By Matthew Burglund
Photos: Justin Eaton/IUP Athletics
The IUP Athletics Hall of Fame added nine individuals and one team to its roster at its annual induction ceremony in September at the Kovalchick Complex.
The IUP Athletics Hall of Fame inducted its Class of 2025. Front row, from left: Frank Condino, Dennis Stover, Regina Dressel Stover, and Kerri McIntyre Joyce. Back row: IUP President Michael Driscoll, Zack Kempa, Rob Zinsmeister, Denise Raymond Erb, Allyson Mitidieri-Washick, Bob Johnston, James Welker, Eric Shafer, and IUP Athletics Director Todd Garzarelli.
Established in 1996, the hall of fame now has 340 members. Inductees are selected based on athletic achievement, contributions to IUP sports, and postgraduate accomplishments.
The 2025 class includes Allyson Mitidieri-Washick ’14, M’16 (swimming), Denise Raymond Erb ’86 (gymnastics), Kerri McIntyre Joyce ’99 and Eric Shafer ’91 (cross country and track and field), Zack Kempa ’14 (golf), Rob Zinsmeister ’13 and Bob Johnston ’72 (baseball), and James Welker ’89 (tennis). Frank Condino, a longtime coach and administrator, was chosen in the coach/administrator category.
The 1974 women’s tennis team was inducted into the IUP Athletics Hall of Fame in the team category. From left: IUP Athletics Director Todd Garzarelli, Barb Beatty Patterson ’78, Lynn Roser Wagner ’76, and IUP President Michael Driscoll.
The 1974 women’s tennis team, which had a combined singles and doubles record of 59-1 under coach Mary Louise Eltz, was selected in the team category.
Regina Dressel Stover ’75 and Dennis Stover ’76 were recognized with the Honorary Bell Ringer Award for their longstanding support of IUP Athletics.
Made in the PSAC
As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference recognized 75 “former student-athletes that have gone on to influential careers after graduation” with its “Made in the PSAC” designation.
Among them are six IUP-affiliated honorees: the late Frank Cignetti ’60, M’65, former standout football and basketball player (1957 to 1960), director of athletics (1982 to 1998), and head football coach (1986 to 2005), who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2013; Frank Condino, who came to IUP as an assistant football coach in 1984 and eventually served as director of athletics from 1998 to 2014; Chad Hurley ’99, cofounder of YouTube, who ran cross country at IUP; Matt Kohler ’83, a three-time All-America swimmer and retired three-star Navy admiral with 36 years of service; Rodney Ruddock ’65, M’75, who played baseball at IUP from 1962 to 1965 and went on to careers in the military (retiring as a US Army major general), in public education, and as an Indiana County commissioner; and John Wingfield ’85, M’88, a member of the IUP swimming team who went on to coach the US Olympic diving team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Making Headlines
After coaching the Indiana High School baseball team to its first-ever state championship, Dan Petroff ’12 was named 2025 High School Coach of the Year by the Pittsburgh Union Progress. In his second season as coach, Petroff led Indiana to four extra-inning wins in the playoffs before his team beat Montoursville for the state championship. Petroff works in the IUP Office of International Education.
Fresh off winning the Arena Football One Offensive Player of the Year award, Duane Brown signed a contract with the Memphis Showboats of the United Football League. With the AFO’s Albany Firebirds last spring, Brown scored 30 touchdowns in 10 games and caught 61 passes for 909 yards. Brown was a standout wide receiver and running back at IUP from 2017 to 2022, catching 176 passes for 2,884 yards and 38 touchdowns and rushing for 655 yards and 12 scores in 43 career games.
Former IUP basketball player Gina Adams ’24 has put away the high-tops for a new sport. She recently signed with the WWE’s Next in Line program, joining a group of collegiate athletes transitioning into the world of professional wrestling. The Next in Line program teaches its students the basics of wrestling and serves as a proving ground that could lead to a contract with WWE’s main wrestling company.
In April, four IUP alumni were inducted into the Armstrong County Sports Hall of Fame: former football player Tye Desiderio ’07, M’11, University of Ashland athletics director and former IUP sports information assistant director Al King M’83, Belmont Complex director Gary Montebell, and football player Paul Noonan ’69, M’85, a member of IUP’s 1968 Boardwalk Bowl team.
In May, Mickey Curtis ’78 was announced as one of nine inductees into the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. Curtis served as Westfield State University’s sports information director and later as its associate athletic director from 1987 to 2014.
John Rajaski ’65, who was the men’s head basketball coach at Cecil College from 1983 to 1995, was posthumously inducted into the college’s Athletics Hall of Fame in July. In addition to coaching basketball at the Maryland community college, Rajaski coached tennis and golf and taught physical education until he retired in 2009.
Making Moves
Former Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles executive Brandon Hunt ’03, M’06 was named vice president of player personnel for the Las Vegas Raiders. Hunt, who played football at IUP, has been in the NFL in various roles since 2005.
Former NFL player Kris Griffin ’14 recently accepted a position as athletic director at the Saint Constantine School in Houston, Texas. Griffin, who played football at IUP from 2002 to 2004, played for the Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns, and Jacksonville Jaguars between 2005 and 2010.
Kalista Gioglio ’19 was named director of executive operations for the Division I Atlantic Sun Conference, based in Jacksonville, Florida. As a member of IUP’s field hockey team, she was a four-year letter winner and a four-time National Field Hockey Coaches Association scholar-athlete. She joined the Atlantic Sun after serving as a special assistant to the athletic director at Jacksonville University.
In Memoriam
Billy Hunter ’50, who played six seasons in the major leagues in the 1950s and later managed the Texas Rangers for two seasons, died July 3, 2025, at 97. A native of Punxsutawney, he was a three-sport star at Indiana State Teachers College in the 1940s and, after his playing days, was the athletic director at what’s now Towson State. He was inducted into the IUP Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997.
(Photo credits: Justin Eaton/IUP Athletics)
As we continue celebrating IUP’s 150th anniversary, we stand at the intersection of memory and momentum.
