Nearly a century of athletic and leadership excellence will be recognized this spring when the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame inducts a class of nine.
Enshrined will be field hockey’s Robin Adair Harvey, Willy Miranda and Maxine Fluharty, lacrosse’s Jake Bergey, basketball’s Lenny Brown, wrestling’s Kurt Howell, tennis’ Laura LeRoy Travis, baseball’s Ed Stone and swim coach and long-time athletic director Edgar Johnson.
They’ll be honored May 29 at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington. Tickets to the 49th annual banquet are $75 each with tables of eight $550. They may be purchased on the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame website desports.org/events. A social hour, silent auction and memorabilia display start at 5:30 p.m. followed by the dinner and awards at 6:45.
The nine inductees:
Bergey starred in both football, where he was coached by dad Bill, and lacrosse at Tatnall, sparking the Hornets to 1990 and 1993 state titles. He was then a three-time NCAA Division III lacrosse All-American at Salisbury and scored five goals in the Sea Gulls’ 1994 NCAA title win. Salisbury went 59-3 during his career and Bergey was NCAA Division III Midfielder of the Year in 1995 and Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Year in 1997. Bergey then became all-time leading scorer for the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League and won league titles in 1998 and 2001.
Brown starred on William Penn teams that won the state title his junior year, placed second when he was state Player of the Year in 1994 and also won Slam Dunk to the Beach. He then excelled collegiately alongside William Penn teammate Gary Lumpkin at Xavier. Brown was an A-10 All-Rookie pick while leading the Musketeers in scoring for the first of three times as a freshman. He was then a two-time first-team all-conference pick, sparking Xavier to one A-10 tournament and two regular-season titles. He is sixth on Xavier’s career scoring chart with 1,885 points.
Fluharty put Sussex Tech on the state field hockey map, earning four first-team all-conference, three first-team All-State and two state Player of the year honors while leading the Ravens to the 2009 and 2010 state titles. That success carried over to the University of Maryland, where Fluharty closed her career by being Big Ten Player of the Year and first-team All-American as a senior in 2014. She’d been third-team All-American and first team All-ACC as a junior and sparked the Terrapins to the 2011 NCAA title as a freshman. Fluharty also played for U.S. under-21 and senior national teams.
Harvey twice led the state in scoring at Cape Henlopen, earning All-State field hockey honors in 1982 as the Vikings reached the state title game. She was then NCAA Division III Player of the Year in 1986 for unbeaten NCAA champ Salisbury. Harvey then coached Tower Hill to 10 state titles and five other championship game appearances from 1994-2010. Her Hillers went 396-44-16 over her 24-year stint as coach, with many players also excelling at the college level and two — Meredith Keller and Caitlin Van Sickle – playing for the U.S. team.
Howell made headlines as a youth wrestler, winning a World Schoolboy under-16 championship at age 14 in 1982 and the national 105-pound Greco-Roman title two years later. He then became the first Delaware high school wrestler to win 100 career matches at Newark. Howell won four Blue Hen Conference and four state titles – at 98, 105, 112, and 119 pounds – while going 108-0 from 1983-86. Howell then won an Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1990 at Clemson and earned All-American status with an eighth-place finish at the 1991 NCAA Tournament, both at 126 pounds. Howell then coached at Indian River High before moving to Smyrna. His Eagles won five state team titles, in Division II in 2005 and Division I from 2013-16, and had a slew of Henlopen Conference and state individual champions.
The Salesianum graduate was a record-breaking swimmer for Delaware before graduating in 1967 and becoming a successful coach and long-time athletic director with the Blue Hens. Johnson was head coach of the men’s cross country and men’s and women’s swim teams. His women won 42 straight dual meets and placed ninth at the 1981 AIAW national championships. Johnson then served 25 years as UD athletic director, steering Delaware from the East Coast Conference to America East and then to the Colonial Athletic Association. Delaware teams won 83 conference titles and made 32 NCAA Championships appearances during his tenure.
The son and namesake of Major League shortstop Willy Miranda, Willy Jr. was on the University of Delaware’s 1970 baseball team that reached the College World Series before moving into teaching and coached football, baseball, softball, girls basketball, swimming, and girls lacrosse at several schools. But Miranda’s stint as a field hockey coach was most noteworthy, first with four years at Wilmington before going to Brandywine for 38 years. His teams won more than 450 games, with Brandywine frequently taking Blue Hen Conference Flight A and B titles and reaching four state championship games, including winning the 1987 final.
The New Castle native and Howard High graduate starred in baseball’s pre-integration Negro National League, where he was an All-Star in 1935, 1939, and 1940 during a 20-year career. Stone batted .313 for his career with an OPS of .852. He played for the Brooklyn Eagles, Newark Eagles, Philadelphia Stars, New York Black Yankees and Pittsburgh Crawfords and toured with the Jackie Robinson All-Stars in 1946.
Travis sparked Tower Hill to four consecutive state tennis championship as its No. 1 singles player and was state individual champ as well. She also captained the 1982 state field hockey state championship team. Travis then won three East Coast Conference singles titles and another in doubles for Delaware, where she was four-time team MVP. Travis then coached the Blue Hens teams for 26 years, including becoming the first woman to coach a men’s sport at UD. She was a five-time conference Coach of the Year. Delaware’s men won the America East Conference title in 1997 and her teams won a UD record 42 straight matches.
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.
