University of Richmond Athletics
Richmond Athletics Announces Hall of Fame Inductees
11/20/2006 | General
Nov. 20, 2006
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. -
Richmond's all-time winningest baseball coach and team will enter the University's Athletics Hall of Fame together as part of the Class of 2007, announced today by Director of Athletics Jim Miller.
Head baseball coach Ron Atkins, who will retire following the 2007 campaign, will be joined by his 2002 NCAA Super Regional squad, honored as the third Hall of Fame Team of Distinction. The four person class also includes Eric Johnson (football), John Schweitz (men's basketball) and Margaret Stender (women's basketball, field hockey, lacrosse). Induction ceremonies are scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 27. The Class of 2007 will be honored at halftime of the Spider men's basketball contest against St. Bonaventure at 7 p.m. in the Robins Center.
Head Baseball Coach Ron Atkins
In 22 years at the helm of the Spider baseball program, Ron Atkins has won more games (685) than any coach in any sport in school history. His teams have made seven NCAA appearances, including a regional championship and Super Regional berth in 2002, when the Spiders won a school-record 53 games.
Spider baseball during Coach Atkins' tenure has recorded 14 winning seasons, five conference titles and four conference tournament championships. His teams reeled off ten consecutive winning seasons from 1990-99.
Atkins has been honored as Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year twice (1991, 1999), Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year (2002), Virginia State Coach of the Year (1999) and the Virginia Sports Information Director's Coach of the Year (2002).
Major league players who played for Atkins at Richmond include UR Hall of Famers Brian Jordan and Sean Casey. Atkins also coached pitcher Tim Stauffer, who became the highest drafted Spider in school history when the San Diego Padres used their first round pick and made him the fourth overall selection in 2004.
Coach Atkins' ties to the Richmond community extend beyond the Spider campus. Before arriving at Richmond in 1985, he spent 17 years at nearby J.R. Tucker High School, where his teams posted an .813 winning percentage with four district championships and four state AAA crowns.
Eric Johnson ('93)
An honored member of the prestigious 50th Anniversary All-Yankee Conference football team, Eric Johnson was a standout linebacker for the Spiders. A two-time Sports Network First Team All-American, he garnered a school-record 643 career tackles, more than 200 stops better than any player in program history. On the Spiders' single-season tackle list, Johnson is second (179 in 1991) and twice third (173 in 1990 and 1992).
He was also selected as a Walter Camp All American and an Associated Press All-American in 1992, and a First Team All- Yankee Conference pick in 1991 and 1992.
He was honored by Richmond faculty, coaches and administrators as the 1993 Humbert Award Winner for athletic, leadership and scholarly attributes and was the 1993 Spider Club Male Athlete of the Year.
John Schweitz ('82)
Richmond men's basketball's fourth all-time leading scorer with 1,723 points, John Schweitz capped a brilliant four-year career by leading the Spiders to their first-ever postseason berth with an appearance in the 1982 National Invitation Tournament.
A four-year starter, Schweitz averaged 17.7 points as a sophomore and 18.7 points as a junior, teaming with UR Hall of Famer Michael Perry, the school's second all-time leading scorer, to form one of the most prolific combinations in Spider basketball history. As a senior captain playing for first-year head coach Dick Tarrant, also a Hall of Famer, Schweitz led the team in scoring with 17.5 points per game.
He concluded his career with a team-leading 16 point effort in a 1982 first round NIT game against Maryland which attracted a sellout Robins Center crowd of 9,373. Schweitz was a two-time All-Conference selection in 1981 and 1982, a First Team All-State pick in 1982 and a Second Team All-State choice in 1981.
He was selected in the sixth round of the 1982 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. He spent three seasons in the CBA, including playing a year and winning a championship at Albany for head coach Phil Jackson. He spent a full year with the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics and completed his playing career in 1986-87 with the Detroit Pistons.
Schweitz was head coach at Francis-Marion College from 2000-2006. He guided the 2003-04 team to a program-best 27-4 record, a national Top-10 ranking, and the program's first NCAA Division II National Tournament invitation, during which the squad advanced to the Sweet 16. He was named the 2004 Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year and the NABC South Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.
Margaret Stender ('78)
A four-year letter winner in basketball, Margaret Stender, who also participated in field hockey, lacrosse and track, is believed to be the first female student-athlete to receive an athletic scholarship at the University of Richmond.
Stender was a three-year basketball team captain who received state honors. She led the 1976-77 squad to a 13-5 record, which at the time, equaled the most victories in school history.
Away from the playing venues, Stender was a freshman class officer and President of the Westhampton College Athletics Association during her senior year.
Following graduation from Richmond, Stender was a teacher, coach and Athletic Director at Norfolk Academy. She later received her Master's degree in business from the University of Virginia, and enjoyed a successful business career with PepsiCo and Quaker Oats. She is currently President, CEO and minority owner of the Chicago Sky of the WNBA.
2002 Baseball Team - Team of Distinction
The 2002 baseball team, coached by Hall of Fame inductee Ron Atkins, enjoyed the most prolific season in the program's 92-year history. The Spiders (53-13) set eight team and eleven individual records on their way to the school's first NCAA Regional title and Super Regional appearance.
Richmond posted a 46-8 regular season mark and 22-2 in the Atlantic 10, claiming the A-10 West Division title. The Spiders seventh NCAA appearance was highlighted by a victory over host Wake Forest to capture the Regional crown and send the team to Nebraska for a three-game showdown with a berth in the College World Series at stake.
After dropping a tight 2-0 decision in the opener, the Spiders silenced a Nebraska sellout crowd of 8,481 with a dramatic 6-2 triumph on Vito Chiaravalloti's now legendary walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth, forcing a decisive third game. Bryan Pritz's two-run homer in the seventh tied Game Three at 5-5, but Nebraska rallied, leaving the Spiders just two innings shy of their first-ever College World Series appearance.
Among the individual records set were Tim Stauffer 15 wins and 13 complete games, and Chiaravalloti set the standard with 86 runs batted in. Chiaravalloti, Mike Gula and Mike McGirr were captains of the 2002 team.
