Northern Arizona to honor 2019 Hall of Fame class
Sep 19, 2019, 7:00 AM
Northern Arizona University announced its 2019 Hall of Fame class.
Zach Bauman (football), Maggie Barrera (volleyball), Gerald Caple (hockey) and the 2003 men’s cross country team are the newest recipients of the honor and will be celebrated at halftime of NAU’s next football game on Saturday.
Bauman was a running back from 2010-13.
He has the most carries and yards in school history (5,132 yards on 1,003 attempts). He became the ninth FCS halfback to rush for over 1,000 yards in all four years.
He sits third all-time in the Big Sky Conference in rushing yards and seventh in all-purpose yards. He went unselected in the 2014 draft, but he played for the Arizona Cardinals in preseason games and got experience in the Canadian Football League.
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Barrera was the highlight of one of the brightest times in Lumberjacks volleyball history.
She led NAU to its first Big Sky Conference tournament championship, and was named tournament MVP. The Lumberjacks finished .500 or better in all four of her years. Her biggest solo accomplishment was winning conference MVP in 2000, after she led her team in kills, kill average and service aces.
She ranks third in school history in kills.
Caple was the orchestrator of NAU’s NCAA hockey program.
In 1971, he established school’s first club hockey team. He had to plan games with other clubs without an organized league.
But, he built the program up to where NAU became an NCAA Division 1 hockey school by 1981. Two future NHL skaters, Bob Beers and Greg Adams, played for him.
In 1986, the ice system at the team’s arena failed, and the NCAA program ended. But, Caple built a hockey program from scratch and took it to the highest level, an accomplishment that landed him in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Hall of Fame in 2018.
The final inductee is a team that was helmed by the 2003 Big Sky men’s cross country coach of the year, Ron Mann. His unit had two top-100 runners in the country, Travis Laird and Henrik Ahnstrom. At a meet in Iowa, all four Lumberjack competitors achieved All-American honors and the team ranked third in the nation. Laird won the Big Sky MVP for the season.
