Bowling Green’s Lauren Prochaska (2) drives against Indiana’s Whitney Thomas March 26, 2009 during the second half of a women’s WNIT game in Bowling Green. Indiana won 75-67.
J.D. Pooley | Sentinel-Tribune
Four individuals and one team will be inducted into the Bowling Green State University Athletics Hall of Fame later this year.
Jon Berti, Jean Campbell, Lauren Prochaska, Kerm Stroh and the 1972 men’s indoor track & field team make up the newest Hall of Fame class.
The four individual inductees bring membership in the Athletics Hall of Fame to 248. Three teams (the 1983-84 national championship hockey team, the 1959 national championship football team and now the ‘72 men’s indoor track and field team) are also in the Hall of Fame.
“These Hall of Famers helped pave the way for our current student-athletes to achieve their own greatness,” said BGSU Director of Athletics Bob Moosbrugger.
Details on the induction ceremony will be announced at a later date.
Berti (2009-11) was a two-time All-MAC First-Team selection for Danny Schmitz and the baseball team. He helped the Falcons to a MAC regular-season title in 2009, his first season. BGSU tied for first in the league’s East Division in 2010. Berti batted .368 in his initial year, the highest average for a BGSU freshman since 1976, and he hit a school-record .423 the following spring, setting the BGSU single-season mark for hits (93) as well. He hit .356 as a junior, including a .412 average in MAC play, before being drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 11th round of the 2011 MLB Draft. In only three seasons at BGSU, Berti set a school record with 17 triples. He made his major league debut with the Blue Jays in 2018, and has played the last three seasons with the Miami Marlins.
Campbell coached the BGSU swimming and diving team from 1966-77, and also was the Falcons’ synchronized swimming coach from 1976-78, while also serving as a full-time faculty member. Under her direction, the Falcons won five Ohio State Championships and two Midwest Championships. Ten swimmers earned AIAW All-America honors in one or more events, and four of her synchronized swimmers won All-America Honorable Mention. Her teams won 25 straight dual meets from 1969-74, and captured the OAISW Championship in four consecutive years (1974-77). In 1978, she led the synchronized swimming team to a sixth-place finish at the AIAW Nationals. Campbell earned a master’s in 1968 and a Ph.D., both in theater from BGSU in 1976.
Prochaska (2007-11) set the BGSU career scoring record, with 2,290 points for the women’s basketball Falcons. The MAC Freshman of the Year in 2007-08, she was named to the All-MAC Second Team that season before earning All-MAC First-Team honors in each of the last three years. Prochaska was twice named the MAC Player of the Year, and also was named the MAC Tournament MVP on two occasions as well. In addition to scoring, she finished her career as the BGSU leader in free throws made and attempts, free-throw percentage (90.6%), three-point field goals made (310), games started and consecutive games started. She ended her career ranked second in MAC history in three-pointers made and third on the conference career scoring list. She was named to the All-Anderson Team while she was still a student-athlete at BGSU. Prochaska led the nation in free-throw pct. (93.3%) as a sophomore, and set an NCAA record by sinking 70 consecutive free throws during her senior season. During her four years at BGSU, she helped the Falcons to an overall record of 110-25, including a 55-9 MAC ledger. BGSU won four MAC regular-season titles and two league tournament titles, with two NCAA Tournament and two WNIT appearances in that time.
Stroh helped co-found Moulton Gas Service Inc. with his father, Elmer, in 1958 in Wapakoneta. It was Stroh’s commitment to expanding the company that first brought him to the BGSU campus in the early 1960s. As a way to gain radio advertising for his fledgling propane gas company, he provided color commentary at regional basketball games for WERM-AM in Wapakoneta. While at BGSU for regional basketball games, he was treated so kindly that he maintained his connection, sending two daughters to BGSU, and eventually serving on the board of trustees from 1993-2002. In 2008, he and his family made an $8 million gift to the university to support the building of the Stroh Center, as well as funds for intercollegiate athletics and the Kermit and Mary Lu Stroh Scholarship fund. Stroh is a member of the BGSU Falcon Club and Presidents Club. He earned an honorary doctorate from BGSU in 2002 and was named a BGSU honorary alumnus in 2003.
The 1972 indoor track and field team posted a national runner-up finish, tying Michigan State for second place. Powered by Dave Wottle (who would earn an Olympic gold medal) and Sid Sink, and coached by the legendary Mel Brodt, the Falcons made the short trip north to Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit and picked up a team total of 18 points at the national meet (March 10-11, 1972). BGSU tied MSU and finished just one point behind national champion USC. Wottle won the national championship in the 800, while Sink captured the national crown in the two-mile event. The distance medley relay team of Craig MacDonald, Ted Farver, Sink and Wottle also won a national title.
