Four Athletes, One Team Named To Butler Hall of Fame

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- Four former student-athletes and the first Butler football team to advance to the NCAA playoffs have been selected for induction into the Butler University Athletics Hall of Fame.  The Hall of Fame Induction Class of 2011 will be introduced during Butler’s final regular season men’s basketball game against Loyola on Saturday, Feb. 26.

Chosen for induction this year as Butler’s 21st Hall of Fame Class are Paul Page (football, 1983-86), Stacia Mellinger (volleyball, 1987-90), Jermaine Guice (men’s basketball, 1991-94) and Jeremy Aldrich (men’s soccer, 1995-98), plus the 1983 football team.  The class will be officially inducted into the Butler Athletics Hall of Fame at a dinner/ceremony in the Reilly Room in Atherton Center on Butler’s campus on Sept. 24.

Page was a standout wide receiver on Butler’s football teams in the mid-1980s, including a pair of conference championship squads.  He was a two-time Butler Offensive Most Valuable Player and a two-time, first team All-Heartland Collegiate Conference wide receiver.  He held Butler’s single season (998) and career (1,937) records for receiving yards at the time of his graduation, and he still ranks in the “Top Five” in both categories.  A three-year varsity starter, Page finished his Butler career with 117 receptions for 1,937 yards and 14 touchdowns.  He caught more than 50 passes in each of his final two seasons.

Mellinger, named Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon League) Volleyball Co-Player of the Year in 1990, is one of just 14 players in league history to be named first team All-League three times (1988 1989 and 1990).  She helped lead Butler to four consecutive league regular season championships and one league tournament title.  Mellinger finished her career in second place on Butler’s all-time list for assists (4,838), and she currently stands seventh in the Horizon League in all-time assists.  She also ranks seventh all-time at Butler in service aces (133).

Guice was a high-scoring guard on Butler’s basketball teams in the early 1990s, and he helped engineer a turnaround in the Bulldogs’ basketball fortunes.  He helped lead the Bulldogs to an 18-11 campaign in 1990-91, Butler’s first winning season in six years, and then sparked a 21-10 record the following season, just the third 20-win season in Butler basketball history.  A two-time Butler MVP and two-time All-Midwestern Collegiate Conference performer, Guice finished his career in sixth place (he currently stands eighth) on Butler’s all-time scoring list with 1,607 career points.  He led Butler in scoring in each of his final two seasons.  The 6-4 guard still ranks 10th on Butler’s all-time list for three-point field goals (174).

Aldrich became just the second player in Butler men’s soccer history (Hall of Fame member Steve Weiger was the first) to earn NSCAA/adidas All-America recognition when he was picked to the second team in 1998.  The versatile defender was a three-time, first team All-Horizon League player, and he was named league Player of the Year in 1998.  He was a two-time All-Great Lakes Region pick, and a two-time Horizon League All-Tournament player.  Aldrich was named the Most Valuable Player on Butler’s 19-5-1 squad in 1998, the winningest team in Butler men’s soccer history.

The 1983 Butler football team completed the regular season with an unbeaten (9-0-1) record and became the first team in Heartland Collegiate Conference history to advance to the NCAA Division II playoffs.  Coached by Bill Sylvester, who was named Region 3 “Coach of the Year”, the Bulldogs won the HCC championship, earned a No. 8 national ranking and captured a second consecutive NCAA Division II Rushing Defense national title.  Butler traveled to UC Davis, runner-up in the previous year’s Division II national championship, for the national playoffs and fell, 25-6.

The Butler Hall of Fame was created in 1991 to provide a forum in which those who have brought honor and respect to Butler University and its athletic program could be acknowledged and permanently enshrined in Hinkle Fieldhouse.  Inductees have made exceptional contributions to the prestige of the University in the field of athletics, and continued to demonstrate in their lives the values imparted by athletics.  The Hall of Fame enshrinement wall is located at the front entrance to Hinkle Fieldhouse.