Six Bison Standouts Elected to Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame

7/8/2009 8:00:00 AM | General

By: TBD

July 8, 2009

Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Site

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Six Bison student-athlete alumni representing six different sports have been elected to the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame, committee chair and associate director of athletics Todd Newcomb has announced. Sara Den Besten Collins, from the Class of 1996, will become the very first Hall of Fame inductee from the sport of women's rowing, and she will be joined by football All-American Tom Alexander '62, lacrosse All-American Rodney Brown '83, wrestling All-American Tom Marchetti '91, volleyball star Melissa Wharton '98 and standout softball catcher Jennifer Yuengling Franquet '93.

The new class will be formally inducted as part of the 31st Hall of Fame Induction Breakfast, hosted by the Bison Club on Homecoming Weekend. This year's ceremony will take place on Saturday, Oct. 24, and the new Hall of Famers will also be re-introduced at halftime of the Bucknell-Lehigh football game later that afternoon.

The Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 1979 to honor the very best in the history of Bison athletics. This year's induction brings to 211 the number of outstanding student-athletes, coaches, administrators and friends of Bucknell whose contributions to Bucknell athletics are forever preserved in the Hall of Fame.

TOM ALEXANDER '62 becomes the 73rd member of the Bison football program to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Alexander was a two-way starter at Bucknell for three seasons (1959-61), playing guard and center on offense and linebacker on the defensive side. He was a key cog on the 1960 team that finished 7-2 and won the Lambert Cup as the best team in the East. As a senior in 1961, he helped lead the Bison to a 6-3 mark and was named an honorable mention on the Associated Press Little All-America Team as a guard. He was also named to the All-Middle Atlantic Conference Team and the All-Pennsylvania Team.

Alexander was later named Bucknell's Most Courageous Senior Athlete and was the university's Helms Foundation ROTC Athlete of the Year. He was named to Bucknell all-time teams in both 1970 and 1996. After graduation, Alexander served in the U.S. Army in Europe, where he continued his football career. He was a first team All-Europe and second team All-Army selection, and he was invited to play in the Europe All-Star game while serving abroad. Alexander went on to become a successful high school coach in Western Pennsylvania, and he was named to the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

Rodney Brown

RODNEY BROWN '83 was a four-year starter for the Bison men's lacrosse team under Hall of Fame coach Sid Jamieson. Brown played both midfield and defense during a terrific career that saw him become Bucknell's third Division I All-American. He was a first team All-East Coast Conference defenseman in 1982, then as a senior he moved to midfield and tallied 30 goals and 15 assists, repeating as a first team all-conference pick and earning an honorable mention All-America nod as well. A team co-captain as a senior, he was selected to play in the Division I North-South All-Star Game in 1983. His goal and assist totals ranked fourth and eighth, respectively, on Bucknell's single-season list at the time.

Brown becomes the ninth member of the men's lacrosse program to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

Sara Den Besten Collins '96 is widely regarded as the finest women's rower ever to compete at Bucknell, and by rowing competitively year-round, she is credited with helping to raise the commitment level of a program that has now won four consecutive Patriot League championships. As a senior, Den Besten became the first member of the rowing program to earn the Christy Mathewson Award as the top senior athlete in her class. That year, she was a member of the lightweight four that won at the U.S. Nationals, and the following two years she stroked the lightweight eight and quad to gold at the Nationals. She also qualified for the World Indoor Rowing Championships, an erg event, and helped the Bison varsity four to a bronze medal at the Champion International Collegiate Regatta. The summer prior to her senior year, Den Besten won the senior lightweight double sculls at the Canadian Royal Henley Regatta.

Sara Den Besten

After graduation, Den Besten became the second Bucknell alumnus in any sport to win a medal at a world championship when she earned a silver medal in the lightweight four at the 1998 World Rowing Championship in Cologne, Germany. A year later, she won gold in the same boat at the World Championships in Canada.

TOM MARCHETTI '91 was a three-time qualifier for the NCAA Wrestling Championships, and as a sophomore in 1989 he became Bucknell's very first wrestling All-American when he placed fourth at 167 pounds. Marchetti earned three consecutive East Coast Cconference titles from 1989-91, and he was named Outstanding Wrestler at the 1990 ECC Championships. He graduated as Bucknell's all-time winningest wrestler with a 106-24 mark (the 106 wins now ranks second all-time behind fellow Hall of Famer Bobby Ferraro's 118). His 31 victories in 1990-91 were second-most in program history at the time, while his 45-7 dual-match record was third-best all-time. Marchetti remains one of only five Bucknell wrestlers to win 80 percent of his matches over a four-year career, and he also set school marks for pins in a season (19) and career (41).

Marchetti was a Freshman All-American in his first year at Bucknell and was nationally ranked in each of his final three seasons. A Christy Mathewson Award winner as the top senior athlete in his class, Marchetti was a two-year team captain. Bucknell posted a 38-20 dual-meet record during his career and finished as the conference runner-up three times. He is Bucknell's fifth wrestling Hall of Famer.

MELISSA WHARTON '98 becomes the second volleyball player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, joining former teammate Katie Steele '96, who was inducted in 2007. An intimidating 6'2” middle hitter, Wharton graduated with 10 school records and is considered one of the best players in program history. She is the still the only Bison player to hit .400 in a season, and she did so three times. Wharton recorded a Bucknell and Patriot League-record .445 hitting percentage in 1995 (second-best in the nation that year), and she followed it up by hitting .410 in 1996 and .411 as a senior in 1997. She owns three of the top four single-season hitting percentages in Patriot League history, while her .400 career average is also the school and league record. Wharton's 1,377 career kills was the school record for 10 years until being surpassed by Jenna Henderson in 2007. She is also the Bucknell and Patriot League career leader in blocks with 631. Only two other players in program history have surpassed even half that total. Wharton, who also was a gifted singer and a member of the Bucknell Gospel Choir, was a three-time First Team All-Patriot League selection and earned the Christy Mathewson Award as the top senior athlete in her class.

Tom Marchetti

Just as important as her individual accolades, Wharton was part of the winningest class in Bucknell volleyball history. The team went 83-40 overall and 19-6 in the Patriot League during her career. That included a school-record 26-win season in 1995. The Bison went 6-0 en route to the Patriot League regular-season title in 1995, and in Wharton's senior year they won the regular-season crown again.

JENNIFER YUENGLING FRANQUET '93 is considered one of the best catchers and leadoff hitters in the history of the Bucknell softball program. She started 144 out of a possible 145 games in her career and led the Bison to four straight 20-win seasons. Yuengling posted a .397 batting average as a senior, the 11th-best mark in program history, while her .332 career average ranks ninth all-time. She broke school records for career walks (66) and longest hitting streak (20), and her 67 career stolen bases rank second all-time behind only Hall of Famer Lisa Fink. As a junior and senior, Yuengling was a perfect 37-for-37 on stolen-base attempts. On Bucknell's career lists, she also ranks second in runs (111) and fifth in hits (163).

Yuengling was also an outstanding defensive catcher who called pitches behind the plate. For two seasons, she caught a Hall of Fame pitcher in Sharon Nichols. Bucknell compiled a 95-50 record during her career, including a 28-11 season in 1991 and a 27-8 campaign in 1993. Those are the two winningest seasons in program history. Yuengling was named to the All-East Coast Conference Team in 1990 and to the All-Patriot League squad in 1993. She was later named to the Patriot League All-Decade Team. Yuengling is the eighth softball player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.