News Release




 

BOISE STATE NEWS RELEASE / October 11, 2007

Idaho Hall of Fame Inducts First Boise State Honorees Saturday Night

Boise State University’s president, head football coach, a distinguished Bronco alumnus-turned-governor, a former Morrison Center director, and the 2006 Bronco football team will be inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame this weekend.

Bob Kustra, the university’s president, Chris Petersen, Boise State’s head football coach, Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, and Fred Norman, a Boise State alumnus, professor emeritus of arts and theatrical writer-director-producer, are among 12 Idaho leaders from government, business, academia and the media who will be honored at the Idaho Hall of Fame Association’s 2007 dinner and induction ceremony. The Boise State 2006 football team joins two other organizations that are being inducted for their positive impact on the community.

It’s the first time any of the Idaho Hall of Fame inductees have had close ties to Boise State and the first time the association has inducted a new class of honorees since 2002. The induction ceremony will be held Saturday night at the Boise Centre on The Grove.

As Boise State’s president, Kustra presides over the largest institution of higher learning in Idaho – with more than 19,500 students and 2,400 faculty and staff – and the state’s only metropolitan university. He took the helm as Boise State’s sixth president in 2003. He previously served as president of Eastern Kentucky University following a long and distinguished career in public service in Illinois. He served two terms as lieutenant governor of Illinois, following a 10-year career in the Illinois Legislature.

Petersen, who led the Boise State football team to an undefeated 2006 season, culminated by its 43-42 overtime win over Oklahoma in the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, is the only Division I college football head coach since 1900 to finish 13-0 in his first season. He became the first Boise State coach to earn national coach of the year honors, winning the 2006 Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year award. He was also a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award, a semifinalist for the George Munger Coach of the Year Award and was named the Region 4 Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.

Otter attended Boise Junior College during the 1962-63 and 1963-64 academic years before transferring to the College of Idaho (now Albertson College of Idaho) in 1964. Before he was elected governor in 2006, he served three terms as U.S. representative for Idaho’s 1st District (2000-2006), four terms as the state’s lieutenant governor (1986-2000), and two terms in Idaho’s House of Representatives (1973-1976). Otter was among five honorees who received Boise State’s 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award last month.

Norman was the first executive director of the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts who also was a key figure in the fund drive that made the arts and entertainment venue a reality in 1982. Norman was a student-athlete at Boise Junior College who graduated with an associate’s degree in 1956 and transferred to the University of Miami. He returned to Boise State and first served as director of the Student Union in the 1970s before he assumed his position with the Morrison Center. After he stepped down as head of the Morrison Center, he served as Boise State’s director of community relations in the 1990s. Norman previously received the Distinguished Citizen of Idaho Award, the Boise State Silver Medallion, the Idaho Governor’s Award for Support of the Arts, and induction into the Morrison Center Hall of Fame.

The 2006 Boise State Broncos football team is best known for its exhilarating 43-42 overtime victory over No. 7 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1. The team finished the season as the No. 5-ranked team in the nation and as the only undefeated team in Division I college football.

Inductee Roy Mosman also had Boise State ties. A Moscow attorney, former district judge and former member of the Idaho State Board of Education, Mosman attended Boise Junior College, where he was a junior college All-American in football, before moving on to the University of Idaho.

The Idaho Hall of Fame Association is a non-profit organization with a goal of educating students about “the importance of hard work and the determination to succeed no matter the odds.” Ultimately, the group hopes to create a mentoring program for teenagers and a scholarship program for high school seniors.

Nearly 100 Idahoans from many vocations – musicians, business people, entertainers, educators, authors, artists, farmers and ranchers, members of the clergy, and government officials – have been honored by the group since 1995. For more information about the Idaho Hall of Fame go to: www.ritzfamilypublishing.com/id_hall/index.htm

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Media Contact: Mike Journee, University Communications, (208) 426-1517, mikejournee@boisestate.edu

For the 10th time in the last 11 years, Boise State University has set an all-time record for Idaho higher education institutions with an enrollment of 19,540 – an overall increase of 3.5 percent. A record freshman class of 2,280 students is also the most academically talented group ever to enter Boise State, including 12 National Merit finalists.
 



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Last reviewed on Wednesday, November 07, 2007