Tom Chorny
BORN: NOVEMBER 23, 1976, MUSKEGON, MI
A four-time Michigan High School Athletic Association champion, twice in the
two-mile in the Class B Lower Peninsula Cross-Country championships and
twice in the 3200 at the MHSAA Class B Track & Field championships, the 1995
Fruitport High School graduate moved to Indiana University to continue his track career.
A three-time All-American at IU, once in cross-country and twice in the
steeple, he won the steeplechase at the 1999 Penn Relays as a senior.
Following college graduation, Chorny finished 10th at the U.S. Olympic trials
in 2000, then posted a personal best time of 8:22.16 to win the 3000 meter
steeplechase in 2001 at the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships,
hosted at Hayward
Field in Eugene, OR. With that victory, he earned a spot on Team USA,
competing at the World Championships and the Goodwill Games that year.
Between 2002 and 2004 Chorny ranked among the top 40 in the steeple in the
world.
In 2007, he
returned to IU, serving as a volunteer coach until 2013 while
continuing to run professionally. There he helped the Hoosiers win three Big
Ten championships and mentored 11 All-Americans.
In 2015, he joined the staff at Miami of Ohio as an assistant coach and was named Director of
Track & Field/Cross Country at the university in 2016.
Morris Davenport
BORN: JANUARY 6, 1957, WARREN, OH
Named senior vice president of ESPN Audio in 2007, Davenport joined the
network in 1985 as an associate producer. A graduate of Hesperia High School
and Western Michigan University, he previously worked as a production assistant at ABC
Sports.
An all-around athlete at Hesperia, Davenport played baseball
in the spring and helped the Panthers to a second place finish in the MHSAA
Class D Track & Field championships in 1973. As a high jumper, he
established a new school record of 6-feet-4-inches as a senior. An
All-Conference honorable mention on the basketball court, it was on the
gridiron that Davenport excelled. He earned first team All-State
honors
as a running back as a senior in the fall of 1974 as Hesperia finished the
season as Co-Champions of the Newaygo County Athletic Association.
Following graduation, Davenport enrolled at Western, where he
played defensively for coach Elliot Uzelac from 1975 to 1979. A
communications major, he was named as an
account executive with WQLR-FM in Kalamazoo upon graduating, then was hired
by ABC Sports in 1982 as a production assistant assigned to Major League
Baseball, college football, Wide World of Sports and boxing before the move
to ESPN . A two-time Emmy winner for his work on the "1st and 10 line" used
in football broadcasts, he has served as a senior vice president for ESPN Audio
and ESPN's Talent Office.
Rosemary (Luther) DeHoog
BORN:
MARCH 27, 1939, MUSKEGON, MI
DIED: OCTOBER 25, 2018, DeWITT, NY
A 1956 graduate of Muskegon High School, DeHoog picked up tennis at a young age when
there were limited high school sports opportunities for females. As a
member of the Muskegon Tennis Club, Rosemary had earned a reputation as one
of the top players in the state by her senior year in high school. Competing
in top events around Michigan, like the Michigan State girls open tennis
tournament at Kingswood School of Cranbrook, Luther earned the
opportunity to play at Kalamazoo College.
There, she won the MIAA women's singles championship in all
four years at Kalamazoo College from 1957-60 and was a semifinalist in the
USLTA College Girls Tennis Championships at St. Louis in 1959, losing to
second-ranked Carol Loop of San Bernardino College. Loop would later
play at Wimbledon.
DeHoog remained a nationally-ranked player in her age group
for many years. After moving to New York state, she became certified as a
teaching professional and official.
In 1986, she was among the first class of 14 inducted
into Kalamazoo College's Athletic Hall of Fame.
From 1979-2003, DeHoog was the
head tennis professional at
Drumlins Tennis Club, which is owned by Syracuse University, and was an
adjunct professor at Syracuse from 1978 through 2004, teaching recreational
tennis to students. Over the years, she served on numerous boards for
tennis organizations and has been honored by the Big East
Conference for advancing girls and women's sports. In 2012, she was inducted
into the United States Professional Tennis Association's Eastern Division
Hall of Fame, encompassing New York and part of New Jersey. In February of 2018, Syracuse renamed
court one at Drumlins in her honor.
Scott Gruhl
BORN: SEPTEMBER 13, 1959, PORT COLBORNE, ONTARIO, CA
Gruhl began a lengthy career in the International Hockey League with the
1979-80 season, skating with the Saginaw Gears, and quickly established
himself as a goal scorer. He led the Gears in scoring with 53 goals and 93
points in 75 games. A second season in Saginaw saw similar results. In the
postseason, the Gears captured the Turner Cup with a sweep of the Kalamazoo
Wings.
As part of the Los Angeles Kings organization, Gruhl was
assigned to the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League for two
seasons, during which he scored 28 and 25 goals, as well as making his much
hoped for NHL debut. Called up by the Kings, Gruhl played in seven NHL games
in 1981-82, and scored a pair of goals and an assist. In 1982-83 he again saw action in Los Angeles, during which he added
two more assists over seven games.
It was back to the IHL and Michigan for the 1983-84 season,
as Gruhl joined the Muskegon Mohawks. There, he led the team in scoring with
40 goals and 96 points. With an ownership change, the franchise changed it's
name to the Muskegon Lumberjacks for the 1984-85 season. Gruhl had a outstanding year, scoring 62
goals and 64 assists for 126 points, all career bests. He placed second in
the league scoring race and was named the IHL's MVP. In total, Gruhl
anchored left wing for seven seasons in Muskegon between 1983-1990. In 1992,
the Muskegon IHL franchise was moved to Cleveland.
Gruhl spent five more years in the "I", splitting time
between Fort Wayne, Milwaukee and Kalamazoo. When he left the IHL, he had
combined for more goals between the regular season and playoffs than any
other player in league history.
He concluded his 17-year professional hockey career in 1995-96 as a player
and coach for Richmond of the ECHL, followed by a game with the Baltimore
Bandits of the AHL, and a pair of contests with Fort Wayne before hanging up
the skates.