July 18, 2008 12:33 am
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From staff reports
sports@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — Four All-Americans, including Pittsburg State’s first honorees in football, baseball and golf, are among this year’s inductees for the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
Jim Jolgen was a football All-American in 1949, Aaron AuBuchon earned All-America honors in golf in 1990 and 1992, and Daniel Esposito was a baseball All-American in 1997.
Also named to the Hall of Fame are football players Blaise Bauer and Gene John and track and field athlete Joe Winchester.
The inductees will be honored Sept. 26 in the Crimson and Gold Ballroom in the Overman Student Center. They also will be honored at halftime of the Sept. 27 football game against Central Missouri.
Jolgen and Winchester will be inducted into the “Legacy” category, created three years ago for athletes from the school’s first 50 years (1903-53).
Jolgen (1948-49) is a member of the Gorillas’ 50th Anniversary Team. He was named honorable mention on the Associated Press Little All-America team in 1949 when the Gorillas went 8-2-1 and shared the Central Intercollegiate Conference title under first-year head coach Carnie Smith.
Winchester (1927-30) won four consecutive conference titles in the 880-yard run and was ranked No. 40 in the world in that event his senior year. He anchored multiple winning sprint-medley and two-mile relay teams at the Texas, Kansas and Drake Relays between 1928-30.
AuBuchon (1989-92), a Pittsburg native, won the MIAA championship in 1991 and 1992 and qualified for the NCAA Division II Tournament his last three years. He was honorable mention All-American as a sophomore and second team All-American his senior year.
Esposito (1995-97) was a first team All-American in baseball as a senior in 1997. He was both MIAA and Central Region most valuable player that year when he set a conference single-season record for total bases (162) and PSU single-season marks for doubles (21), home runs (13) and runs batted in (71). He set the PSU career record for batting average (.416).
Bauer (1985-88), from Monett, Mo., and now principal at Girard High School, was a two-time honorable mention NAIA All-American at tight end. He caught 44 passes for 1,248 yards and 18 touchdowns. The yards and TDs are school records for a tight end, and he holds school records for average yards per catch in a career (29.2) and in a season (31.4 in 1986).
John, a member of PSU’s 1961 NAIA championship team, posthumously joins the Hall of Fame as a meritorious service inductee. He compiled a 201-61-3 record in 28 years as head coach at Fredonia High School (1965-90, 1996-98). At PSU he was first team all-conference in 1962 and 1964 as a defensive back.
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