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July 22, 2005

A football linebacker who helped lead the Buffaloes to their only Lone Star Conference football championship in 1986 and went on to an illustrious 16-year career in the Canadian Football League, a legendary track and field coach who led the Buffs to a Missouri Valley Conference championship in 1976 and coached six All-Americans and then continued his coaching prowess at Mississippi State and Texas-El Paso, aLady Buff Softball pitcher who holds numerous school records and then became a very successful coach, and a Lady Buff soccer player who helped start the tradition of outstanding soccer at WTAMU are the latest inductees into the West Texas A&M; University Athletic Hall of Champions.

Alondra Johnson, Bob Kitchens, Renee Luers-Gillispie and Julie (Saylor) Young make up the Class of 2005 and will be inducted in formal ceremonies on Saturday, September 3, 2005, at Noon at the Alumni Banquet Hall on the WTAMU campus. The quartet brings the total number of Hall of Champion members to 115 since its inception in 1987.

The 2005 Inductees will also be recognized at halftime of the East Central-WTAMU football game at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium that evening, which begins at 6 p.m.

Alondra Johnson played for the Buffs in 1986 and 1987 under Head Coach Bill Kelly. The Buffs won the LSC championship in 1986 with six straight conference victories following a 1-4 non-conference start. In 1987 the Buffs finished 5-6, but Johnson led the team with 143 tackles, of which 85 were unassisted and nine were tackles for loss. He also recovered two fumbles and broke up three passes. For his efforts the 5-11, 205-pounder from Gardena, Calif., was selected to the first team of the All-LSC defense and was twice LSC Defensive Player of the Week. Johnson was also voted the Most Outstanding Defensive Player by WTAMU.

In 1986 Johnson had 36 tackles (16 unassisted), one fumble recovery, one pass breakup, and one sack in his first year for the Buffs following his transfer from El Camino (Calif.) Junior College. The 1986 team, although they were not selected to participate in the then-only eight-team Division II playoffs, finished third in the Football News final poll and second in the Dunkel Rating poll.

Johnson played in 1989 and 1990 for the British Columbia Lions after signing as a free agent in July 1989. After being granted free agency in February 1991, he signed with the Calgary Stampeders the same month and spent 13 years with that team, winning three Grey Cup championship rings (1992, 1998, and 2001) and playing in three other Grey Cup finals. His final year was 2004 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

From his linebacker spot he finished with 1,095 tackles (83 special team tackles) for a grand total of 1,178 in 248 games. Johnson also had 45 quarterback sacks for 333 yards, 43 tackles for a total loss of 113 yards, 16 fumble recoveries with three for touchdowns, eight forced fumbles, 17 interceptions and one for a TD, and 10 pass knockdowns.

In 19 post-season clashes he had 83 tackles and seven special team tackles for a total of 90, two QB sacks for 22 yards, seven tackles for a loss of eight yards, two interceptions, one forced fumble, and one pass knockdown.

In six Grey Cup championship games Johnson had 27 total tackles, a Grey Cup record, with one quarterback sack for 13 yards in the 2001 game and two tackles for loss in the 1991 final. In the 1998 Grey Cup victory, 26-24 over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, he set the CFL record for the most defensive tackles in a Grey Cup game. That 1998 season total of 87 tackles spurred him to the Norm Freidgate Trophy as the Most Outstanding Defensive Player in the West Division, as well as West Division and CFL All-Star.

He was a CFL All-Star also in 1995 and 2000, a West Division All-Star also in 1991, 1992, 1997, and 2000, and a North All-Star in 1995. Johnson was also the first CFL player to score on a two-point conversion in 1989.

One Canadian sportswriter referred to Johnson as being the "heart and soul of Calgary's defense." In 2001 and 2002 he received the Stampeder President's Ring Award, voted by his teammates for his inspiration on and off the field.

Johnson is married, currently lives in Calgary, and is linebacker coach with the Calgary Colts, a developmental junior team.

Born in Plainview, Texas, but reared on a ranch near Silverton, Texas,Bob Kitchens lettered in both track and football at Silverton High School, and ran the 100-meter and 200 meter dash and was a member of both sprint relay teams.

Although not highly recruited, he walked on a freshman at Texas Tech University and eventually earned a track scholarship. Kitchens ran track four years for the Red Raiders and earned three letters in all the events in which he competed back in high school.

After completing his eligibility he served two years as a graduate assistant while finishing his Bachelor of Science in Education at Tech in 1968. He then was recommended for the newly created job as head track coach at then-West Texas State University.

For the next decade Kitchens coached the Buffaloes' track and cross country teams directing the Buffs to the 1977 Missouri Valley Conference men's cross country and the 1979 men's indoor track championships. His teams were also runners-up for the 1978 men's indoor and outdoor track and men's cross country MVC championships and the 1979 men's outdoor MVC championships. Kitchens started the women's program in 1978.

He coached six NCAA All-Americans and seven United States Track & Field Federation All-Americans at WT. Kitchens coached 70 individual MVC champions, and was selected MVC Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1977 and MVC Indoor Track Coach of the Year in 1979.

From 1979-1988 Kitchens was head men's track and field and cross country coach at Mississippi State University and was also head women's track and field and cross country coach from 1985-1988.

That program produced 28 All-Americans and four NCAA champions on the men's side and three All-Americans and one Olympian on the women's side.

Kitchens has served as the head track and field coach at the University of Texas at El Paso, since 1989 and is still presently directing the Miners track & field program, and his record there is astounding. He has coached 63 All-Americans in the sprint events, 21 NCAA champions, most recently Mircea Bogdan in the 3,000-meter steeplechase this year, and a total of 206 All-Americans and 18 Olympians while at UTEP.

The Miners have six top-five, 12 top-10, 21 top-15, and 26 top-20 NCAA championship finishes under Kitchens. UTEP was runner-up in the 1994 outdoors, third in the 1994 indoors, fourth in the indoors in 1992 and 1993, and fifth in the 1992 outdoors and 1996 indoors. UTEP has eight Western Athletic Conference championships (four outdoors, three indoors, and one cross country) with its final WAC championships for both indoors and outdoors in 2005. On July 1, the school joined Conference USA.

Kitchens received his master's degree in education from WT in 1970 and was tenured instructor in the Department of Physical Education while coaching for the Buffs.

He was inducted into the Drake Relays Hall of Fame in 1996 and was one the top 100 sports legends of the 20th century for the Texas Panhandle in 2000.

Kitchens and his wife Shirley have four daughters and currently lives in El Paso.

Although theLady Buff Softball team will begin play once again in the spring of 2006, the former program was short-lived from 1979 to 1984. HoweverRenee Luers-Gillispie certainly had an impact for WT during her two years with the Lady Buffs, following her transfer from Kirkwood (Iowa) Community College.

During her two years under head coach Brenda Marshall, Luers-Gillispie set school records for most wins, saves, complete games, innings pitched, and strike outs. She hurled a perfect game against North Texas State University in 1982 - the first in school history.

She married Dumas, Texas, native and WT graduate Mark Gillispie in July 1982 and received her Bachelor's degree in recreation administration from WT in May 1984. She even worked under current Recreation Sports Director Bill Craddock after graduation.

Luers-Gillispie's coaching career began in 1991 at Joliet (Ill.) Junior College, inheriting a 2-29 team and turning it around in two years to a 47-28 record and a National Junior College Athletic Association regional runner-up in 1992 with a 32-12 record.

Then it was onto Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., in 1993, taking over a 12-25 team and in three short years building it to an 86-53 mark.

In 1996 she moved to Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where, despite a 4-44 record the first year, her final three years were 115-79. The Red Raiders were ranked 17th nationally in 1998 and No. 24 the following year with runner-up finish in the NCAA regional tournament.

The University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., summoned her services next to start up a new softball program in 2000 and 2001. UCF began play in 2002 and her four-year record is 179-100-1. Her Golden Knights made the NCAA regional tournament this season, losing to the University of South Florida, 5-4, on May 21 at Gainesville, Fla.

Luers-Gillispie is a highly-sought after international coach and speaker and a softball camp and clinic instructor.

She and her husband currently live in Oviedo, Fla.

Julie Saylor Young, an Amarillo, Texas, native, came to WTAMU when head coachButch Lauffer started up the Lady Buff women's soccer program. In their first year, Saylor Young, playing midfielder, helped lead WT to a 12-4 record and the LSC regular season championship before losing to Midwestern State University, 2-1, in the LSC Tournament championship final.

Graduating a year early, her three-year record at WT was 41-14 and the Lady Buffs were LSC Tournament runner-up also to Midwestern State in 1998. WT defeated MSU 1-0 in 1997 with Saylor Young scoring the lone goal for WT's first-ever LSC Tournament championship.

Saylor-Young's career statistics were 55 matches started, 21 goals, 24 assists, and 193 shots (3.51 average per match). She was first-team All-LSC all three years for the Lady Buffs, as well as All-LSC Academic. In 1997 she was named to the NCAA Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, serving a two-year term.

The Amarillo High School also was selected to the All-Great Plains Region all three years of her career.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Sports and Exercise Science in December 1998, and is married to former WT men's soccer player Ragan Young, and they currently live in East Windsor, N.J.

The Hall of Champions induction banquet will be at the Alumni Banquet Facility on campus. For reservations call the Athletics Office at 806-651-4400.

-WT-