The 18th class of the SEMO Athletics Hall of Fame is scheduled to be inducted during the school's Hall of Fame Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 7 at the Show Me Center. This year’s prestigious Hall of Fame class includes sudent-athletes Jewell Crawford, Beth (Guccione) Sims, Gerald Jones, Ashley (Godwin) Lawson, and Larry Yeargin; coach and administrator Cindy Gannon; and the 1984 Women's Cross Country team.
Jewell Crawford was a four-year starter for the SEMO basketball team from 1980-84, including three-time All-MIAA award winner and MIAA Most Valuable Player in 1981. Crawford still ranks in the top ten in the SEMO Basketball record books in a number of categories.
Beth (Guccione) Sims becomes is the first soccer only athlete to enter SEMO's Athletics Hall of Fame. As the starting goalkeeper from 1999-2001, she was the 2001 OVC Player of the Year. To this day, she still holds single-season school records in goals against average (0.44, 2001), wins (16, 2001) and solo shutouts (13, 2001).
Gerald Jones was a three-year letterman on the track & field team from 1959-62, including team captain in 1961, and a four-year letterman and two-time captain of the cross country team. Jones broke a total of 28 different records between track and cross country his senior year alone. Jones was also inducted into the Missouri Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2010.
Redhawks current head gymnastics coach Ashley (Godwin) Lawson was a SEMO gymnast from 2001-04, and she still holds school records in the All-Around (39.550), Uneven Bars (9.925), Balance Beam (9.975) and Floor Exercise (10.000). Godwin was a Midwest Independent Conference Champion four times in her career and an NCAA Regional qualifier in the all-around each of her final three seasons at SEMO (2002, 2003, 2004).
The late Larry Yeargain, played four years on the football team at SEMO, and earned First-Team All-MIAA and Little All-American by the Associated Press. He was a member of the 1955 MIAA Championship team that went unbeaten and untied at 9-0-0.
Cindy Gannon's dedication and commitment to SEMO Athletics is unparalleled. She was SEMO's head volleyball coach for 16 seasons, where she accumulated a program-record 366 career victories, eight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season titles and five OVC Tournament crowns. After retiring from coaching, Gannon served as Senior Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator, including two stints as the interim Director of Athletics, and was responsible for founding the Walk for Women, an annual event that has raised over half a million dollars for student-athlete scholarships.
Finally, SEMO's 1984 Women's Cross Country team will be inducted into the team wing, for their outstanding accomplishment of finishing third-place in the nation at the NCAA Division II National Championships.
The induction ceremony will be held Friday, Feb. 7 at the Show Me Center, and the event is open to the public. For more information on how to attend, visit GoSoutheast.com/HallOfFame.
