J-Club Hall of Honor | Event Registration

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Ryan Roder comes from a baseball family.
 
The Granville, Iowa native is one of seven siblings (four brothers two sisters) who grew up on the family farm.
 
"We were a huge sports family in general, but baseball in particular," said the graduate of now-defunct Spalding Catholic High School. "All my brothers and I pitched in the Iowa high school state tournament. My oldest brother pitched against (longtime MLB standout) Mike Boddicker. My brother Dale pitched collegiately for Briar Cliff and once made The Sporting News for throwing like 50-plus consecutive complete games. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1985.
 
"All four of my brothers won state titles. I was the only one who didn't, unfortunately. We ran into a buzzsaw in a school named Lansing Kee and finished second in 1992. Then, we lost to the eventual state champion (Storm Lake St. Mary's) in sub-state in 1993."
 
But even without a state title, Roder found his own way to make an impact on the diamond, especially at Saint John's University – the school to which he transferred in the fall of 1995 after spending his first two college seasons at NAIA Benedictine College in Kansas.
 
"I started out at Benedictine because some high school friends I played baseball with were playing there," he said. "Two of my cousins were going there as well. I was an accounting major and the school seemed to fit well with that, and I thought I'd have an opportunity to play right away."
 
"I also looked at Saint John's at the time because one of my best friends was going there. But I felt like I'd have less chance to play right away."
 
"As a freshman at Benedictine, I pitched exclusively," he continued. "But as a sophomore, I asked to contribute more in an everyday fashion as a first baseman and didn't get that opportunity. Kansas was also changing to a 150-credit hour requirement to take the CPA exam and Minnesota hadn't done that yet. I'd come to Saint John's in the fall of my sophomore year to visit my friend and I fell in love with the place. When I didn't play every day as a sophomore at Benedictine, it made the decision to transfer easier."
 
Roder came to Collegeville planning to pitch and play in the field. But he quickly shifted those plans, moving to first base full-time.
 
"I had some shoulder and mechanical issues after my sophomore year and my pitching skills started to fade," he said. "Plus, I wanted to play every day. As a pitcher in college, you don't get that chance. I wasn't playing the greatest during fall practice my first year (at SJU). But there was a Sunday practice when (head coach) Jerry Haugen happened to be there (he was also the defensive coordinator for the Johnnie football team). I hit a home run and that seemed to catch his eye."
 
Indeed, Haugen gave him a shot to compete for the starting job at first base the following spring and Roder eventually earned the spot.


 
"He was throwing about 76 or 77 miles-per-hour when he got here and he wasn't going to fit into our pitching scheme," Haugen recalled. "But he had good hands and he was pretty talented in the field. And he had one of those swings where he somehow always got the barrel on the ball. He knew the strike zone really well and he didn't chase balls. He didn't get himself out a whole lot."
 
Roder led the Johnnies in hitting with a .430 batting average as a junior in 1996 and boasted a slugging percentage of .639. He led the MIAC with 29 hits in 20 conference matchups and earned All-MIAC honors.
 
But as successful as he was, he still felt inconsistent at the plate.
 
"I'd go 0-for-4 or 1-for-4 in the first game of a doubleheader, then 4-for-4 in the second," he said. "I was pretty streaky. But having the success I had really did help me build up confidence in my ability to play at that level."
 
That showed as a senior the following spring. Roder hit .540, which is still the 11th-highest single-season batting average in Division III history. He had 67 hits, scored 42 runs, and belted 17 doubles, five triples and eight home runs. He recorded 52 RBI, and his .952 slugging percentage remains a single-season school record.
 
His performance earned him a second-straight spot on the All-MIAC first team, as well as conference MVP honors and a place on the ABCA All-America first team - making him the first Johnnie player to earn All-American distinction.
 
"We played two doubleheaders in the Metrodome, then went to Florida on our spring trip," he said. "It just felt like everyone was hitting the ball really well. It wasn't just me. It was a really fun lineup to be part of that year. We had Matt Ode, who played second base and hit lead-off. He could have just as easily been the clean-up hitter. There were so many good hitters in the batting order, guys like (Chad) Krueger, (Scott) Demorett, (Ryan) Deibele and others. Pitchers couldn't just focus on me. We really scored a lot of runs that year."
 
"I also felt like we had the best overall pitching staff in the MIAC.  We had to face them in the batting cages during the winter, which helped our preparation immensely.  That made a lot of the success I had possible."
 
Roder finished his two seasons at SJU with a career average of .489. That remains a Division III record to this day. His talent drew the attention of pro scouts, but he'd already decided to leave baseball behind.
 
"When my brother was drafted, he declined because they were going to pay him about $800 a month to go to Florida," said Roder, whose only baseball experience since college has been a summer of amateur ball with the Hopkins Berries in 1998, where he was able to play with several of his Johnnie teammates.
 
"Realistically, I knew I was going to be in the same boat because if they were going to pay me more money, I would have heard from them sooner than I did. And I'd already accepted a job with a CPA firm in the Twin Cities. So, in my mind, I was ready to go into the professional world."
 
Roder did enter the accounting field in the Twin Cities. But on a trip to Denver to visit friends from Saint John's, he met 1997 CSB graduate Stephanie Sack. The two hit it off and began dating, eventually getting married in 2001. Roder followed her to San Francisco and back to Denver before the couple returned to Minnesota following the birth of their first child in 2004.
 
He pursued a career in corporate accounting until 2022 when he and Stephanie – who have four children and reside in Buffalo – decided to purchase Thomsens Garden Center in St. Joseph, just miles from the SJU campus.
 
"I'm a businessperson," he said. "I don't consider myself a green thumb. But my wife and mother-in-law are.
 
"In 2020, my parents passed away from COVID within three days of each other. They'd been renting the family farm, and after they died, my siblings and I decided to not rent it any longer. We sold it and my wife and I decided we'd use our portion of those funds to do something different. We looked at buying a greenhouse where my mother-in-law had worked near Elk River, but that didn't work out. Then one day this listing came up. It said a greenhouse in remote Minnesota. But when I looked it up, it was in St. Joseph. It felt like it was fate. I could probably run to Thomsens from the SJU campus. Everything came together and we purchased it in the fall of 2022.
 
"I run the business. My wife and mother-in-law help sell and promote. We're lucky to have a great staff who know what they're doing in every facet of the greenhouse and yard.
 
He said he has nothing but warm memories when he looks back at his time in a Johnnie uniform.
 
"I think about all the great teammates I had and the spring break trips to Florida," he said. "Getting to fly somewhere with your friends and play baseball was amazing. My family was able to make some trips up to the Metrodome and on campus to see me play as well.
 
"And I loved playing against St. Thomas. We were about 50-50 when it came to luck against them. But those games were always competitive and memorable. All in all, it was a great two years. I really enjoyed my experience at Saint John's."

2026 Hall of Honor Class 
The 2026 class will be inducted into the Saint John's University J-Club Hall of Honor in a ceremony scheduled for Homecoming Saturday – Oct. 17 - in Guild Hall (Old Gym). 

The dinner and enshrinement ceremony begins at 5 p.m. in Guild Hall (Old Gym). A Homecoming Celebration social will again take place outside the venue from 4-5 p.m. following SJU's football game against Concordia in Clemens Stadium prior to the dinner and program. 

Registration is $75 per person before Oct. 11 ($100 per person after) and includes dinner and beverages. Children ages 6-12 are $35 and those ages six-and-under are free. All proceeds go to the J-Club to support SJU athletics.

To register to attend, click here. 

-2006 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Don Kluk '71
-2006 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Jim Wagner '94
-2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Dr. Bob Dumonceaux '61
-2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Clinton Dammann '08
-2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Jim Holmes '69
-2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Dave Arnold '73
-2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: 2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: Fr. Otto Weber, OSB '57
-2026 J-Club Hall of Honor Class: 1968 Cross Country Team
-10 Johnnies to Join J-Club Hall of Honor on Sept. 27