Induction class: Four individuals, 1976 baseball team

~ Athletes Tibi, Schwepker and Harris join football player and booster club founder Brune in the 2006 class.

Four individuals and the 1976 baseball team will be inducted into the Southeast Missouri State Athletic Hall of Fame during ceremonies Nov. 4 at the Show Me Center.

The ceremony is scheduled for 2:45 p.m., with a reception at 2 p.m.

The Hall of Fame inductees also will be introduced at the football game that evening when Southeast hosts Tennessee-Martin.

The individuals who will be honored are Royal Tibi, who played five sports at the university from 1919 to 1923; John Schwepker, a track athlete from 1984 to 1988; Gray C Harris, a women's basketball player from 1992 to 1996; and Charlie Brune, a lifetime booster who also played football at the university.

Tibi is believed to be the only athlete at Southeast to earn varsity letters in five sports. He lettered in football, basketball, baseball, track and tennis. A punter in football, he served as captain of the track team and was described as an outstanding defensive player in basketball.

Schwepker won two individual Division II national championships at Southeast while earning seven All-America awards. He won the indoor pole vault title in 1985 and was the decathlon champion in 1988. The Southeast record holder in the decathlon with 7,881 points, Schwepker participated in the 1988 Olympic Trials.

Harris is the all-time leading basketball scorer at Southeast with 2,176 career points. She still holds 14 school records, among the more notable being points in a game (49), season scoring average (26.4), career scoring average (20.5), rebounds in a game (25) and season rebound average (10.7). She was a three-time all-Ohio Valley Conference first-team pick and was the 1996 OVC player of the year.

Brune, one of the original founders of the Southeast Athletic Booster Club in 1955, served as Booster Club president from 1976 to 1982. He played football at Southeast in 1940 and 1941 and has two sons, Greg and Lance, and three grandsons, Brent, Brian, and Bobby, who all played football at Southeast.

The 1976 baseball team won the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship, the NCAA Midwest Regional title and advanced to the Division II College World Series in Springfield, Ill. The team finished third in the nation.

The College World Series team roster included Allan Alberter, Mark Amick, Lawrence Basta, Don Buechting, Bill Criscione, James Dambach, Mark Doerr, Clarence Eisenbach, James Hastings, current Southeast baseball coach Mark Hogan, Jeffry Hunt, David Jorn, Vincent Korando, Ralph Kuehn, Bruce Morgan, Bryan Parker, Thomas Smiley, Timothy Smith, Dan Wieser, Mike Wieser and Rick Wieser.

The team was coached by the late Joe Uhls, who was one of the inductees into the Southeast Athletic Hall of Fame during its inaugural class in 2002.

The individual list in the Hall of Fame will grow to 45 with the four inductees, while the 1976 baseball team will be the ninth squad to be inducted.

Tickets for the ceremony are available to the public at $25 each and can be purchased at the Southeast athletic ticket office, 651-2113.