Six former SIUC athletes will be inducted into the SIU Hall of Fame this fall, for their outstanding contributions to Saluki Athletics.

Standout athletes from cross-country/track, swimming and diving, and softball will be honored prior to the Dawg’s home football opener Saturday vs. Murray State.

The inductees include:Vivian Sinou, Chris Bunyan, Elvis Forde, Richard Theobald, Shelly Gibbs, and Wendy Irick.

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SIUC athletic director Jim Hart said he couldn’t imagine six more deserving athletes to be inducted.

These individuals represent a number of our most successful sports, he said. In honoring them, we relive some landmark accomplishments in the history of our program.

Theobald was the first men’s diver to ever receive a scholarship at SIUC. He made the U.S. National Team four times as an undergraduate. He was also an NCAA All-American his junior and senior year in the one and three meter springboard.

He is now the head diving coach at Auburn University, and has produced 15 All-Americans and two national champions.

Theobald said he was surprised he would be inducted into the SIUC Hall of Fame.

I never thought I’d be inducted, he said. When I saw the first pictures go up in the hall of fame, I thought those people looked really old. I guess that makes me feel really old being inducted, but I’m also excited about it.

Sinou was the first and only SIUC cross-country champion in the Gateway conference. She won 13 of 19 meets during her last two seasons and set a school record, which still stands, to win the 1986 Illinois Intercollegiates.

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Sinou said running at SIUC ,and especially training in Carbondale, has been an positive point in her life.

I really enjoyed training in Carbondale with all the rolling hills and color changes in the fall, she said. That was important to me because I ran about 70 miles a week alone.

Sinou also said she never thought about being inducted into the hall of fame.

I never really thought about it while I was running there, she said. It’s quite an honor, and I’m really surprised about it. The best part about running was that I got to visit 39 states and all the campuses I ran at. Not many people can say that.

Forde was a two time Olympian, and ran for SIUC’s 84 track team. He competed for SIUC only for one year before running for his native Barbados in two Olympiads.

Forde helped the Salukis to a fourth place finish in the indoor meet for the NCAA National Championship. Outdoors, he lifted the SIUC mile relay team to an American collegiate record at the Drake Relays and a fourth place finish at the NCAA, where the Salukis placed fifth overall.

Gibbs was one of only two players to be named All-conference in both the Gateway and Missouri Valley conferences in her years on the Saluki softball squad. She held 20 school records, and played in 182 games by the time she graduated. The 1990 team she played on was the first in school history to be nationally ranked.

Irick was an 11-time NCAA All-American, eight time Gateway conference champion and a six time National Independence Champion. She also an 1986 World Championships Trials and 1987 World University Games Trials participant. She also competed in the Goodwill Games both years.

Bunyan is one of three two-time All-Americans at SIUC in cross-country. He finished third out of 6,664 runners in the 1983 Boston Marathon, and won the St. Louis Marathon the previous year.

In 83 he lifted the Salukis to a fourth consecutive MVC title in cross-country, and then placed 20th at the National Championship meet. Bunyan became the school’s second ever MVC cross-country champion in 84, ran the two fastest times in school history, and then finished 21st at the NCAA meet.