Latest class of UMaine Sports Hall of Fame announced
Champeon honored as part of 1959-60 men’s basketball team
By Larry Mahoney, Bangor Daily News Staff
Cal Ingraham, who set the school record for goals and power play goals in a single season in helping lead the University of Maine’s hockey team to its first NCAA championship in the 1992-93 season, headlines the list of six individuals and three teams that will be inducted into UMaine’s Sports Hall of Fame.
He will be joined by the late Stacey Porrini (Clingan), a three-time all-conference basketball player. The class also includes softball career hits leader and four-time all-conference softball player Alexis Soulharis, all-league guard and former NBA head coach Jim Boylen, two-time field hockey All-American Annabelle Hamilton, and All-American football wide receiver Rameek Wright.
The teams that will be inducted include the school’s only two undefeated football teams (1951 and ’61) and the 1959-60 men’s basketball team which includes Wayne Champeon. Champion joined the Black Bears after a standout career for Greenville High School and he is a long-time Dover-Foxcroft resident.
The Class of 2023 was selected by the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame Committee and approved by Athletic Director Jude Killy.
The induction ceremony and dinner will be held on Sept. 29, at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer.
The 5-foot-5, 161-pound Ingraham scored 46 goals, including 22 power play goals, during the 1992-93 season. He was on a line with Hobey Baker Award winner Paul Kariya and Hobey Baker Award finalist Jim Montgomery, who is now the coach of the Boston Bruins.
The tenacious Ingraham, a native of Georgetown, Massachusetts, spent one season at the United States Air Force Academy before transferring to UMaine.
Between the two schools, he notched 90 goals and 97 assists for 187 points in 131 games. The 187 points is sixth-most in program history and his 90 goals are fifth-most.
Ingraham had a seven-year pro career for Tallahassee in the East Coast Hockey League and and Idaho in the West Coast Hockey League and had 281 goals and 356 assists for 637 points in 483 games between them. He was the first player in Idaho history to have his number retired.
Porrini, who died of breast cancer in 2018, was a key component in UMaine’s four consecutive conference championships from 1993-97 and four-year record of 91-26.
She scored 1,128 career points, and her 929 rebounds is fifth-most in school history. Her 185 career blocked shots is second most.
The Bristol, Connecticut, Hall of Famer owns the school record for most blocked shots in a season (79) and in a game (7), and also has the school mark for most rebounds ever grabbed in an NCAA Tournament game (13).
Hamilton is one of only two Black Bear field hockey players to earn All-American honors twice.
She was a four-time All-America East selection and was a former America East Offensive Player of the Year after being the league’s Rookie of the Year earlier in her career.
Hamilton ranked in the top 10 in school history in career goals (35) and assists (25) along with points (95) at the time of her graduation in 2014. She scored 12 game-winning goals.
She participated in the Victory Sports Tours/National Field Hockey Coaches Association’s Division I Senior Game.
Soulharis, an outfielder-second baseman who also pitched, played at UMaine from 2005 to 2009. At the time of her graduation, she held the school records for hits in a season (83), hits in a career (249), stolen bases in a season (30) and stolen bases in a career (94).
Soulharis was a co-America East Softball Player of the Year in 2009 when she led the league in batting average (.397) and hits (73) and also had 12 homers, 32 runs-batted in, 25 stolen bases and 48 runs.
She concluded her career with a .366 average, 31 doubles, 28 homers, six triples, 87 RBI, and a .588 slugging percentage.
Boylen was an all-league first team pick in his senior year (1986-87) when he averaged 21.1 points per game. He scored 1,244 points during his collegiate career and dished out 100 or more assists in three of his four seasons.
Following his time at UMaine, Boylen got into coaching as an assistant coach at Michigan State before putting together a long career in the NBA that included a head coaching stint with the Chicago Bulls for two seasons (2018-20).
He had served as an assistant with Houston, Golden State, Milwaukee, Utah, Indiana, San Antonio and Chicago.
Wright played from 1994-98 and ranks second in receiving yards with 2,384 and third in receptions with 175.
He was an Associated Press All-American in 1996 when he caught 79 passes for 1,143 yards. He caught 88 more passes in 1997 for 1,169 yards.
The 88 receptions in a season is a school record and the 79 is second-most.
He is a two-time all-conference pick.
The 1959-60 men’s basketball team posted the best single-season winning percentage in school history at .826 as the Black Bears went 19-4. The team finished second to UConn in the Yankee Conference and won the state series by going 9-0 against in-state schools.
The team has four individual UMaine Sports Hall of Famers in Champeon, Skip Chappelle, Larry Schiner and Don Sturgeon, all of whom averaged double-digit points per game.
Chappelle was the team’s leading scorer with 20.7 points per game while Schiner (10.0) and Sturgeon (9.7) were the top rebounders.
The 1951 football team won the Yankee Conference title and the state series with a 6-0-1 record. It was the first unbeaten season since the program began in 1892.
It posted four shutouts and the .929 winning percentage is second-best in school history.
Four individual UMaine Sports Hall of Famers were on that team: Ed Bogdanovich, Jack Butterfield, Jim Butterfield and Woody Carville.
The 1961 football team has the school’s best winning percentage at .944 and it was the last UMaine team to go undefeated with its 8-0-1 record.
It won the Yankee Conference and state series championships and was led by individual UMaine Sports Hall of Famers Dave Cloutier and Manch Wheeler.
Wheeler became the first quarterback in school history to play professionally.