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Manganello, Mike

Mike Manganello

Induction Year : 2018

Sport: Horse Racing

Mike Manganello reached the pinnacle of a jockey’s career when he won the world’s most famous horse race: the Kentucky Derby.

Manganello was in the saddle of Dust Commander in 1970 when they upset the 96th running of the Run for the Roses. The margin of victory was five lengths, thanks largely in part to Manganello’s rail-hugging ride that helped save the colt valuable ground in the testing 1¼-mile race.

A native of Hartford, Conn., Manganello was far from a one-race wonder. In a career that spanned nearly 30 years, and included five Kentucky Derby mounts, Manganello won the Blue Grass Stakes (on Dust Commander), the Ohio Derby at Thistledown, and numerous riding titles.

Manganello scored his first winner at the age of 18 in 1960 at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. Soon afterward, he moved his family to Bedford Heights and began a stretch of successful seasons at tracks around Greater Cleveland: Thistledown, Randall Park and Cranwood.

His domination of the jocks’ colony saw him win or share every Thistledown championship from 1964 through 1968. He also added Randall and Cranwood crowns.

Manganello was aboard Te Vega in the 1968 Ohio Derby as the colt became the first Ohio-bred to win the state’s most prestigious race.

The pull of the Blue Grass State eventually landed Manganello at Churchill Downs, Keeneland and Turfway Park, a move that led to his association with Don Combs, the trainer of Dust Commander.

In the winter, Manganello rode at Sunshine Park (now Tampa Bay Downs) where he won six riding titles. It’s also where he registered his 2,500thcareer winner.

But it’s the Kentucky Derby victory that Manganello will be best remembered for. He says to this day he can feel the song “My Old Kentucky Home” reverberating through his body.

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Manning, Rick

Rick Manning

Induction Year : 2017

Sport: Baseball

Now in his 28th season broadcasting Cleveland Indians games on television, Rick Manning has established a record for longevity exceeded only by Herb Score and equaled by Tom Hamilton in the annals of Cleveland baseball announcers. Along the way he was honored with the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Excellence in Broadcasting Award.

That’s pretty good for a second career. Manning spent 13 years as a Major League centerfielder, first with the Indians from 1975 until 1983, when he was traded in mid-season to the Milwaukee Brewers where he played until retiring after the 1987 season.

Rick earned a Gold Glove Award for his defense in 1976. A long-time media favorite, Rick received the Cleveland Baseball Writers’ “Good Guy Award” in 1980.

He retired with a lifetime batting average of .257 with 56 home runs, 458 runs batted in and 664 runs scored. Speed always was a big part of his game. He stole 168 bases.

His “magic moment” with the Indians, however, came on an otherwise routine play. He caught a fly ball off the bat of Ernie Whitt for the final out of pitcher Len Barker’s perfect game over the Toronto Blue Jays on May 15, 1981, at the old Stadium.

In Milwaukee, he is remembered for getting booed for driving in the winning run in the 10th inning of a 1-0 victory over the Indians on Aug. 26, 1987. His walk off single deprived his teammate Paul Molitor of one more chance to extend his 39-game hitting streak. Molitor, who was in the on deck circle, ended the game hitless in four at bats.

Rick was born on Sept. 2, 1954, in Niagara Falls, N.Y., where he grew up playing shortstop. The Indians made him the second overall selection in the draft of June, 1972. The Indians soon converted him to centerfield and he made his Major League debut on May 23, 1975.

Manning made his broadcasting debut as the color commentator on Indians games on SportsTime Ohio in 1990. His first partner was Dan Coughlin, followed by John Sanders and now Matt Underwood. He also works regional games on the Fox network.

Rick and his wife, Sue, have two grown children and five grandchildren.

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Luck, Oliver

Oliver Luck

Induction Year : 2017

Sport: Football

Oliver Luck is a man for all seasons and all sports.

The Cleveland native has been a quarterback at the scholastic, collegiate and professional levels, athletic director at West Virginia University, his alma mater, and president of Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo.

Luck, a 1978 graduate of St. Ignatius High School where he starred in both football and basketball, attended West Virginia where he established school records for touchdown passes and completions. He also led the Mountaineers to a 26-6 upset of Florida in the 1981 Peach Bowl.

Selected by Houston in the second round of the 1982 NFL draft, Luck played five years with the Oilers. When he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes, he worked on earning his law degree from the University of Texas.

Following retirement, Luck became vice president  of business development for the NFL, then headed for Germany where he served as general manager of the Frankfurt Galaxy of the World League of American Football and the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe. Luck was eventually named President and CEO of NFL Europe.

Luck returned home in 2001 to become chief executive of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, overseeing development and management of stadiums for MLB’s Astros and the NFL’s Texans and an arena for the NBA’s Rockets.

Four years later, he became the first president of MLS’s Houston Dynamo. Luck not only helped secure funding for the club’s $80 million soccer complex, he was at the helm for the Dynamo’s two league championships.

When his alma mater called in 2010, Luck returned to West Virginia to serve as the university’s athletic director.

He is currently Executive Vice President for regulatory affairs and strategic partnerships for the NCAA.

Luck is married to the former Kathy Wilson. They have four children, Andrew, Mary Ellen, Emily and Addison.

Andrew followed in his father’s footsteps. The No. 1 selection of the 2012 NFL draft out of Stanford, he quarterbacks the Indianapolis Colts.

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Moran, Mike

Mike Moran

Induction Year : 2016

Sport: Basketball

Mike Moran is a marathon man among Ohio basketball coaches.

The head coach of John Carroll University’s men’s team, Moran has been winning games and molding young athletes on Buckeye hardwood courts for 45 seasons.

Later this year he will celebrate his silver anniversary campaign at John Carroll. Previously, he was the head coach at St. Joseph High School for 11 years where he won two state championships. There were also nine seasons of freshman and junior varsity coaching at St. Joe’s and Cincinnati Elder.

As a head varsity coach at John Carroll and St. Joseph, Moran has won 667 games. While scholastic freshman and junior varsity records are sketchy, it’s believed Moran has won more than 750 basketball contests.

Moran, a 1973 graduate of Xavier University, is the winningest (443 games) and longest serving head coach in John Carroll basketball history.

He is coming off a season in which his Blue Streaks set a school standard with 21 consecutive victories on their way to a 26-4 record, the second winningest season in the annals of JCU basketball, a program that dates back to 1919.

Moran has won 10 Ohio Athletic Conference regular season championships and four OAC tournament titles.

His outstanding work has been copied at the highest level of collegiate basketball. Two seasons ago, Kentucky coach John Calipari adopted Moran’s “five in, five out” platoon system.

Moran not only wins basketball games, he makes basketball coaches out of players. More than 50 of those who played for Moran have gone on to emulate their former head coach. Many cite his enthusiasm for the game that he loves as their motivation to get into coaching.

Moran and his wife, JoAnn, live in Russell Township. They have six children and 14 grandchildren.

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Mack, Kevin

Kevin Mack

Induction Year : 2016

Sport: Football

Kevin Mack is a Cleveland Brown, through and through. His entire nine-year career as a National Football League running back was in the orange and brown, and today he continues in the team’s front office as the Alumni Relations manager.

Mack played in 99 games for the Browns, rushing for 5,123 yards and scoring 46 touchdowns. He also caught 197 passes for 1,602 yards and eight touchdowns.

If the Browns needed a tough yard, Mack usually got the ball.

He ranks ninth on Cleveland’s all-time scoring ledger with 324 points. He is also the franchise’s fifth all-time leading rusher and joined the Cleveland Browns Legends in 2007.

Nicknamed “Mack Truck,” he was named to two Pro Bowls in 1985 and 1987 and was considered not only an all-star runner but an exceptional blocker.

A native of Kings Mountain, N.C., Mack played at Clemson University and then one year for the Los Angeles Express of the United States Football League before the Browns made him the 11th overall selection in the 1984 NFL Supplemental Draft of USFL and Canadian Football League players.

During his rookie year in 1985, Mack ran for 1,104 yards, seven touchdowns and 5 yards per carry. He combined with Earnest Byner (1,002 yards) to become just the sixth running back tandem in NFL history to each rush for 1,000 yards.

One of Mack’s most significant runs came in the final game of the 1989 season when, with 39 seconds on the clock, he dragged defenders over the goal line for a four-yard touchdown that earned the Browns a 24-20 victory over the Houston Oilers and the AFC Central Division title.

Earlier this year Mack received the Dino Lucarelli Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Football Foundation and Cleveland Touchdown Club Charities Athlete-Scholarship Awards banquet.

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Milkovich, Jamie

Jamie Milkovich

Induction Year : 2015

Sport: Wrestling

It was just a few years ago when a young student was anxious to engage Jamie Milkovich in conversation. He asked how it felt to be a millionaire, the result of “owning” the Maple Heights school that the teen assumed was named in Milkovich’s honor. He was quickly corrected. Milkovich Middle School in Maple Heights is not named for Jamie, but for Mike Milkovich, Jamie’s uncle and the founding father of the city’s scholastic wrestling dynasty that includes 10 state championships.

Jamie Milkovich may not be a millionaire, but he’s rich, very rich, in qualities such as dedication, respect for tradition and accomplishment.

What Uncle Mike started in the 1950’s, Jamie has carried forth for more than three decades inside and outside the Mustangs wrestling room. Milkovich, a Buckeye state champion in his senior year at Maple Heights High at 145 pounds in 1977, eclipsed his personal mat triumphs by taking the reins of the school’s wrestling program in 1981. He’s yet to let them go. This winter, Milkovich will mark his 35th year as head coach of the Mustangs.

Jamie has made the most of his time in charge. He has won 434 dual matches, making him Ohio’s all-time winningest Division I head coach. Milkovich has qualified 94 wrestlers for the annual state tournament, coached 50 of them to state placings, including 21 semi-finalists and nine champions. He joins three other members of the Milkovich family in the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame, former head coach Mike Milkovich and cousins and fellow Mustang mat standouts Patrick and Tom Milkovich.

Jamie has spent his entire life involved in Maple Heights wrestling, with the exception of his four years at Auburn where he was a two-time All-American (1980-81) and set the university’s record for career victories with 98.

Milkovich returned home to become Maple Heights’ head wrestling coach at the age of 22 in 1981. His accomplishments have not been overlooked by city officials. In 2013, June 19 was proclaimed “Jamie Milkovich Day” in Maple Heights. Also in 2013, he was named Maple Heights Citizen of the Year.

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Morton, Wally

Wally Morton

Induction Year : 2014

Sport: Swimming & Diving

Dedicated commitment.

Wally Morton was the epitome of that quality during his 39-year tenure in the Physical Education Department at Cleveland State University as the men’s and women’s swimming coach. He coached the Vikings to 20 conference titles during 46 winning seasons, totaling a school-record 387 dual meet victories.

After graduation from Miami University (Ohio) in 1970, where he was a member of two Mid-American Conference championship swimming teams, Morton came to CSU in 1974 and served seven years under legendary CSU coach Bob Busbey. He was named head men’s coach in 1981 and women’s head coach in 2007.

His teams won 14 Penn-Ohio, two Midwestern Collegiate Conference and two Horizon League championships. He was named conference coach of the year nine times. At the time of his retirement in June 2014, his swimmers held 11 men and six women league titles.

He guided five swimmers and one diver to the NCAA championships and three to Olympic qualifiers, with Nedim Nisic representing Bosnia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

The men’s team earned 47 Mid-Major All-American Awards from the College Swimming Coaches Association.  He women’s team received 17 Mid-Major honors.

Both teams have received the Scholar All-American Award a combined 57 times, with 27 earning Academic All-American laurels.

But all those numbers pale in comparison to Morton’s tireless hours spent helping Northeast Ohio’s high school and club swimming teams. As Aquatics Director, he was always generous in making the quality CSU facilities available to athletes and coaches for practices and high-caliber meets.

He lives in Strongsville with his wife, Carol. They have a son, Rob.

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Jurevicius, Joe

Joe Jurevicius

Induction Year : 2014

Sport: Football

Joe Jurevicius knew about winning.

At all levels, from Lake Catholic High to Penn State University to the National Football League, the strong armed wide receiver made his presence felt with his standout play. More often than not, Jurevicius used his strength and skills to outfight defenders and make the reception.

He did just that during the 2002 NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia as he turned a short crossing pattern into a 71-yard gain that proved pivotal in Tampa Bay’s victory. In Super Bowl XXXVII, he had four catches for 78 yards in Tampa Bay’s world championship win against Oakland.

Drafted by the New York Giants in the second round of the 1998 NFL Draft, No. 55 overall, he played four seasons in New York. He did not have a reception in New York’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXV in 2000.

After signing with the Seahawks as a free agent, he had a team-high five catches for 93 yards in Seattle’s loss to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XL in 2005. He finished that season with a career-high 10 touchdowns.

He finished his pro career with the Cleveland Browns, retiring in 2009 after seven knee operations. He totaled 323 receptions for 4,119 yards and 29 touchdowns during his pro career.

During his collegiate career, he had 94 receptions for 1,905 yards and 15 touchdowns. As a sophomore, he helped the Nittany Lions go 12-0 and defeat Oregon in the 1995 Rose Bowl. Penn State finished No.2 in the national polls.

He earned all-state honors three times at Lake Catholic as a wide receiver and punter, with the Cougars winning state championships in 1991and 1992. He also played basketball.

An avid outdoorsman, he pursued those interests in business.

Jurevicius lives in Gates Mills with his wife, Meagan, and their two daughters, Caroline and Ava. A son, Michael William, died in infancy.

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Morin, Pat

Pat Morin

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Squash

At Bexley High School in Columbus he was chosen “Athlete of the Year” his senior year and set the school’s scoring record in basketball, 42 points. He went on to Ohio State starting on Fred Taylor’s freshman basketball squad. Teammates Larry Siegfried and Richie Hoyt were team members who later played on the only Buckeye team to win the NCAA National Championship. Unfortunately an injury ended Patrick’s collegiate career at the end of his freshman season.

At age 35, Patrick was asked to play squash at the first public squash courts ever built in New York. Eureka! It was the greatest sport he had ever experienced. Within two years he had moved up to the A ranks in New York.

In 1978 business brought Patrick to Cleveland. The 13th Street Racquet Club was just opening. He entered his first Nationals the next year in Detroit and was thrashed in the first round. Things changed from then on.

He won 6 state titles, two in Ohio and four in Michigan, and 13 Cleveland championships. At 49 in the National Championships he beat the number 1 seed.

In 1995 he reached the National Singles 55 plus finals and lost a one point tiebreaker in the fifth and final game but he struck gold in 1996 sweeping to victory in Denver without the loss of a game to win the US 55 plus National Championship. He won his second National Championship, 60 and over, in 1999 beating the leading player in North America who had won 13 US Championships, 6 Canadian Championships, and several world titles.

The following year in Boston he picked up his third National Championship coming back from almost being down and out to win the crown.

Patrick has been in the advertising agency business as his “day job.” He started in New York and now owns his own agency, PJ Morin Inc., in Cleveland. He keeps his interest in squash alive today by assisting Urban Squash Cleveland with their marketing efforts.

Patrick, and his wife Debbie, live in Bratenahl. Debbie is Director of the Center for Educational Leadership at Cleveland State University.

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Miller, Dan

Dan Miller

Induction Year : 2013

Sport: Tennis

When it came to better late than never, Dan Miller was the perfect example for the game of tennis.

Returning to the sport he played as a teenager at Cleveland Heights High, Miller was 50 when he once again stepped on a tennis court. He did not leave it for the next 40 years as he established himself as one of the best senior tennis players in the country.

Playing in age-division tournaments around the world, the retired businessman accumulated 35 “gold balls” for winning both singles and doubles championships during United States Tennis Association national tournaments as he played on clay, grass, hard court and indoor surfaces. He also had 16 “silver balls” for his second-place finishes.

He competed during world championships in England, Germany, Austria, Spain, Australia and the United States. He played with and against U.S. Davis Cup member Gardner Mulloy.

Miller, who turned 97 on Sept 26, 2013, won his final tournament in 2006 at age 90 in a doubles competition. As he liked to chide the “older” golfing set, he never considered taking up that game in retirement. “Golfers ride in a cart, go out and hit a ball,” said Miller. “That’s not an athlete. We kid them a lot.”

After gradation from Colgate, he served in the Navy during World War II and saw action during the D-Day invasion at Normandy. During the service he met his wife, Mabel.

After teaching history at Cleveland Heights for several years, he owned and operated the Dan Miller Heating Co. from 1950 to 1980. Living in Mentor, the Millers raised three children.

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