Augie to induct 1983 national champs into Hall

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By Steve Batterson | Monday, October 6, 2008 11:32 PM CDT | () comments

The “Tribe’’ is about to expand.

For the first time since Augustana College established its “Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame,” an entire team will be recognized when the annual induction ceremony takes place Friday night.

Augustana’s 1983 football team — the first to win what would become a string of four consecutive NCAA Division III championships — will join eight individuals being inducted as the newest members of the school’s hall of fame.

After finishing as the national runner-up the previous season, the Vikings’ 1983 football team won the first national team title in school history, ending a 12-0 year with a 21-17 win over Union.

After that season, coach Bob Reade was selected as the national coach of the year and four players, tackle Kurt Kapischke, linebacker Pete Kasap, running back Craig Allison and defensive back Doug McCoy earned all-American honors.

“It’s nice that the entire team will be recognized because Augustana football has always been about team,” Allison said. “To me, what we accomplished that season happened because of the work the guys before us put into the program to lay the foundation for the success we had.

“I’ve talked to a lot of guys who are coming back next weekend and it will be a special time for all of us. It’s been 25 years, but when we talk, it seems like just yesterday.’’

All eight named to this year’s class competed for the Vikings between 1990-94 and the group includes five individual Division III national champions along with a Final Four MVP.

Individuals in this year’s class are swimmer Julie (Konchan) Dobnikar, basketball players Katy (Hulin) Hasson and Kirk Anderson and five cross country and track athletes — Dave Terronez, Trent Morrell, Sandu Rebenciuc, Meribeth (Schwartz) Kozlowski and Kim (Wallace) Becker.

Dobnikar is the first and only Augustana swimmer to win an NCAA title, winning the 50-yard freestyle at the 1990 meet. She still holds five individual school records.

Hasson completed her career in 1991, but remains as the school’s single-season rebounding and field-goal percentage record holder while Anderson earned MVP honors at the 1993 NCAA Final Four, leading the Vikings to a runner-up finish with an average of 27.7 points.

Terronez was a two-time national champion in cross country and four-time all-American in track while Morrell, the 1992 Division III champion at 5,000 meters, was also an all-American in cross country for the Vikings.

Rebenciuc was a 14-time all-American who won a total of seven Division III championships. His titles included one in cross country, a pair of indoor titles at 1,500 meters and four outdoor championships, the 1,500 in 1992 and 1993, the 10,000 meters in 1992 and the 3,000 steeplechase in 1993.

A sprinter, Kozlowski was an eight-time all-American in track who also earned academic all-American, while Becker was selected as the most valuable competitor at the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin women’s track meet in each of her two years of competition, taking first in the heptathlon in both 1993 and 1994.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.