Tennis player Liina Suurvarik and football player Boomer Grigsby, two of the most successful student-athletes in recent Illinois State history, became the first winners of the Jill Hutchison Female Student-Athlete of the Year and the Milt Weisbecker Male Student-Athlete of the Year, respectively.
The pair was recognized during Sunday nights Fourth Annual Redbird Athletics Walk of Champions at a special ceremony that renamed the 16-year-old awards after the pair of Redbird pioneers.
Weisbecker, who was represented at the ceremony by his widow, JoAnn, was Illinois States athletics director in the 1960s and 1970s. He not only initiated Division I scholarship athletics at Illinois State, but also helped blaze a trail for diversity when he hired basketball coach Will Robinson in 1970, the first African-American head coach at a predominantly white university. Weisbecker retired in 1993, but stayed close to Redbird athletics until his death in 2002.
Hutchison won 461 games as a womens basketball coach and also served as an administrator during her more than 30 years on campus. She helped pioneer five-on-five basketball for women and girls, as well as the smaller basketball used for the past 20 years. She was three-time national president of the Womens Basketball Coaches Association and her expert testimony before the Knight Commission on College Athletics in the 1990s helped bring important changes favoring college student-athletes. Hutchison continues her involvement in college sports as a columnist and as a radio and TV analyst.
Suurvarik, a native of Tallin, Estonia, is the winningest singles and doubles player in Redbird tennis history. The 2004 CoSIDA Academic All-American was a four-time Missouri Valley Conference singles champion who received her bachelors degree in International Business in May, 2004, after leading her team to its third Missouri Valley Conference title in four years.
Jane Fulton, Illinois States assistant athletics director for academics and life skills, thinks Suurvarik personifies achievement and leadership by a student-athlete.
Liina not only was a four-time conference champion in her sport and an academic all-American, but also was a leader in the Student-Athlete Advisory Council and a strong community service volunteer, said Fulton. She is a prime example of what Jill Hutchison believes a student-athlete should be.
Grigsby is a consensus all-American linebacker for the Redbird football team beginning his senior season. During his career, the Canton, Ill., native has been the 2003 I-AA.com National Defensive Player of the Year, a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award and two-time Gateway Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
Grigsbys success would be make Weisbecker proud, according to Fulton.
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Not only does Boomer do the job on the field and in the classroom, but he is an advocate for his sport and for Illinois State athletics, said Fulton. He is an excellent example of whats right about college football and what Milt believed in.
In its fourth year, the Walk of Champions is a combination campus tour and history lesson which features stops at historic sites and culminates with the presentation of one-half of a medallion featuring the line from the Redbird Fight Song To the emblem well be true. The other half is awarded at the Senior Student-Athlete Banquet, completing the cycle for Redbird student-athletes.
Fulton believes Suurvarik and Grigsby set high standards for others to follow, including the more than 100 new student-athletes who were the central part of the 2004 Walk of Champions.
If every student-athlete were as committed to overall excellence as Boomer and Liina, there would be no doubt that Illinois State would always be the home of champions, said Fulton. As we welcome these new student-athletes into the Redbird family, we want them to know that the tradition is as strong as that commitment.
Fulton thinks that naming the awards after Hutchison and Weisbecker elevates their meaning.
Jill and Milt represent the commitment and total effort that represents the best in Illinois State athletics, said Fulton. So, its only fitting that these awards be named for them.
