The history of sports in Northern Kentucky goes back a long way. A very long way. Decades. Centuries.
We know you’ve seen these lists before, but this is a different and unique way of presenting our “50 sports icons in Northern Kentucky” as we’ll provide you one per day over the next 50 days.
Hall of Fames are everywhere in NKY, the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame, NKU, Thomas More and local high schools all have something to recognize their past.
We’ll preface this series by saying this, some of you may disagree with who should or shouldn’t be in the top 50 and that’s fine. Plenty are in the Hall of Very Good, but we feel these 50 are the one’s who stuck out to us.
Sports Editor Evan Dennison spoke and conferred with several local NKY sports history buffs to get their opinions and lists of their own and who should be “locks” for the 50 sports icons. We compiled each list and came up with the 50 of our own (maybe cheated a little by putting families in as one) to present over the next 50 days.
Hope you enjoy as summer time rolls on!
The 12th of the 50 sports icons is Dayton’s Stan Steidel, the man behind the All “A” Classic.
STAN STEIDEL
Stan Steidel’s promotion of small schools goes beyond Northern Kentucky and is felt across the state. He was instrumental in the creation of the All “A” Classic, a statewide basketball tournament for smaller schools that has turned into a statewide tournament for numerous sports now.
Steidel graduated from Dayton in 1959 where he excelled in basketball, baseball, and football. After playing basketball at Brewton Parker Junior College in Georgia and then Villa Madonna College (now known as Thomas More University), he spent two years in the U.S. Army and then graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in education and then a master’s degree in education from Xavier University.
After being hired at Dayton, he spent 34 years as a coach in baseball, football and basketball and 25 years as an athletic director. He then became the athletic director at Holmes.
Steidel started the All “A” Classic in 1990 where nine high school basketball teams from Northern Kentucky competed in the first tournament. Three years later schools from around the state started coming to the region to compete in the tournament, and the All “A” Classic became an annual statewide event held in central Kentucky – first being played in Lexington, then later in Richmond.
He also led the charge to bring the Kentucky Girls Basketball Sweet 16 to Northern Kentucky University’s Bank of Kentucky Center, which is now Truist Arena.
Steidel was twice selected as the Kentucky High School Athletic Director of the Year, was chosen one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Kentucky Sports by the Lexington Herald-Leader, and was inducted into the National High School Coaches Hall of Fame in 2010.
He died in 2019 at the age of 78.
See the 50 sports icons on a day-to-day basis over the next 50 days
— Day 1: Dave Cowens
— Day 2: Shaun Alexander
— Day 3: Homer Rice
— Day 4: Dicky Beal
— Day 5: Jared Lorenzen
— Day 6: Jim Bunning
— Day 7: Tom Ellis
— Day 8: Nate Dusing
— Day 9: Jim Connor
— Day 10: Steve Cauthen
— Day 11: Irv Goode
— Day 12: Stan Steidel
— Day 13: Kenney Shields
— Day 14: David Justice
— Day 15: Morgan Hentz
— Day 16: Eddie Arcaro
— Day 17: Nancy Winstel
— Day 18: Steve Flesch
— Day 19: Donna Murphy
— Day 20: Randy Marsh
— Day 21: Mike Yeagle
— Day 22: Derrick Barnes
— Day 23: Dale Mueller
— Day 24: Dave Faust
— Day 25: Kirsten Allen
— Day 26: The Oldendick family
— Day 27: Martin “Mote” Hils
— Day 28: Nell Fookes
— Day 29: Owen Hauck
— Day 30: Becky Ruehl
— Day 31: Tom Thacker
— Day 32: Sydney Moss
— Day 33: Bob Schneider
— Day 34: The Walz family
— Day 35: John Toebben
— Day 36: Pat Scott
— Day 37: Bob Arnzen
— Day 38: Joan Mazzaro
— Day 39: Frank Jacobs
— Day 40: Adrienne Hundemer
— Day 41: The Draud family
— Day 42: Bill Krumpelbeck
— Day 43: The Molony family
— Day 44: Allen Feldhaus
— Day 45: The Maile family
— Day 46: Maureen Egan Corl
— Day 47: Bill Aker
— Day 48: Maureen Kaiser
— Day 49: John Brannen
— Day 50: Mike Bankemper