The Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame will induct six new members at its monthly meeting on Sept. 21.
The inductees include Paul Devoto, W.J. Danner, Margaret Jones, Jason Yeager, Andrew Wesselman and Drew Harris.
Joe Brennan, president of the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, made the announcement on Wednesday. George Vogel, sports director and anchor at WLWT TV Channel 5 will be the guest speaker.
The inductions and meeting are free and open to the public and the event starts at 1 p.m.
Devoto, a 1970 graduate of Newport Catholic High School started coaching at St. Catherine’s while still in high school leading to a career that spanned 52 years. He coached almost 1,300 games, winning more than 840. A member of the Newport Catholic Hall of Fame, his number 50 is retired at St. Catherine’s.
Danner, a trainer of horses for nearly 46 years started his career in 1954. He won more than 700 races, including 16 stakes races. He’s trained horses at Keeneland, Churchill Downs, Latonia Race Course, Turfway Park, Beulah Park and Thistledown. Danner trained a horse that ran in the Arkansas Derby. He was top trainer at nine consecutive meetings at Turfway, River Downs and Beulah Park. He raced Opening Day 1959 at Latonia Race Course, which became Turfway.
Jones is a four-time golf champion of the Kentucky Amateur, and three-time winner of the Cincinnati Met. In 1962 she was the youngest champion at the age of 19. She held records at seven different courses in five different states at the end of the 1971 season. Jones also competed in multiple USGA events including the U.S. Open. In 1970 she coached boys golf at Dixie Heights High School and later moved to Stetson University to coach women in 1991. She got her start in the game of golf at the Fort Mitchell Country Club.
Yeager, a Dixie Heights High School graduate, reached a singles ranking in tennis of two in the GCTA under 12 division. By the age of 18 he was ranked number two in the Ohio Valley singles and number one in doubles. At Dixie he was regional champion in 1988, 1989 and 1990. He won the state championship in 1989 and 1990 and earned a scholarship to the University of Kentucky. As a Wildcat, he won the Ball State Invitational and was a finalist at the UK Invitational. He qualified for the NCAA indoor and outdoor doubles, MTSU Invitational and the 1992 Region III Indoor Championship. Yeager was the Cincinnati Met Singles champ in 1992 and 1999, and a finalist in 1995.
Wesselman, a graduate of St. Henry District High School, enters the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame as goalkeeper in soccer and chess master. In soccer, he was named to the All-District Team in 2003, 2004 and 2005. He was all-region and all-state in 2004 and 2005, and a member of the 2004 state championship team. A soccer award at St. Henry is named after him.
Harris, a 2007 Campbell County High School graduate, attended Northern Kentucky University on a cross country scholarship. In 2009 he was named an All-American performer and placed 16th at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish in school history. Harris was a two-time all-NCAA Midwest Region, two-time All-Great Lakes Valley Conference in cross country and four-time All-GLVC in track. He was also a three-time academic All-American. In 2009, he was named the Kentucky Collegiate Runner of the Year. He set school records in the 5K run, 8K run and in the indoor and outdoor 5K in track.
The event is hosted at The Garden of Park Hills (1622 Dixie Highway).
