NORFOLK, Va. – Former Old Dominion multi-sport star Juanita Etheridge, long-time space businessman and philanthropist G. Robert Aston, Jr., who has been a beneficiant donor to ODU athletics; and Harry Minium Jr., senior government author for athletics, might be inducted into the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame.
The ODU trio might be half of a six-person class to be inducted on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 6 p.m. within the Big Blue Room at Chartway Arena, Jack Ankerson, the corridor of fame chairman, introduced Tuesday afternoon.
Others to be inducted into the corridor of fame embody Brandon Adair, the previous Virginia Wesleyan University basketball standout who’s now a referee within the NBA; Pat Cavanaugh, who revitalized the Norfolk Admirals ice hockey staff since taking up as proprietor in 2019, and is a serious participant within the progress of space youth hockey; and the late Charles Christian, who in 14 seasons as the lads’s basketball head coach at Norfolk State gained 319 video games and seven CIAA championships.
Minium and Adair had been inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame earlier this 12 months.
Aston helped discovered TowneBank in 1998 and it has grown into the most important financial institution headquartered in Virginia and is one of the commonwealth’s most philanthropic personal establishments. TowneBank has been a beneficiant donor to athletics applications in any respect ranges all through Virginia and North Carolina.
The S.B. Ballard Stadium soccer scoreboard/replay board was donated by Townebank and when the Ellmer Family Baseball Complex opens this spring, the Monarchs will play on TowneBank Field.
TowneBank additionally sponsors The Royal Rivalry cup competitors between ODU and JMU.
Aston was honored as a “Distinguished Virginian” in 2011 by the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame for his help of faculty and youth sports activities.
Aston has served on the manager board of the Old Dominion Athletic Foundation, ODU’s fundraising group, and at present serves on the Board of Visitors for Eastern Virginia Medical School, which lately merged with ODU.
“Bob is one of the kindest and most generous supporters we have at ODU,” stated Jena Virga, who heads ODAF. “It’s wonderful that he’s being recognized for his generosity.”
“Bob Aston has played an integral part of the scholastic and intercollegiate athletics vibrancy of Hampton Roads sports his entire life,” added Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics.
“Bob has served as a coach, a mentor, a father determine, a confidant and a beneficiant philanthropist for therefore many people, groups, and organizations all through Hampton Roads and the mid-Atlantic area and contributed immensely to what makes the “757” nationally famend as a sizzling mattress for sports activities and producer of world class athletes.
“In a quiet, humble, behind the scenes manner, he is truly a giant in the field of sports with his passion and level of commitment.”
Aston’s daughter, Kim, is a former ODU ladies’s basketball participant who does colour commentary for Monarch dwelling video games on ESPN+.
Etheridge was a basketball, subject hockey and observe star at Virginia Beach’s First Colonial High who started her profession at JMU earlier than transferring to ODU. She led the Monarch basketball staff in scoring in 1974-75 with 19.8 factors per sport whereas additionally taking part in tennis.
She performed for then Head Coach Pam Parsons within the early years of ODU ladies’s basketball, when the muse was laid for the powerhouse applications coached by Marianne Stanley that a couple of years later gained three nationwide championships.
Etheridge was twice named ODU’s Female Athlete of the Year and went on to a protracted profession as a trainer, coach and mentor at Norfolk’s Granby High School earlier than lately retiring.
She was additionally one of the world’s most completed long-distance runners who in her first marathon in 1981, set the Shamrock Marathon document that stood for decade. She gained 60 of her first 61 long-distance races during which she competed.
While instructing at Granby High, she had a constructive affect on tens of 1000’s of younger individuals. She helped start a “double-dutch” soar roping competitors which unfold throughout the area in addition to a youth golf program and one other to encourage younger individuals to clear up trash of their neighborhoods.
“Juanita is one of the best all-around athletes ever from the Hampton Roads area,” former ODU ladies’s basketball coach Wendy Larry stated. “She did every part, from subject hockey to lacrosse to golf, and did every part properly.
“But her greatest contribution was the work she did in the community. She did so much to help so many young people. The work she did has had a lasting impact on so many young people.”
A Norfolk native, Minium is a 1977 ODU graduate whose ties with the University prolong greater than 50 years. His mom, two of his three brothers and each daughters, Amy and Ginny, all attended ODU.
Minium wrestled at ODU and was a second-team All-Eastern Region soccer linebacker at Norview High School, the place he was additionally staff captain. He additionally wrestled, ran observe and performed baseball for the Pilots.
Minium was a sports activities author, metropolis corridor reporter and sports activities columnist at The Virginian-Pilot for 39 years earlier than being employed by ODU in 2018.
This fall will mark his 14th consecutive season masking Monarch soccer both for ODU or The Virginian-Pilot. No different reporter has coated ODU soccer as lengthy. Minium has gained greater than 30 writing awards, together with 4 in his seven years at ODU.
Minium covers all 18 ODU athletic groups for the University’s athletics web site, www.odusports.com
Founded in 2008, the Hampton Roads Sports Hall of Fame has honored 103 former athletes, coaches and contributors to space sports activities. All inductees are memorialized with plaques positioned inside Harbor Park, the house stadium of the Norfolk Tides baseball staff.
Others affiliated with ODU beforehand inducted into the corridor of fame in reverse order of their induction:
Darryl Cummings (males’s and ladies’s tennis coach), Mimi Smith (subject hockey All-American and present assistant coach), Tony Brothers (long-time NBA referee), Carol Hudson (long-time ODU sports activities info director), Mark West (males’s basketball star), Yogi Hightower Boothe (subject hockey All-American), Debbie White (long-time sports activities administrator), Ticha Penicheiro (ladies’s basketball All-American), Gray Simons (wrestling coach), Sonny Allen (males’s basketball coach), Wayne Gomes (baseball participant), Marianne Stanley (ladies’s basketball coach), Jan Trombly (ladies’s basketball participant), Leo Anthony (males’s basketball star), Jack Baker (basketball and baseball participant and long-time Maury High basketball coach), Bud Metheny (former athletic director and baseball coach), Paul Webb (males’s basketball head coach), Dave Twardzik (males’s basketball All-American), C.J. Woollum (males’s basketball assistant coach), Beth Anders (subject hockey coach), Wendy Larry (ladies’s basketball coach), Jack Ankerson (long-time athletics public deal with announcer), Tony Mercurio (long-time radio voice for girls’s basketball), Anne Donovan (ladies’s basketball All-American), Dr. Jim Jarrett (former director of athletics) and Nancy Lieberman (ladies’s basketball All-American).
Tickets, priced at $65 every or $450 for a desk of eight, can be found on the ODU field workplace. Call 757-683-4444 for extra info.