10th Annual Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame
Standing (L to R) Bill Bromenschenkel,
Tom McCarthy, Larry Sheppard & Dennis Muth, ............Sitting
(L to R) Ken Franzen, Laurie Smith And Tom Burton
ROCKFORD: The Tenth Annual Illinois USSSA
Hall Of Fame Induction Banquet was held on Saturday November 6th
at The Cliffbreakers in Rockford with over one hundred and ninety
people attending. Five individuals were inducted into the Hall
Of fame with two other earning Lifetime Achievement Awards. The
evening festivities followed a sit down dinner with Chuck Fischer
from Louisville, Kentucky and Jeff Brown from Rockford acting
as Co-Master of Ceremonies.
Fischer opened the banquet by saying, "The ultimate honor
that can be bestowed upon a player, coach, manager, director,
umpire, sponsor, or anyone involved in the game of softball in
the State of Illinois is to be nominated, elected and than inducted
into the Illinois USSSA Hall Of Fame. The inaugural Illinois USSSA
Hall Of Fame induction ceremony was conducted on March the 23rd,
1996. As of this date sixty nine individuals has received this
very special honor."
Brown than took over the podium to introduce the twenty-five Illinois
USSSA Hall Of Fame member who where in attendance for this evenings
banquet.
The evening's first inductee was Tom McCarthy from Naperville.
For fourteen years McCarthy played left center field and batted
in the leadoff spot for the Bank of Westmont. During his playing
career he batted over .630 with more than 320 home runs to his
credit and he accumulated five MVP awards from USSSA Men's Class
A & B Tournaments, numerous 'Gold Glove Awards, Four home
Champion Awards, three All-State Tournament Team awards and eleven
All-Tournament Awards.
McCarthy was introduced by his former manager and Illinois USSSA
Hall of Famer, John Larson who said, "…his desire and
his ability to perform at a high level, that what made him excel
at this game."
In his acceptance speech McCarthy reflecting back on what his
team meant to him said, "Our family was our wife's, our girl
friends, and our spouses they were our true fans, they came out
there. For some reason the bank Of Westmont was not know for going
7-0, we would lose our first or second game on a Saturday and
we'd play seven or eight games on Saturday night and all day on
Sunday to get home by midnight". Speaking of his teammates
McCarthy said, "We worried about each other we respect each
other, we spent five out of seven days a week with each other.
We were a family."
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