Arizona Sports Hall of Fame inducts noteworthy 2017 class
Nov 2, 2017, 11:38 AM
It's a mutual lovefest: @DanMajerle and the state of Arizona. @suns @GCU_MBB #ArizonaSportsHallOfFame pic.twitter.com/INEFhqHO8S
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) November 2, 2017
The Arizona Sports Hall of Fame inducted a group of notable names on Wednesday night.
Retired Arizona Coyotes captain Shane Doan, former award-winning sports journalist at the Arizona Republic and current ASU Cronkite School professor Paola Boivin, and Grand Canyon coach and former Phoenix Suns guard Dan Majerle were three of the five honored at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort.
“It’s almost been 30 years since I’ve been here in Phoenix, off and on, but this has always been my home,” Majerle told FOX Sports Arizona. “I fell in love with Phoenix when I got here, and the state of Arizona, and fortunately they love me back.”
Shane Doan got inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame just months after he retired @ArizonaCoyotes pic.twitter.com/ThTNn4cwFl
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) November 2, 2017
Another member of this year’s group, Arizona Cardinals chairman and owner Bill Bidwill, was represented at the ceremony by his son, president Michael Bidwill.
“But when you look at his contributions, the Super Bowls he lobbied to bring here, the stadium that again has not just brought success to the Cardinals but success to the whole community,” Michael Bidwill told FOX Sports Arizona, “to bring in all these great events, the economic impacts from ’em, it’s all him. He was the driver behind that. He was the guy that had faith, that we’d get it done and we got it done.”
ASU wrestler and 2011 NCAA champion Anthony Robles was also inducted. He won a state championship at Mesa High School, despite being born with only one leg.
“There were times in the wrestling room where I thought about kind of taking it easy or thought about quitting, and I would just think about the doubters because I felt like if I gave up, I was proving ’em right. Nothing would make me more happy than to stand on top of the podium and smile with my trophy, you know to show them ‘you were wrong,'” he told FOX Sports Arizona.
.@ARobles125 has been proving doubters wrong from the time he was born up until his induction into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. pic.twitter.com/Uhkggq0H5y
— FOX Sports Arizona (@FOXSPORTSAZ) November 2, 2017
