The HCC Quarterback Club and Hutchinson Community College Athletic Department are preparing to welcome four new members of its Hall of Fame. The 2014 Hall of Fame class includes a current major league player, hero of the 1988 national championship men’s basketball team, a broadcaster who called that 1988 championship game and a long-time head coach. Baseball player Andy Dirks, men’s basketball player Maurice Brittian, Blue Dragon radio personality Rusty Hilst and current HCC track coach Pat Becher were selected for enshrinement are this year’s inductees. The 2014 Hall of Fame enshrinement will be at halftime of the Hutchinson-Barton men’s basketball game on Feb. 22. The Quarterback Club will have a Hall of Fame luncheon on the day of enshrinement. Ticketing information and site will be announced soon. The 2014 class brings the total of Hall of Famers up to 20. The 2013 class included basketball player LeRoy Esau, football player Mo Lattimore, men’s basketball player Roy “Pooh” Hairston and former men’s head coach Steve McClain. + Andy Dirks – Dirks was one of several local players who helped the 2005 Blue Dragon baseball team win Region VI for the first time in 30 years and go to the NJCAA World Series for the first time ever. A centerfielder/pitcher who batted leadoff for HCC’s 2005 and 2006 Jayhawk West championship teams, Dirks then spent two years at Wichita State starting for the Shockers before being drafted by the Detroit Tigers. Dirks was selected by the Tigers in the eighth round of the 2008 MLB Amateur Draft. While at HCC, Dirks went 82-35. The 2005 team was in a four-way tie for the Jayhawk West championship and Region VI championship and the 2006 team won the conference outright and went 44-13. Dirks was first-team All-Jayhawk West and first-team all-Region VI as a sophomore. He had a .371 career batting average with 106 hits. His 41 career stolen bases were tied for seventh at that time. His HCC rankings at the end of his eligibility were: Games played – 103 (T11); batting average – .371 (T14); total hits – 106 (12th); runs scored – 96 (10th); RBIs – 79 (17th); doubles – 22 (T9); triples – 8 (T2); home runs – 13 (T8); total bases – 193 (13th); slugging percentage – .617 (15th); and extra-base hits – 43 (T11). At Wichita State Dirks has gained plenty of national attention with his streak of reaching base safely in 73 consecutive games and his hitting streak of 29 games, which was the fourth-longest in Shocker history. Dirks had a spectacular senior season in 2008 with the Shockers, hitting .399 (95 for 238) with 10 home runs and 59 RBIs this season. He was 26 of 33 in stolen bases. Dirks scored 82 runs and had 21 doubles, three triples. Dirks was with the Tigers when they went to the World Series in 2012. He will begin his fourth season at the major league level. He has played in 297 games with Detroit. Dirks is a career .276 hitters with 24 home runs. + Maurice Brittian – Brittian was the Most Valuable Player of the 1988 NJCAA Tournament. He helped the Blue Dragons win their first men’s basketball national championship. Brittian will be enshrined posthumously after losing his life in an auto accident on June 25, 2006 in his home state of Georgia. Brittian was always a fan favorite, being voted by the fans to the Blue Dragon 75th Anniversary Team this past February. Brittian was unable to attend the celebration in February of 2006. Brittian is the 23rd leading scorer in team history with 800 points. He also ranks third in games played (73), seventh in field-goal percentage (58.0 percent), third in rebounds (649), ninth in rebound average (8.9) and third in blocked shots (114). But it was the 1988 national tournament where Brittian gained his fame. He averaged 13 points per game and shot 67 percent (19 of 28) in HCC’s four wins. In the Blue Dragons’ 76-74 victory over Kankakee in the championship game had 13 points, including a key second-half slam dunk that gave the Dragons their first lead of the game. After Hutchinson, Brittian signed with Georgia Tech where he averaged 4.5 points and shot 61.9 percent for the Yellowjackets. Brittian decided to return to Kansas for his final year of eligibility, transferring to Kansas State before the 1989-90 season. After having to sit out in 1990, Brittian averaged eight points and six rebounds for the Wildcats in the 1990-91 season. After graduation from K-State, Brittian was a sixth-round draft pick in the 1991 Continental Basketball Association after the Sioux Falls Sky Force selected him with the 92nd pick. + Pat Becher – From the old cinder track of old Gowans Stadium to the new state-of-the-art facility that is the new Gowans Stadium, current Hutchinson Community College head track and field coach Patrick Becher has seen the complete transformation of the Blue Dragon track and field facilities. He’s also coached his share of great track and field talent in Blue Dragon uniforms over his 29 seasons as Blue Dragon head coach. Becher had coached 22 individual NJCAA national champions and 29 NJCAA national runners-up and has coached more than 700 track and field All-Americans in his tenure at Hutchinson. The most famous Blue Dragon track and field athlete under Becher’s watch is 1988 NJCAA decathlon national champion Steve Fritz, who placed fourth in the decathlon at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. HCC track has also produced more than 150 Academic All-American’s in the past 12 years, including two No. 2 Women’s Academic All-America teams of the year and two men’s Academic All-America team of the year and five more teams in the top five. In addition to his successes on the track, Becher was one of the championship directors of the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Gowans Stadium. The 2015 Championships will also be held at Gowans Stadium. The past three seasons on the track have been special. Last year, all the men’s team did was won the Jayhawk West indoor title for the first time and then sweep the league and Region VI championships a few months later. HCC has now won three-straight Jayhawk West outdoor championships, back-to-back Region VI outdoor championships and finished fourth at the 2013 NJCAA National Outdoor Championships at Gowans Stadium, the team’s best finish since 1976. The 2012 Blue Dragon men’s outdoor team captured both a second-straight Jayhawk West championship and the program’s first Region VI championship since 1996. The 2011 Blue Dragons won the conference for the first time since 1996. The 2011 NJCAA Championships may go down as one of Becher’s favorites as he watched John Talbert capture national championships in the hammer throw and discus. Talbert captured the hammer national championship on his final throw. In 2003, 2007 and 2013, Becher was named Men’s National Track and Field Coach of the year. He has served as President of the NJCAA Track Coaches Association and has served as the group’s vice-president three times. He has been president of the Region VI Coaches Association three times. He has been named Region VI Track Coach of the Year nine times, and nominated three times previously for National Coach of the year. Becher has coached a pair of Region VI championship outdoor teams, winning the Region VI men’s title in 1996 and 1997. Becher has also served as a meet official for the prestigious Kansas Relays. + Rusty Hilst – A Hutchinson native, Rusty Hilst has been involved in radio sports broadcasting since 1969 and with the Blue Dragons since 1971. Hilst’s first involvement with Blue Dragon athletics came while he was broadcasting sports for KWHK radio in Hutchinson. Hilst later joined long-time HCC broadcaster Jerry Kershaw with KWBW in 1980. Hilst took over the play-by-play duties for both football and basketball when Kershaw retired in 1995. Hilst currently serves as Blue Dragon football “play-by-play” announcer and provided analysis for Blue Dragon men’s basketball games. In addition, he continues to broadcast Hutchinson High football and boys and girls basketball as broadcast play-by-play announcer as well as assisting with the NJCAA National Basketball Tournament. A career teacher at Hutchinson High School, Hilst graduated from the University of Kansas and Valparaiso University in Indiana. Hilst was also the Salthawk boys golf coach for several years. As golf coach, Hilst took his teams to the state tournament 27 times and won state championships in 1974 and 1995. When not working with the Blue Dragons or Salthawks or with students in his calculus classes, it’s a better than average chance you will find Hilst on the golf course. Hilst is a tournament administrator for the Kansas Golf Association and was an integral piece of the team that helped bring the 2014 NCAA Men’s Division I Golf Championships to Prairie Dunes this May. Hilst was elected to the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. (By Steve Carpenter, HCC Sports Information Director)