HOF Media

Name: Rick Edwards

Year Inducted: 1979

Category: Media

Schools / Organizations:
WRRR
WROK
WFRL
WELL-FM

Biography:  Rick Edwards (his broadcast name) began his career at WRAC, Racine, WI; in 1952. Before broadcasting, Rick graduated from (Freeport) Aquin High School in 1938 and had a distinguished military career during WWII. Rick moved to Rockford’s WRRR in 1953 and later to WROK. Edwards’ 1,200+ basketball game career covered all six of the Rockford high schools in addition to hosting a talk show on which many nationally known sports figures of that time were guests. In 1965, Rick moved west to Freeport where he eventually became the vice president and general manager of WFRL and WELL-FM. He covered all sports on all levels, boys and girls. Rick helped those stations become the originating station in several networks. Later, he became vice president and general manager of Triadd Stations, owner and operator of radio and cablevision stations in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. From Chicago to Centralia, Edwards has described the play of the Freeport Pretzels. One of his career highlights was being part of the broadcast team for the state tournament games in Champaign for 14 seasons. Rick’s given name was Ed Richter. Ed passed away on July 20, 2015 at the age of 94.

Name: Don Werntz

Year Inducted: 2013

Category: Media

Schools / Organizations:
Freeport High School
Highland Community College

Biography:  Don began broadcasting Freeport High School athletics in December, 1973 during his senior year as a student there.  He broadcast high school basketball and football for Big Radio in Freeport for 40+ years.  Big Radio is a 5-station conglomerate serving the northwestern part of Illinois.  Don broadcast games involving Freeport area boys and girls teams in state finals at Champaign, Peoria, and Normal.  He also has broadcast Highland Community College basketrball, which includes 6 trips to the Junior College National Tournament in Hutchinson, KS.

Name: Fowler Connell

Year Inducted: 1979

Category: Media

Schools / Organizations:
Danville Commercial-New
Associated Press

Biography: Many sports figures were cornered in Danville during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. They were the subjects of the typewriter of Danville Commercial-News sports editor Fowler Connell’s popular column--“Connell’s Corner”. A longtime member of the Associated Press, prep basketball and football rating boards, Fowler is a former president of the AP’s Illinois Sports Editor’s Association. A graduate of the University of Missouri, Fowler served the Danville area for nearly 4 decades. Those who know him, consider Connell to be a virtual encyclopedia of sports information in the East Central Illinois and West Central Indiana areas. Fowler covered the University of Illinois, Purdue University and Danville CC in addition to the many high schools in his paper’s circulation area. He is quite proud to be a member of the Sigma Delta Chi fraternity.

Name: Randy List

Year Inducted: 2013

Category: Media

Schools / Organizations:
Centralia High School

Biography:  Randy became synonymous with Centralia High School athletics as he covered the Orphans for 35+ years as a sportwwriter for The Centralia Morning Sentinel newspaper.  Randy covered thousands of games in his long career and was on the scene for numerous IHSA state tournament games and events.