with a .562 (50-for-89) batting average that spring, a record at the time and a mark that still stands as the fifth-best, single-season average in Division III history. Dold (Richmond, Minn./Rocori) capped the season with Academic All-America honors and became the first Johnnie to be taken in the Major League Baseball draft when he was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 40th round.

-Darwin Dumonceaux '99: Dumonceaux (St. Joseph, Minn./Saint John's Prep) excelled in the shot put for the SJU track and field team in the late 1990s. He won the MIAC title in the event twice and finished second three times across the indoor and outdoor seasons. Dumonceaux saved the best for last by winning the 1999 NCAA Division III national title outdoors and earning his first All-America distinction with a fourth-place finish indoors. He still owns SJU's indoor (16.83 meters) and outdoor (17.63 meters) records in the event.

-Chris Erichsen '08: All told, Erichsen won nine MIAC titles in cross country and indoor and outdoor track-and field during his career at Saint John's. He was a seven-time All-American, including national runner-up honors in the steeplechase at the NCAA Division III outdoor track and field meet as a junior and senior, and a second-place finish in the 5,000 meters as a senior in 2008. Erichsen (Spring Valley, Minn./Kingsland) continued to pursue competitive distance running after his graduation, qualifying for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials in the marathon where he finished 40th out of the 85 top runners in the nation.

-Terry Haws: After establishing successful high school wrestling programs at both St. James and St. Cloud Cathedral, Haws took over the head coaching job at Saint John's in 1967 and immediately built the Johnnies into a national power. Over his five seasons in Collegeville, SJU went a combined 73-10-1 in dual meet competition, won three MIAC titles and two National Catholic championships. His wrestlers captured 16 MIAC titles in their respective weight classes, 11 National Catholic championships and one NAIA national title. Haws was also a successful high school football coach, who then became the first full-time assistant legendary coach John Gagliardi ever had.

-Tom Kubinski '86: Kubinski (Plymouth, Minn./Osseo), who still holds a pair of school records at Osseo High School, went on to become one of the top swimmers in Saint John's history. In all, he finished his collegiate career with five MIAC titles – winning the 50- and 100-yard freestyles in both 1983 and 1984, and then made it three in a row by winning the 50 again in 1985. Kubinski earned All-MIAC honors on eight occasions and All-America honors six times, and ended his career with three individual records that have since been surpassed at SJU and at the MIAC level.

-Matt McGovern '01: When McGovern (Northfield, Minn.) arrived at Saint John's in the fall of 1997, the Johnnie golf team had won only one MIAC title and had never qualified for the national tournament. By the time he graduated in 2001, SJU had won two conference championships and had advanced to its first two national competitions – finishing seventh in both 2000 and 2001. Individually, McGovern became just the third Johnnie golfer since 1979 to earn MIAC medalist honors when he did so as a senior in the fall of 2000 – building on his momentum from the previous spring, when he finished in a tie for 13th individually at nationals and earned third-team All-American honors. He was honored as the MIAC's first Player of the Year for men's golf in 2000-01.

-Chris Palmer '96: The first two-sport, first-team Academic All-American in school history, Palmer (Fairfax, Minn./Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop) starred in football and baseball at SJU. The two-time All-America receiver finished his career with 165 catches for 3,162 yards and 36 touchdowns, which were all school records at the time (still rank fourth, second and third respectively in SJU history). During his senior season in 1995, Palmer finished with 71 catches for 1,197 yards and 13 touchdowns, was named the MIAC Most Valuable Player and became the first SJU player to win the Gagliardi Trophy. On the baseball diamond, Palmer was a career .322 hitter and ended his career as the program's leader in stolen bases with 47 (47-for-53), though the record has since been surpassed.

-2003 football team: The 2003 Johnnies finished a perfect 14-0 and ended Mount Union's (Ohio) win streak at 55 games with a 24-6 victory in that year's Division III championship game - delivering the program its fourth national title. Before that, the team helped Gagliardi pass Eddie Robinson for the most wins in college football history. The record was broken when the Johnnies defeated Bethel in dramatic fashion, winning 29-26 before a crowd of 13,107 at Clemens Stadium to clinch that season's MIAC championship. Nine players on that year's team earned All-MIAC honors while five were selected as All-Americans. That included wide receiver Blake Elliott '03 - a 2019 Hall of Honor inductee - who also won the Gagliardi Trophy. 

Fr. Dunstan Tucker '25, OSB will be awarded the J-Club Distinguished Service Award. Not only did Tucker make history at Saint John's, he wrote it as well. A baseball standout for the Johnnies in the early 1920s, Tucker entered the Saint John's Benedictine community in 1923 and was ordained in 1929. He went on to become the chair of the English Department at SJU and later the school's academic dean. He also had several stints as head baseball coach, holding the job for a total of 18 seasons in all. Along the way his teams won four conference championships in 1936, 1937, 1942 and 1969. After stepping down for the final time in 1971, Tucker focused on his role as historian. He co-wrote "Scoreboard: A History of Athletics at Saint John's University." The book provides the definitive history of athletics at SJU through the late 1970s. Tucker, who died at the age of 87 in late 1985, also served his country as a Naval chaplain in the Pacific during World War II.

The Hall of Honor's previous four classes are listed below:

2022: 1976 SJU football team; Minga Batsukh '11 (wrestling); Troy Bigalke '01 (basketball); Fred Cremer '67 (football); Matt Erredge '99 (hockey); Jon Habben '79 (swimming and diving); Dave Lamm '68 (track and field); Mike Lilly '78 (soccer); Cyril Paul '59 (track and field); Tim Schmitz '78 (football); Br. Mark Kelly (J-Club Distinguished Service Award).

2021: 1965 SJU football team; John Deters '92 (swimming and diving); George Durenberger '28 (standout athlete, longtime SJU athletic director); Chuck Froehle '57 (football); Jim Gathje '86 (cross country, track and field); Vedie Himsl '38 (baseball); Jim Lehman, Sr. '56 (football); Terry Leiendecker '84 (soccer);  Joe Mucha '66 (basketball and football); Jeff Norman '78 (football and baseball); Joe Schoolmeesters '09  (golf); Gary Svendsen '72 (wrestling); Vic Moore '72 (J-Club Distinguished Service Award).

2019: 1963 SJU football team; John Cragg '71 (cross country and track and field); Blake Elliott '03 (football); Adam Hanna '07 (hockey); Pat Haws '72 (longtime SJU soccer and swimming and diving head coach); John McDowell '64 (football); John "Blood McNally '24 (football, basketball, baseball, track and field); Sammy Schmitz '03 (golf); Bill Sexton '55 (basketball); Frank Wachlarowicz '79 (basketball); Matt Zelen '99 (swimming and diving); Tom Arth '66 and Fr. Wilfred Theisen '52 (J-Club Distinguished Service Award).

2018: John Gagliardi (longtime SJU football coach); Jim Smith (longtime SJU basketball coach).