2003 USSSA Hall Of Fame

(L to R) Wally Valleroy, Marcel Levesque, Brad Lindmark, Deb Keller and Don Loid

Rockford: The 2003 Illinois USSSA Hall Of Fame Banquet was held Saturday March 1st at the Cliff Breakers resort in Rockford with a crowd of 200 people gathering to honor six individual during the ceremonies. The festivity opened with the introducing of fifteen previous Hall Of Fame Inductees who were in addendance for this year's banquet.
Don Loid from Naperville was the last inductee and the crowd was still enthusiastically cheering during his induction. Loid managed the Bank Of Westmont, Mid American Concrete, Tron Piping and now Ken's Beverage to the USSSA Men's Class B state title, nine consecutive Masters 35 & Over state titles, three USSSA World titles, two 2nd place finishes at the USSSA World, and two 3rd place finishes at the USSSA World Tournaments
His longtime teammate and friend Bernie Carroll who said, "As a manager he organized everything so that the trips we took were practically flawless, all we had to worry about when we showed up was to play softball" as he introduced Loid.
Accepting his award Loid said, "The last ten years has been a great run. We've won eight National or World Tournaments, its unbelievable, I never thought that I'd win one!"
Marcel Levesque C.E.O. of the Bank Of Westmont sponsored that team for twenty years.
Former bank Of Westmont Player Ron Halvelka, introduced his long time sponsor Levesque by giving the crowd an insight into what kind of a person his friend and former sponsor is by saying, "He was always asking about families, always want to know if he could do anything and how your family was, that was very important to him."
Levesque took the time to recognize all of his family members and also all of his former players who had gathered to together to honor him on his evening. He closed by simple saying "I've enjoyed everything I've ever done, the companionship, the friendships, they're worth everything I've ever done, thank you very, very much."
Deb Keller from Aurora pitched for 26 years with the Fox Valley Lassies, who later became Stroh's, Lombard's Big Blue, and the Playmates from Elgin compiling 22 no hitters and 40 one hit games to her credit.
Hall Of Famer, Helen Biddle introduced her friend and former teammate Deb Keller by saying, "She had one of the meanest knuckleballs that you have ever seen." Biddle added "Her never give up attitude helped her." And she closed by saying "You're very deserving of this highest honor of the softball hall of fame.

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