Honoring legends: SEMO Hall of Fame inducts trailblazers and record setters

In the heart of Cape Girardeau, the Show Me Center presents itself as the palace of Southeast Missouri State athletics.

From their time as a tribe to the day Cape’s crimson flock first took flight 20 years ago, the second floor of the home of Redhawks basketball is the SEMO Hall of Fame.

University officials, supportive dignitaries and the current class met up for the annual Southeast Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Dinner & Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 14.

Zach Borowiak (baseball, 2000-03), Antonius Cleveland (basketball, 2013-17), Emily Scannell (volleyball, 2000-03) Carroll Williams (coach, 1968-75, 1975-81, 1990-2005) and the late Paul Ebaugh (football/track, 1962-67) were all honored as the Class of 2024.

“It’s the most humbling and appreciative honor a man can get,” Williams said.

The eldest of the bunch, Williams spent five decades at SEMO as a coach for the golf team and men’s basketball team and was an acting athletic director.

“Coaches don’t ever start their career wanting to be in the Hall of Fame,” Williams said. “They start wanting to win ballgames, teach kids to do those kinds of things, but we get something like this, it’s a tremendous honor that’s irreplaceable.”

Williams first enrolled at SEMO in 1955 and has been involved in the teaching and coaching ranks in the area for 67 years.

“God gave you two hands, one to give and one to receive,” Williams said. “Almost all of the coaches that have ever been here have given more with that hand than they ever received.”

A fixture in the community, Williams has seen the university grow both in academics and athletics. As a student in the 1950s, Williams was one of 1,500 and only two coaches were tasked with leading the athletic department. Now, SEMO has nearly 10,000 students and each sport comes with a full coaching staff.

“It’s the city and the school, I think, that typifies the country,” Williams said. “You come in, you work hard, you do the right things, you conduct yourself in the manner you should and you’ll move onto a lot of different things.”

Scannell and Borowiak were honored for being a part of two of the biggest upsets in school history. The volleyball team defeated North Carolina in the 2000 NCAA Tournament and the baseball team opened the 2002 NCAA Regionals with an upset over Alabama.

“You truly set the standard,” SEMO athletic director Brady Barke said while addressing the Hall of Fame class.

Scannell became SEMO's only OVC Freshman of the Year after leading the team to 23 wins and a perfect 16-0 record in the Ohio Valley Conference. The 2000 team is in the Hall of Fame for being the only squad in school history to advance to the second round in the NCAA Tournament.

“I was blessed to have amazing teammates and coaches while here at SEMO,” Scannell said during her speech. “We left a permanent mark on this university.”

Borowiak finished his baseball career as the school’s all-time doubles leader before SEMO rebranded to the Redhawks. “An Indian through and through,” Borowiak was a three-time All-OVC shortstop and played six years in the Boston Red Sox minor league organization before settling in with a family and a career in sales in Belleville, Illinois.

Living close to St. Louis, Borowiak still drops by Capaha Field to support the Redhawks and Cape Catfish. His old stomping grounds have seen quite the transformation 20 years after his playing days.

“Everything from campus to Capaha to the whole downtown to everything is a lot different,” Borowiak said. “Everything is growing and booming. Capaha, the venue is unbelievable … it’s totally different than when we were here. The turf is the biggest thing, wish we would have got to play on turf.”

Borowiak saw parallels between his team upsetting Alabama in 2002 and the Redhawks shocking Arkansas 22 years later.

“I followed their run last year and I almost teared up watching how those guys fought on the field and weren’t intimidated by bigger schools,” Borowiak said. “That struck something in me because that’s how we were. We didn’t fear anybody.”

Cleveland said during his induction speech that SEMO was the first school to offer him a scholarship and he was going to go to the first school to offer him. He put the Redhawks on the map when he became the school’s first representative in the college slam dunk and 3-point championship. Cleveland scored 1,556 points for a 12.9 points per game average and was a first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference selection as a senior in 2016-17.

Cleveland played in the NBA with the Dallas Mavericks and went on to become the first former SEMO men's basketball player to play and score in an NBA playoff game Aug. 25, 2020. He currently plays professional basketball in Russia and made the 16-hour flight to attend the ceremony.

“Coming here means a lot to me,” Cleveland said during his speech.

Paul Ebaugh played on the football team as both an offensive and defensive lineman, but also excelled in track and field as a discus thrower. He was then a three-time MIAA champion in the discus and graduated as the school's record holder. Ebaugh went on to serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he became a captain and earned the Navy Commendation Medal, a Bronze Star, and Purple Heart for his service in Vietnam.

Ebaugh was remembered by his daughter and former teammate during the induction ceremony, more for his character and bravery in the Vietnam War, than his athletic achievements.