ABILENE - Two ACU track and field stars headline a class of four athletes and administrators who will be inducted into the Abilene Christian University Sports Hall of Fame this weekend.
The Class of 2006-07 is headlined by former track and field greats Yolande (Straughn) Chillers and James Browne, and they are joined byformer football great Bernard Erickson and former sports information director Dr. Charles Marler.
The group will be officially inducted into the hall during the 21st annual Hall of Fame festivities on Friday, Oct. 13, 2006, at 7 p.m. in the Teague Special Events Center. With the addition of the four members of the Class of 2006-07, the ACU Sports
Hall of Fame now includes 121 men and women. Tickets to the dinner are $20 and can be obtained by calling 325-674-2353.
In addition to the induction of four new Hall of Fame members, ACU will also retire the jersey of former football standout
Jim Lindsey, who died of a heart attack on Sept. 9, 1998. Lindsey's family will be presented a replica jersey bearing his No. 10on the front, and an exact copy of the jersey will hang in the football offices of the Teague Center.
Lindsey's jersey is only the third in school history to be retired, joining the No. 28 worn by football standout Wilbert Montgomery, and the No. 25 worn by former women's basketball standout Jennifer (Clarkson) Frazier. Senior wide receiver John Brock currently wears No. 10, but once the season ends the jersey will be retired and no other Wildcat
football player will ever wear it again.
Chillers was one of the most decorated athletes in the history of women's track and field at ACU. She won a total of 17
conference and national championships in individual events and relays, and she was a member of four straight Lone Star Conference championship teams and a total of six national championship teams in indoor and outdoor track and field. She helped ACU win national titles at the indoor meet in 1988, 1990 and 1991 and at the outdoor meet in 1986, 1987 and 1988. She was inducted into the NCAA Division II Track and Field Hall of Fame in May 2005.
A five-time NCAA Division II national champion, Browne was an Olympian and one of only two three-time triple jump champions at the Division II outdoor championships. Browne's Division II national titles for the Wildcats came in the triple jump at the national indoor meet in 1988 and 1990 and the national outdoor meet in 1988, 1989 and 1990. He was inducted into the NCAA Division II Track and Field Hall of Fame in May 2005.
Erickson was a ferocious middle linebacker for the Wildcats in the mid-to-late 1960s, earning the nickname "Beast" as well as a spot as a first team linebacker on ACU's all-Century Team. Erickson was named all-Southland Conference as a senior in 1966 and was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the 1967 AFL-NFL Draft. He played three years in the AFL and NFL (Chargers in 1967 and 1968 and Cincinnati Bengals in 1969) before going on to dental school.
Marler is the 17th recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, given to a deserving person who has contributed to the success of ACU athletics and its student-athletes. Marler, widely regarded as the father of the current Journalism and Mass Communication Department at ACU, began working at ACU in 1955, joining the staff the day after his graduation as the school's first full-time sports information director. He served in several other capacities on campus before becoming the chairman of the JMC department in 1987. He retired from full-time duty in 2003, but is still a faithful Wildcat athletics fan.
