Maybe it shouldn’t be any surprise that the April class of the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame includes three baseball players among its five new inductees.
Plus one of the fastest distance runners in history here along with an administrator who helped make sports happen at a couple of stops along the way. All were honored Wednesday at the Arbor Room in Park Hills.
• Les Temple: The late Newport High alum was one of those baseball stars. A 1957 grad, Les earned five of his eight varsity letters in baseball where he was a power-hitting pitcher whose 25-4 record at Newport is No. 3 all-time at the school.
In 1956, Les was invited to try out for the Cleveland Indians but would sign a contract with the Reds, where he would go on to a 16-4 minor league record in four seasons while also playing outfield with nine home runs and a .250 batting average. He would also star in the Buckeye League.
Les’ sister, Shirley Gallicchio, accepted for him.
“Les would be really proud of this honor,” she said.
• Ricky Atkins: Make that two in a row for Newport as Atkins, a three-sport high school athlete – football, basketball and baseball – earned 11 varsity letters for the Wildcats. But there was no doubt, baseball was his game. Ricky hit more than .400 for his high school career, exceeding 100 RBI and 20 home runs with more than 100 strikeouts as a pitcher.
But nothing will surpass that day against Simon Kenton when Ricky hit three consecutive home runs on three consecutive pitches as he would go on to earn all-state honors in 1982 and 1983 and be named runner-up for Kentucky’s Player of the Year in 1983 before going on to softball career as one of the top players on a number of top Northern Kentucky teams.
“I didn’t get here by myself,” Ricky said, “I had the best coaches. Thank you, Ray and Grady Brown. I’m a Hall of Famer.”
• Steve Molitor: The 1983 Lloyd Memorial grad is another multiple sport athlete who was honored for football, basketball and baseball with all-state, all-region and all-conference recognition but who would pursue baseball later on thanks to a baseball scholarship to NKU.
As a coach, Steve started the football program at Tichenor Middle School and coached them to four championships in 10 years. He also coached basketball there while coaching basketball and baseball at Lloyd.
Thanking his family for understanding how “it takes a lot of time, coaching,” Steve said I’m going to wing it here.” Then he made the case for Northern Kentucky sports.
“We’re not Cincinnati, we’re not Kentucky… Kentucky doesn’t recognize us,” he said, with a nod to “all the unbelievable amount of talent here… it’s a great honor.”
• Bobby Storer: Bobby was part of an undefeated football team at Dixie Heights in 1968 but he’ll be remembered for starting the athletic program at a then-new Scott High School and as superintendent at Walton-Verona, expanding and building a number of new athletic facilities. It’s why he was honored in 1999 as Kentucky Superintendent of the Year by the National Association of School Administrators followed by an award from the A.B. “Happy” Chandler Foundation that same year.
“I’m humbled, so pleased, it touched my heart,” Bobby said of learning about his Hall of Fame selection, accompanied by a number of previous Hall of Famers in attendance with him.
But on accepting, Bobby told a story of how it doesn’t always go the way tou planned it for administrators like the day at Scott, when they were building the 300,000-gallon swimming pool and the guys from the public works department didn’t realize it and backed up the water from Wayman Creek into the pool. “Some guys got wet,” was the understated way Bobby described what happened to his wife.
• Kathy Plank Asher: Another three-sport star, Conner’s Kathy Plank Asher credited growing up in a Hebron/Burlington household with three brothers made her the athlete she became. “We ran everywhere. You hung out with them or you got left behind. The journey that got me here, none of it was planned.”
According to her coach, Buddy Dittus, the NKSHOF photographer and website administrator, Kathy was a dream come true. “As a coach, you look for that one-time century athlete. Kathy was that one-time century athlete” who epitomized the “positive mental attitude (PMA)” that Buddy preached.
Kathy was a six-time state champion in cross-country and track in the mile, the two-mile and the 880 while setting a state record in the mile that lasted more than 20 years in Kentucky of 5:02 while also being part of the national championship Junior Olympics team which earned her All-American recognition.
Kathy also earned a spot in basketball on the Kentucky team in the annual all-star series against Indiana but couldn’t play in the game that was on her graduation night. After graduation, she earned a full athletic scholarship to Indiana State and currently lives in Magnolia, Tex., north of Houston.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X @dweber3440.