Three former Red Devil standouts will soon be inducted into the Eureka College Athletics Hall of Fame, along with a pair of tremendous teams that captured conference titles in the same calendar year. Randy Beeler '75, Jane (Brooks) Grisham '83, Roger Kerfoot '92, the 2017 football team and the 2016-17 women's basketball team make up the 2023 Hall of Fame Class, Eureka College Director of Athletic Sara Shaw announced on Monday.
The 2016-17 women's basketball team is the first and only team in program history to win a regular-season St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) title and the SLIAC Tournament Championship and clinch a berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament. The team went 20-8 on the season, becoming the fourth team in program history to reach 20 wins. The Red Devils locked up the outright SLIAC title with a 99-75 win over Westminster, clinching the school's first conference title in a women's sport since 1997. Then, the following week, they earned their first NCAA Tournament bid with an 82-74 win over Greenville on their home court.
Beeler was a four-year member of the Eureka football team. An offensive lineman, he received all-conference honors from 1972-1974. In 1972, he was voted Best Offensive Lineman. The following year, he received NAIA District 20 Honorable Mention, and in 1974, he was selected First Team Offense for NAIA District 20 and had the rare honor of being voted Offensive MVP as an offensive lineman.
Grisham was a four-sport athlete at Eureka from 1979-82, competing in volleyball, basketball, softball and track. She was a starter in all three team sports and earned all-conference honors in volleyball. After her playing career, Grisham stayed involved with Eureka College, serving as an assistant volleyball coach, assistant women's basketball coach and head track coach. She was also a longtime volunteer coach at legendary Eureka men's basketball Dave Darnall summer camps. She went on to have a 25-year career in education, teaching physical education and serving as athletic director in Washington, Illinois. Her daughter, EC women's basketball standout Caty Eeten Bane, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019, making them the only mother-daughter duo currently in the Eureka College Athletics Hall of Fame.
Kerfoot was a four-year member of the Eureka football team from 1988-92, and he was a three-year starting defensive back. He received NAIA District 20 Honorable Mention as a defensive back in 1989 and was selected NAIA District 20 All-Conference in 1990. A team captain in 1990, Kerfoot returned as an assistant coach in 1991 and helped the Red Devils record a 10-0 season and a NAIA Division II playoffs berth. He was also on the baseball team in 1991.
Kerfoot ranks seventh in program history with 26 punt returns, is tied for seventh with 14 punt returns in a season and is in the top 15 in program history in career punt return yards (13th with 129). He is also in the top 20 in career punt return average (18th with 5.0) and punt return average in season (18th with 6.2 in 1989) and is in the top 15 in program history in interceptions with five. After his time at Eureka, Kerfoot was a football coach, athletic director and administrator at several high schools in Illinois and Texas for 20-plus plus years.
The 2017 Eureka football team won the program's first conference title since 1995 and was the first team in program history to represent the College in the NCAA Division III playoffs. With an 8-3 record on the season and an 8-1 mark in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, it remains one of only seven Red Devil squads to win eight games or more. The team completed back-to-back eight-win seasons for just the second time in program history. It secured the conference title with a 63-26 victory at Martin Luther in the final regular-season game of the year.
The Class of 2023 will be officially welcomed into the Hall of Fame on Homecoming weekend. The induction ceremony will take place inside Becker Auditorium on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 12 p.m.