Eight new members will be inducted into the SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame during its 41st annual banquet and ceremonies on Saturday, Oct. 31, in Corey Union.

The 2009 honorees are:

Donald J. Hartley '58
Kay Shanks Barton '66
Francine "Fran" Kalafer '73
Joanne “Jodi” Schmeelk '73
Perry Nizzi '77
Richard “Rick” Suddaby '79

and honorary inductees:

Katherine "Tyke" Ley (posthumous)
Beulah “Buff” Wang

Established in 1969, the C-Club Hall of Fame recognizes Cortland alumni who competed as athletes at the College and who have since distinguished themselves in their professions and within their communities. Honorary members are recognized for their long and significant contributions to SUNY Cortland athletics.

New C-Club members have been added annually, and this year's ceremony will bring the Hall of Fame roster to 208 alumni and 23 honorary members. A closer look at this year's inductees follows.


Donald J. Hartley '58
Red Creek, N.Y.

A member of the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Donald Hartley '58 has won a New York record 22 sectional titles and has equaled a record with six state championships as the varsity boys' soccer coach at Red Creek Central School.

Hartley, who coached the team from 1959-91 and then returned to rebuild the program from 2001 to the present, has amassed a staggering 554-126-75 overall win-loss-tied mark that includes state titles in 1979, 1985, 1991, 2005, 2007 and 2008 and seven regional soccer crowns.

Recognized across the U.S. for his achievements, Hartley was named National High School Athletic Association “Coach of the Year” in 1978, the National Soccer Coaches Association (NSCA) Regional Coach of the Year in 1990 and the NSCA National Coach of the Year in 1991. Inducted into the Section V Hall of Fame in 1997, he has a brick in his honor at the Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y. Twice honored at the New York State Capitol in Albany for his coaching excellence, Hartley was voted the 2008 Greater Rochester Soccer Coach of the Year.

Hartley, who began his career in 1958 at Red Creek as an elementary teacher, taught high school physical education for 21 years and was athletic director from 1972 until his retirement in 1992. He also coached varsity boys' basketball (1960-79), golf (1987-91) and varsity girls' basketball (1990-91). Including his soccer successes, his overall combined record at Red Creek is 801-237-75.

A native of North Rose, N.Y., Hartley competed in soccer all four years at Cortland, three as the varsity starting center defender. He also excelled at tennis, where he played every match for four seasons, including being defeated only once at third singles as a senior. He volunteered with the Men's Athletic Association (MAA), was a student-player representative on the planning board for the new tennis courts and helped to organize Homecoming Weekend and Winter Carnival.

Hartley earned a bachelor's degree in physical education and hygiene from SUNY Cortland in 1958 and a master's degree from SUNY Oswego in 1964.

Within the Red Creek community, he organized a recreational program upon his arrival in 1958-59 and, over the years, has served on the Red Creek Revitalization Committee. He has been active within his church in the Men's Club, Sunday school, as a trustee and with Toys-for-Tots. The Red Creek civic leaders declared Oct. 27, 1978, as Donald Hartley Day in honor of his service to the community youth.

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Kay Shanks Barton '66
Skaneateles, N.Y.

An exceptional student-athlete and administrator at SUNY Cortland, Kay Shanks Barton '66 has devoted her professional career to creating and advancing opportunities for girls and women to compete in sports.

A native of Hamburg, N.Y., and a Frontier Central High School graduate, Barton served as president, vice president and secretary of the Women's Athletic Association (WAA) at SUNY Cortland. She was a member of the Officials Club, the Intramural Board and her class volleyball team throughout her undergraduate career. She was voted the WAA Outstanding Senior in her final year at the College.

As a senior, Barton was president of the New York State Athletic and Recreation Federation of College Women (N.Y.S.A.R.F.C.W.) and chaired its annual conference held in Cortland that year. As a junior, she was a representative to the National Athletic and Recreation Federation of College Women Conference held at the University of Nebraska.

Barton was treasurer of Alpha Sigma sorority and voted Queen of Spring Weekend for her service to the organization. She was selected to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities as a senior. During her summers, she was a recreation supervisor for the Town of Hamburg (N.Y.), where she started a popular softball program for girls under 16. Her team, the Blasdell (N.Y.) Sparks, captured countywide honors and still exists today.

She earned a bachelor's degree in physical education and hygiene from SUNY Cortland in 1966 and a master's degree in health education from Adelphi University in 1973.

In 1966, Barton became one of the first female physical educators in the William Floyd School District in Mastic Beach, N.Y., where she taught girls in grades 7-12 until 1972. She helped to rewrite the curriculum to include folk dance, ballroom dance, gymnastics, volleyball, tumbling, field hockey, track and archery, in addition to soccer, basketball and softball. Barton established and coached the girls soccer team there.

Barton officiated volleyball and basketball on Long Island from 1966-72 and, from 1975-86, was a field hockey, volleyball and softball official in the Finger Lakes region.

Barton coached the Central Square (N.Y.) girls' volleyball coach for 23 seasons from 1986 until her retirement in 2008 with a combined record of 294-179. She also started the boys' volleyball program at the school in 1992 and won 195 matches, six league titles and four sectional crowns. In addition, she guided the school's softball team from 1994 to 2005. In 2000, she received the Central Square Coaches Award for service to the high school's sports program.

From 2006-08, Barton coached the Onondaga Community College softball squad. She inherited a program that had folded five times in the six years prior to her arrival. She received the Mid-State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honor in 2006.

A certified Physical Best instructor, Barton was honored in 2006 by the Oneida Shores Rotary Club for her longtime service to that community. A former softball youth league coach in both Auburn, N.Y., and Skaneateles, N.Y., Barton was also a church elder at First Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles.

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Francine "Fran" Kalafer '73
Venice, California

By the time of her retirement from Hofstra University in 2006, Francine “Fran” Kalafer '73 was ranked 11th nationally among all active NCAA Div. I women's volleyball coaches in terms of victories. In 25 years, she compiled a 590-316 win-loss mark at Hofstra that, coupled with her three years at SUNY Stony Brook, blossomed to a 612-343 overall record.

A native of Middle Village, N.Y., she graduated from Newtown High School. At SUNY Cortland, she competed on the tennis team at first singles throughout her undergraduate career and played first doubles for two seasons. A two-year co-captain, Kalafer captured the SUNY tournament tennis title and won first doubles at the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) tourney in 1972.

Kalafer was a resident assistant in Bishop Hall as well as the then-newly constructed Casey and Smith Towers.

She earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from SUNY Cortland and a master's degree from SUNY Stony Brook.

From 1973-79, Kalafer taught physical education and posted a 91-10 record as the head volleyball coach at Smithtown (N.Y.) East High School, where she won three Suffolk County championships and one Long Island title. She also directed the tennis and badminton squads there. Kalafer then transformed SUNY Stony Brook's volleyball program into a power during her tenure from 1979-81.

Taking over the reins at Hofstra in 1981, Kalafer recorded 22 winning seasons. She had four teams break the 30-win barrier and 18 teams record at least 20 victories in a season. During her Hofstra tenure, she coached five NCAA Tournament teams, four National Invitational Volleyball Championship squads and 14 conference championship teams. She also has seen numerous players earn postseason accolades, including three American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) District All-Americans, 13 CoSIDA District Academic All-Americans and two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.

The 2004 Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year, Kalafer was a charter inductee into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2003. Kalafer received one of the highest accolades in her sport in 2001, when she was honored with the AVCA Founders Award. In 1998 she was named the Nassau County Sports Commission Female Coach of the Year.

On two separate occasions, Kalafer received special recognition by the Hofstra Alumni Organization. Most recently, Kalafer received the 2004 Hofstra University Honorary Alumna Award and, in 1997, the Kathleen Trouve Martin Award for outstanding service to Hofstra University. Kalafer was inducted into the Smithtown High School Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 for superior athletic achievement in competition, becoming the first non-Smithtown graduate to receive this distinction.

In 1979, she established the Long Island Volleyball Development Camp and Clinics, which she directed for 28 years. She chaired the Long Island Region Volleyball Committee for the Empire State Games, as well as the ECAC Div. I Volleyball Committee. She served on the AVCA Legislative Committee and the Tachikara/NCAA Div. I Coaches Poll.

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Joanne “Jodi” Schmeelk '73
Canandaigua, N.Y.

As a SUNY Cortland undergraduate, Joanne “Jodi” Schmeelk '73 was an exceptional student-athlete who successfully advocated for academic improvements to the curriculum and dress code. In her 30-plus years as a physical educator and coach in the Fairport (N.Y.) School District, Schmeelk's behind-the-scenes determination ensured expanded athletic opportunities for female competitors throughout Section V.

Schmeelk, who grew up in Emerson, N.J., was omnipresent on the SUNY Cortland campus. She played outfield for four seasons and was a senior captain for Coach Sally Wallace's softball team. She played point guard for one year in basketball and was active in intramurals and the Women's Athletic Association (WAA).

The president of Theta Phi sorority in 1971-72, she participated in its Hellenic Sing, Homecoming Parade and Theta Nine singing troupe. A junior counselor at the Outdoor Education Center at Raquette Lake, Schmeelk successfully lobbied that female physical education majors be allowed to student teach for an entire semester and became the first to do so. At the time, female student teachers were required to wear a blue tunic. Schmeelk persuaded the departmental administrators to allow more appropriate wear to demonstrate activities.

In 1973, Schmeelk became the first physical education major to earn a bachelor's degree with a dance emphasis. She began her professional career at Hamburg (N.Y.) Central School District, where she taught physical education and coached synchronized swimming, basketball and softball and ran intramurals. From 1975-2006, she taught physical education at Fairport (N.Y.) High School, and from 1992-2006, to ninth graders at Minerva DeLand in the same district.

She coached junior varsity women's soccer (1975-96), women's basketball (1975-76) and softball (1975-2003). In 1977, she took over the varsity women's basketball reins and continued until 1989. As the class coordinator for Girls' Section V Basketball from 1976-96, Schmeelk was instrumental in establishing the first girls' basketball state tournament in New York. She chaired Section V Girls' Basketball from 1996-2002.

Schmeelk ran free girls' basketball camps at William Smith College and the University of Rochester to help grow the sport. She worked with Booster Clubs at Fairport for girls basketball, soccer and softball. She helped to schedule officials for both boys and girls sports in Section V.

A contributing member to the creation of the Section V Hall of Fame, Schmeelk was inducted in the section's Basketball Hall of Fame. She was named the Grater Rochester Coach of the Year, and received the University of Rochester Teacher of the Year Award, and both the Crystal Apple Award and the Cornerstone Award from the Fairport School District for her outstanding teaching and service.

She was the first East Coach in the Ronald McDonald Exceptional Senior Games and was honored by the Section V Officials Board for her outstanding sportsmanship.

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Perry Nizzi '77
Frankfort, N.Y.

As both a soccer player and coach, current Hamilton College men's team mentor Perry Nizzi '77 has enjoyed national success and acclaim at every point in his illustrious career.
A native of Rome, N.Y., Nizzi graduated from Rome Free Academy, where he earned high school All-America honors. Nizzi enjoyed an All-America playing career at Mohawk Valley Community College, where he earned an associate's degree in 1975.

He continued his education at SUNY Cortland. As a starting midfielder, he finished among the College's all-time leading scorers in just two years of play. He was a two-time, first team All-SUNYAC player and was first team all-state and team captain as a senior.

Nizzi, who helped to establish and coach the undefeated women's soccer club, earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree at Cortland. A lecturer in the Physical Education Department, he coached the men's junior varsity squad and was an assistant under Head Coach Fred Taube.

From 1981-98, Nizzi was an assistant professor physical education and a coach at Herkimer County Community College (HCCC). His men's soccer squads captured three National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championships while setting a national record with 97 consecutive victories. His squads posted a 291-56-11 record in 17 seasons. His teams won nine regional and 10 conference crowns. A two-time NSCAA National Coach of the Year, Nizzi was named regional coach of the year in nine different years.

He received the National Intercollegiate Soccer Officials Association Recognition Award for Outstanding Sportsmanship and Excellence in Coaching. He has been inducted into the NJCAA Soccer Hall of Fame, the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame and the Rome Sports Hall of Fame.

For three seasons, he directed the HCCC women's basketball team, advancing to the regional final four in two of those three years.

In 1998, Nizzi became the men's soccer coach at Hamilton. In seven of his 11 seasons, Nizzi's teams have reached double figures in wins. They have a combined record of 98-43-14. He has led the Continentals to four NCAA Div. III Men's Soccer Tournament appearances, including the first in school history, and four Liberty League regular season/tournament championships.

Nizzi captured five gold medals as a soccer coach/player in the Empire State Games. He has been active with youth sports throughout his career as a coach, official and clinician in soccer, basketball and baseball.

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Richard “Rick” Suddaby '79
Burdett, N.Y.

An inspirational scholastic and collegiate gymnastics champion on the parallel bars, Richard “Rick” Suddaby '79 has constructed a women's gymnastics dynasty as the Ithaca College head coach during the past quarter-of-a-century.

The Baldwinsville, N.Y., native captured the high school state title on parallel bars. At SUNY Cortland, he became the first-ever Red Dragon gymnast to qualify for the NCAA championships in 1978 and finished seventh on the bars at the NCAA Div. II meet a year later. As the North Atlantic Gymnastics League (NAGL) parallel bars champion, he helped lead Cortland to its first conference title as a senior team co-captain.

Suddaby, whose twin brother, Wayne '79, was also a Red Dragon gymnastics standout, received the T. Fred Holloway Award in 1979 for demonstrating outstanding leadership in the field of physical education. That year, he also competed internationally at the Olympic Sport Club in Berlin, Germany.

After earning a bachelor's degree from SUNY Cortland, Suddaby entered the private gymnastics teaching arena and became an innovative clinician. In 1983-84, he started his collegiate coaching career at SUNY Cortland, where he led the Red Dragon women gymnasts to qualify for their first National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) championships.

Suddaby coached for a season at Fayetteville-Manlius High School before joining the Ithaca College professional staff in August 1985. A two-time NCGA Coach of the Year, he has served as Ithaca's head gymnastics coach since 1986. He led the Bombers to 21 straight trips to the NCGA championship meet from 1987-2007, winning the 1998 national title and finishing as national runner-up in 1987, 1997 and 2004. Under Suddaby, Ithaca has recorded nine top-four finishes at the NCGA meets and 22 top-three finishes at the ECAC Championships, including capturing 12 ECAC crowns.

Five Ithaca gymnasts have won nine individual NCGA championships, 23 have claimed a total of 57 All-American honors and 37 have received NCGA all-academic recognition with Suddaby at the helm.

Suddaby spearheaded the ranking and promotion system and employment document for Ithaca College coaches as chair of the Athletic Human Resources Committee. In 1997 he participated in an NCAA Youth Education through Sports (YES) gymnastics clinic at the University of Florida.

The NCGA chair since 1994, Suddaby has directed several youth gymnastics camps at Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland. A former member of the Burdett (N.Y.) Methodist Church Board of Trustees, he was inducted into the Otis E. Sennett '50 Baldwinsville Athletic Hall of Fame.

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Katherine “Tyke” Ley (honorary)
Deceased

The late Katherine “Tyke” Ley, who died in December 1982 at 63 years of age, was a nationally renowned leader in athletics administration who, as the SUNY Cortland women's physical education department chair from 1966-78, advocated and oversaw the transformation of women's athletics from “play days” into full-fledged intercollegiate competition.

Ley earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin, her master's degree from UCLA and her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.

She began her professional career in 1941 as a physical education teacher in Platteville, Wis., public school system. She taught two years at Iowa State University and was a graduate assistant at UCLA and the University of Iowa. Ley was an associate professor at the University of Colorado from 1946-60 and at the University of Michigan from 1961-66.

During her 12 years at SUNY Cortland, Ley strongly supported the passage of Title IX and the subsequent expansion and emphasis given to women's sports. Every step of the way, Ley ensured that Cortland's actions would be based on sound ethical principles.

A national leader, Ley led organizations that created and sponsored the first women's intercollegiate national championships in 1969. She was president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (AAHPER), chaired the Committee on Standards for Girls' and Women's Sports, chaired and co-founded the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) which later became the AIAW, and chaired the Division of Girls' and Women's Sports (DGWS) — a national organization that set standards, established rules and prepared officials for the conduct of women's sport programs.

Ley was a member of the United States Olympic Development Committee, a member of the Amateur Athletics Union (AAU), and on the governing councils of the U.S. Track and Field, Gymnastics and Basketball Federations

As a member of the NCAA Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, she was the first woman to make a presentation to that committee. She was the AAHPER representative at a White House meeting on equal rights. A noted author, she co-wrote Individual and Team Sports for Women and a Manual of Physical Education Activities.

In 1975, she received the M. Gladys Scott Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Iowa. In 2008, the National Association of Collegiate Women's Athletic Administrators presented her posthumously with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Inducted into the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Hall of Fame, Ley was named by her peers as a prestigious Fellow of the American Academy of Physical Educators.

In 1983, the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) established the Katherine Ley Award to honor a member school women's athletic administrator who exemplifies the outstanding values and characteristics displayed by Ley.

From 1978 until her retirement in 1981, Ley was the athletics director at Capital University in Ohio. At the time, she was one of only two female athletic administrators heading both men's and women's athletics.

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Beulah “Buff” Wang (honorary)
Cortland, N.Y.

Beulah “Buff” Wang, a lecturer emerita of physical education and a longtime faculty member at SUNY Cortland, was the architect and first coach of the College's women's volleyball program in the late 1960s during the nascent days of intercollegiate athletic competition for SUNY Cortland females.

Her team won state and regional competition and earned a berth at the first women's national intercollegiate volleyball championship in 1972, and they repeated the feat in 1975. Rhonda Woodward, a member of the 1975 squad, went on to become a member of the U.S. national team.

Wang served on the Volleyball Sports Committee of the newly formed New York State Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (NYSAIAW), the precursor to the national AIAW and the first step toward varsity sports programs for women. An active volleyball official, she gained prominence with her national rating. She worked with officials' organizations and conducted many statewide clinics.

In addition to her teaching and coaching responsibilities at Cortland, she served as site coordinator for the New York State Senior Games in Cortland from 1986-96 before they moved to Syracuse. She then worked closely with John Doherty, the director of the Senior Games, when they returned to Cortland in 2001. She was a member of the College's International Programs committee, and in 1970 was faculty supervisor to Cortland's first physical education "semester abroad" students attending the Sport Hoch Schule in Cologne, Germany. Wang has also served as the building administrator for Cortland's Bessie L. Park 1901 Physical Education and Recreation Center.

Prior to joining the SUNY Cortland faculty in 1962, Wang taught for 12 years at the American Kiz Kolej (American Girls' School) in Izmir, Turkey. The principal of the high school section of the school, she taught physical education at all levels and coached volleyball, basketball, track and field, tennis and table tennis in an eight-member intra-city league there.

In 1980, Wang accepted an appointment with the United States Sports Academy and later the Bahraini government to travel to Bahrain and conduct fitness testing of schoolgirls in that Middle Eastern nation. While there, she also conducted aerobic fitness programs for Bahraini women and developed a swimming program for women and children. Literally hundreds of women participated in the program, which took them through a progression of three levels of swimming competency and began preparing the graduates to become swimming instructors.When Wang returned to SUNY Cortland, the Bahrain government sent six of the women from the program to Cortland for advanced Life Saving and swimming skills instruction.

A native of Faribault, Minn., Wang earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Minnesota State University at Mankato, a Master of Science degree from the University of Iowa, a Master of Arts in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from SUNY Binghamton and an Ed.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Wang retired from SUNY Cortland in 1998.

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