UK Adds Six in 2011 Hall of Fame Class
Former greats join other legends in Wildcat
shrine
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Six
University of Kentucky greats will be inducted into the UK Athletics
Hall of Fame in late September. The 2011 class includes former UK
student-athletes Jeff Abbott (baseball), Pam Browning (women’s
basketball), Ilkka Jantti (men’s soccer), Cedric Kauffmann
(men’s tennis), Bill Ransdell (football) and former administrator
Russell Rice.
The class will be formally inducted during Hall of Fame Weekend, Sept.
23-24, in conjunction with the football game against Florida.
Jeff Abbott
(1991-94) was a UK baseball All-American and a first-team
All-Southeastern Conference selection in 1994 after setting
single-season school records for batting average (.445), hits (102),
home runs (23), total bases (203) and slugging (.886), all of which
still stand today. Abbott also holds the UK single-season on-base
percentage mark of .533 set in 1992 and ranks in the top five in eight
career offensive categories, including batting average, runs, hits,
doubles, home runs, total bases, slugging percentage, walks and on-base
percentage. UK won at least 30 games in each of his four years,
including a then-school-record 41 wins in 1991. Abbott’s class
posted more wins in a four-year span than any other class in school
history. He went on to play five seasons in the major leagues with the
Chicago White Sox.
Pam Browning
(1974-78) is one of only two players in UK women’s basketball
history to be named All-America by Street & Smith’s annual
publication (1977). She ranks fifth on UK’s career scoring list
with 1,598 points and she continues to hold the school record for
highest scoring average in a season, averaging 25.5 points in 1976-77.
As a member of the first women’s basketball team at UK in the
modern era, she led UK to its first two wins over ranked opponents in
program history with victories over No. 2 Tennessee Tech and No. 18
Indiana during the 1976-77 campaign. Browning averaged 14.9 points
during her four-year career.
Ilkka Jantti
(1998-2001) was the first All-American in UK men’s soccer
history. The four-time NSCAA All-Region honoree was named the 2001
Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, the 1998 MAC Newcomer of
the Year and earned All-MAC honors in all four years at UK. Jantti took
Kentucky to three NCAA Tournament appearances and led UK to
back-to-back MAC regular-season championships in 2000 and 2001, as well
as MAC Tournament titles for three straight years from 1999-2001. In
addition to being named to the All-Tournament team twice, Jantti was a
first-team NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-American, a Verizon Academic
All-American, a winner of a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship
and he was named to the conference academic honor roll three times.
Cedric Kauffmann
(1995-98) was the first three-time All-American in singles play in
Kentucky men’s tennis history. Kauffmann went 150-54 during his
four-year career at UK and finished in the top 10 in the country from
1996-98. He climbed as high as No. 2 in 1997. Kauffmann was a National
Clay Court Singles Championship finalist in 1997 and a National Indoor
Singles Championships semifinalist in 1996. He played on the ATP Tour
after his time at Kentucky and reached as high as the world’s No.
170 ranking. Kauffmann competed in the 2001 French Open and the 2000
United States Open, losing in a fifth-set tiebreaker at the 2001 French
Open to tennis legend Pete Sampras. He was hired as the UK men’s
tennis assistant coach in 2005 and currently serves as the associate
head coach.
Bill Ransdell
(1983-86) is one of the top quarterbacks in UK history. He set Wildcat
season records for most offensive plays, total offense, pass attempts,
pass completions, passing yardage, completion percentage and
consecutive passes without an interception. He held single-game UK
records for total plays, pass attempts, completions and completion
percentage and notched then-school career records for total offense
(5,456 yards), total offensive plays (996), pass attempts (816),
completions (460), passing yardage (5,564) and completion percentage
(.575). Ransdell also helped lead the Wildcats to a 9-3 record and Hall
of Fame Bowl victory in 1984 and went on to a two-year career in the
NFL. He has been an analyst on UK TV network telecasts and also has
served as president of the K-Association lettermen’s group.
Russell Rice
(1967-87) is a former UK Athletics administrator who was associated
with UK Athletics for more than a half-century. Rice spent 20 years on
the UK staff from 1967 to 1987, including 18 as a sports information
director. He wrote several books chronicling the history of Wildcat
men’s basketball and football programs and served as media
coordinator for several NCAA men’s basketball tournaments hosted
by UK. Rice was also a president of the SEC Sports Information
Directors Association. For more than 20 years since his retirement from
UK, Rice has written a weekly column for The Cats’ Pause magazine
and has been a historical resource for UK Athletics. A World War II
veteran (U.S. Marines) and a UK graduate, Rice spent 16 years in the
media after graduation, including five years as sports editor of the
Lexington Leader, before joining the UK staff.
The UK Athletics Hall of Fame was started in 2005 to recognize and
honor persons whose participation and contributions enriched and
strengthened the university’s athletic program. The charter class
included 88 individuals who had previously had their jersey retired by
UK.
There is a five-year waiting period – after leaving UK – to
be eligible for inclusion into the Hall of Fame and an additional
5-year waiting period to have a jersey retired. An individual must be a
member of the Hall of Fame to be eligible for jersey retirement.
A committee consisting of Hall of Famers, media members, campus
representatives, and current coaches and administrators elects new
inductees each year.
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