By ROB WHITMIRE
Special to The Gazette
Homecoming and Athletic Hall of Fame inductions are long-standing autumn traditions at universities and colleges across the country. One man who has watched over a number of such events is Paul Hartman, former athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
This year is Hartman's turn to step on the other side of the ball. In a unique set of circumstances, Hartman was inducted into not one, but two halls of fame within a 48-hour period - Ohio State University and Plymouth State College (Mass.).
Hartman, along with wife, Janie, and sons, Rick and Jeff, kicked off the weekend of Sept. 15-17 at Ohio State, where he was inducted that Friday. The family then moved on to Massachusetts for the Sunday induction ceremony into the Panthers Athletic Hall of Fame.
Hartman received his degrees (bachelor's 1957, master's 1958 and doctorate 1963) at Ohio State and was an instructor and lacrosse coach there from 1959-1966.
Hartman was one of the last multi-sport letterwinners at OSU - soccer, gymnastics and lacrosse. He was the leading scorer in the Midwest and an All-American as a member of the lacrosse team.
After graduation, Hartman was asked to come back as lacrosse coach, a job he accepted and held from 1960-66. "In 1965 the team won the Mid-West championship without any player with high school experience, I taught them all," Hartman said. "In 1966 with a couple of recruits from Long Island, we were undefeated and ranked 11th in the country. During this time I wrote one of the first books to be used in teaching of lacrosse." Hartman was selected to be an assistant coach in the 1964 North-South game.
Hartman was responsible for getting eight new sports started for men and women as the chairman of physical education and director of athletics at Plymouth St. (1967-1972). He coached four of them - cross country skiing, track, football - and his lacrosse teams went undefeated for three years (1968-70) in the Colonial Division. He was selected again to be an assistant coach in the North-South game in 1971. "One of the sports I started was football," Hartman said. "A few years later Joe Dudec was nominated for the Heisman Award, I believe the first Division 3 player to be so honored."
Hartman went to Florida International University in 1972 where he started the athletic program with five men's and five women's sports. He awarded Pat Bradley, professional golfer, one of the first women's athletic scholarships in the country. "She was a golfer and we didn't have a women's golf team, but she was so good we thought she deserved one and she represented the university in the NCAAs."
Hunter came to UW-SP in 1976 and promptly hired Dick Bennett to take over a basketball program in decline. The rest, they say, is history. That, along with a number of creative fund-raising programs, helped revive a dormant athletic program and put it on the map as one of the best in the country. The UW-SP athletic program hosts one of the largest antique shows in the Midwest each year, an event Hartman started.
Hartman moved to Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., in 1983 and retired in 1994.
The pair of inductions isn't the only awards he's received. Hartman was a 1998 inductee into the Ohio Lacrosse Hall of Fame and was named the 1974 Man of the Year by the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association for his work with the Florida Lacrosse Clinic.