The Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame has unveiled its Class of 2026, featuring another deserving dozen: six athletes, two coaches, two contributors and two pioneers.
Athletes selected include Bo Barzilauskas, Ashley Benson, Dee Davis, Nguyen Duany Amankwa, Marty Hutsell and Eli Stoddard.
Stoddard and Barzilauskas were teammates on Bloomington South’s 1993 state football champions under Hall of Fame Coach Mo Moriarity. Stoddard threw for two touchdowns and ran for one in the title game, winning the Phil Eskew Mental Attitude Award. Barzilauskas played on both the offensive and defensive lines, earning the state’s first Mr. Football Award, still the only lineman to ever win that award.
Davis led the Panther basketball team to state titles for J.R. Holmes in 2009 and 2011, finishing his career as the county’s fourth all-time leading scorer. He went on to play four years at Xavier.
Benson, an All-State volleyball player at North, went on to play at Indiana University and became the Hoosiers’ first All-American in that sport. She led the Hoosiers to their first Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2010 and finished with several career and single-match records. She is the daughter of Kent Benson, the IU basketball All-American who played for the Hoosiers undefeated national champions of 1976.
Amankwa is the sister of two other Monroe County Sports Hall of Famers, North basketball stars Doc and Kueth Duany. Nguyen was a three-sport star in basketball, volleyball, and track and was named North’s Athlete of the Year in 1996. She was state runner-up in the high jump and went on to play basketball at Bradley. She is now is an orthopedic surgeon.
Hutsell was a two-time state champion wrestler for Bloomington, helping the Panthers to state titles under Kay Hutsell in 1970-71. He went on to letter for four years at IU and then became a legendary high school coach in Georgia.
Beyers, MacLeod named as coaches
Selected as coaches for the Class of 2026 are Criss Beyers and John MacLeod.
Beyers has been coaching high school basketball for parts of five decades, with 26 years as an assistant under Holmes at South, including the 2009 state champs. He was in charge of the South girls program for five years, winning a sectional in 1995. His first boys head coaching job was at Martinsville, where he led the Artesians to a sectional title.
From there, he went to Warren Central, winning the 2018 state title with a perfect 32-0 record. His career also saw him serve two years as a graduate assistant under Bob Knight at IU, earning a ring with the 1981 national champion Hoosiers.
MacLeod began his coaching career at Smithville before reaching the professional ranks, where he became the all-time winningest coach in Phoenix Suns history. His 15-year stint with the Suns culminated in a trip to the 1976 NBA Finals, where the Suns lost to the Boston Celtics. MacLeod also had college coaching stops at Oklahoma and Notre Dame. He passed away in 2019.
Contributors: Kirts, Hipskind
Named as Contributors for 2026 are Rex Kirts and Dr. Andy Hipskind.
With a career spanning 42 years, Kirts enjoyed the longest sportswriting tenure in Monroe County history, surpassing even the late Bob Hammel’s 30-year run from 1966-96. Kirts started for the Bloomington Herald-Telephone in 1966 but joined the Bloomington Courier-Tribune in 1967 before finishing out at the H-T from 1968 to 2008.
He is best known for his high school football coverage, including the annual H-T All-State edition, published every Thanksgiving for over 40 years. He is in the Indiana Football Coaches Association and the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association Halls of Fame.
Hipskind is honored as a Contributor for his efforts in the field of sports medicine. He served nearly two decades in sports medicine at Indiana University before passing away in 2021 at the age of 48.
A Bloomington North graduate, Hipskind was a three-sport star in football, basketball, and track. He lettered four years in track at IU. He joined IU’s staff in 2003 as a team physician for football. In 2014, he was named IU’s first-ever Chief Medical Officer. Hipskind received IU’s Distinguished Service Medal in 2021.
Moore twins hailed as pioneers
Saluted as pioneers for the Class of 2026 are twin brothers James and Henry Moore.
In 1943, they became the first set of twins to win state wrestling titles, leading Bloomington High to the team title. They went on to win Bronze Medals in World War II. After the war, they enrolled at IU and helped the Hoosiers win AAU titles in 1947-48. They were inducted into the Indiana Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1987 and were named to the IWCA Golden Anniversary Team in 1993.
Hall of Fame banquet
The Class of 2026 will be formally inducted to the Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame at the Bloomington Convention Center on Friday, July 24, at the Bloomington Convention Center. For more information, visit monroecountyshof.org.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Monroe County Sports Hall of Fame unveils Class of 2026; see the new inductees
Reporting by Lynn Houser, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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