Canisius College has selected one former student-athlete,
one team and a current head coach to its Sports Hall of Fame for the Class of
2009. The three new members are Keith Applegate '95- baseball, Mike Rappl '77 - current head softball coach, former
head women's basketball coach and former athletic department administrator and the 1948 Football Team.
The ceremonies for the Hall of Fame will be held Sunday,
Jan. 24, during halftime of the Golden Griffins' Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference men's basketball game against Saint Peter's, which tips off at 2 p.m.
The game will be broadcast live on GoGriffs.com and on the radio at CJRN 710 AM.
For more information on the induction ceremonies and Hall of Fame Day
activities, contact the Alumni Office at (716) 888-2700.
To be eligible for the Canisius College Sports Hall of Fame,
a student-athlete must have completed his/her eligibility 10 years prior to
induction, be a graduate of the College, been acclaimed as an undergraduate as
one of the outstanding athletes in the history of the school and, since
graduation, the athlete's life must have continued to reflect favorably on the
College. Non-athletes may be inducted if they have made outstanding
contributions to Canisius College athletics.
The Canisius Sports Hall of Fame, which began in 1963, now
boasts 160 members with the addition of the 2009 class.
Mike Rappl '77 - The most veteran member of the school's
athletic department, Rappl is the first active head coach in Canisius College
history to be inducted into the College's Sports Hall of Fame. Entering his 31st
year at the helm of the softball program, the veteran skipper holds a career
coaching record of 717-401-2 with a win percentage of .641. Rappl is one of 26
active Division I head softball coaches with 700 career wins, a milestone he
reached March 21, 2009, when the Griffs beat Idaho State 6-0. With a career
record of 281-85 all-time against MAAC rivals, Rappl, a seven-time MAAC Coach
of the Year, has guided his program to 12 MAAC regular season titles, 12 MAAC
Championship Tournament crowns and 11 NCAA Division I Softball Tournament
appearances. Since 1980, 10 players have earned national recognition for their
play on the field and work in the classroom, 12 have received regional honors
and 43 players have been honored as All-MAAC selections. Of those 43 all-league
honorees, five have been named the MAAC's Player of the Year, five have been
named the conference's Pitcher of the Year and two players have been recognized
as the MAAC Rookie of the Year. Additionally, 12 Griffs have been recognized as
the MAAC Tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
Since joining the MAAC, the Griffs have played in 19 MAAC
postseason events in 20 years, with the team advancing to the softball championship
game 16 times. Canisius is the only team in conference history to come out of
the loser's bracket to claim the league's title, having won three games on the
final day of the tournament in 2002, 2004 and 2005. On the national stage,
Canisius has played the No. 1 ranked team three times, meeting Arizona in
Tuscon, Ariz., 1994, UCLA in Los Angeles in 2000 and Michigan in Ann Arbor,
Mich., in 2005.
From 1986-93, Rappl coached the Canisius women's basketball
team to a 93-94 record and served as the World University Games venue chair for
women's basketball in 1993. The Buffalo native previously served as the
associate athletic director for facility operations at the College and he
served a three-year stint (1995-97) on the NCAA Northeast Region Softball
Ranking Committee. In the summer of 2005 he was honored by his high school alma
mater, as he was inducted into the St. Mary's High School Athletic Hall of
Fame, and in November 2007, he was enshrined into the Western New York Softball
Hall of Fame.
Keith Applegate '95 - A three-year member of the Canisius
College baseball team, Applegate started 107 of 110 games as a catcher from
1992-94. A transfer after his freshman year, he didn't commit an error during
his sophomore season, and finished his time in Blue and Gold with a .984 career
fielding percentage. Applegate was a three-time all-MAAC selection. In his
senior season, he caught for the Golden Griffin team that went 17-1 in the MAAC
and was the regular-season conference champion. In three years at Canisius, he
only committed 10 errors and made 529 putouts with a season-high of 244 in
1994. At the time of his graduation following the 1994 season, Applegate ranked
12th in program history in batting average (.300) and second in fielding
percentage (.984). At the end of the 1992 campaign, he became just the second
player in program history to record a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
1948 Football Team - The
7-2-1 team was the only team in program history to earn a bowl bid, playing in
the Great Lakes Bowl at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium against John Carroll in
front of 17,964 fans. Under head coach Jim Wilson, the 1948 team began its
season with a 61-0 shutout win over St. Francis (Pa.) in the first collegiate
football game in Western New York to be broadcast on television. The team
outscored its opponents 242-109 that season, with the defense holding opponents
to seven or fewer points six times with three shutouts. One of the season's
most memorable moments came on Nov. 11, when the 5-1 Griffs took on an
undefeated St. Bonaventure team at Civic Stadium, and posted a 14-6 triumph.
The win was witnessed by 32,541 fans, and wiped out St. Bonaventure's prospect
of a postseason bid as the Griffs moved to 6-1. Following the season, nine
Golden Griffins were named on The Buffalo
News All-Western New York College Football team, including five first-team
selections, three second-team selections and one third-team honoree. Of the 40
men on the roster, six have already been inducted into the Canisius Sports Hall
of Fame. The 1948 football team is the second team to be inducted into the
school's hall of fame, joining the 1955-56 men's basketball team, which was
inducted as part of the 2007 class.
