Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame Adds Six New Members in Class of 2012
Former Multi-Sport Stars Dick Roush, Kevin Eiben Join Baseball Player Tyler Prout, Coach Craig Reynolds and Tracksters Stephanie Bango, Yetunde Daniels
Hall of Fame Coach Craig Reynolds
July 3, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. -One legendary coach and five outstanding former student-athletes representing a wide variety of sports will be inducted into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame on Homecoming Weekend this fall. The 34th Hall of Fame Class includes former men's soccer, track and field and tennis coach Craig Reynolds; two-sport stars Dick Roush '51 (baseball, soccer) and Kevin Eiben '01 (baseball, football); women's track and field record-setters Yetunde Daniels Rubinstein '00 and Stephanie Bango '02; and baseball slugger Tyler Prout '00.
The new class will be inducted at a dinner ceremony on Friday, Oct. 26 as part of Homecoming Weekend festivities. The new Hall of Famers will also be re-introduced at halftime of the Bucknell-Colgate football game on Saturday, Oct. 27.
The Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame was established in 1979 to honor the very best in the history of Bison athletics. This year's induction brings to 229 the number of outstanding student-athletes, coaches, administrators and friends of Bucknell whose contributions to Bucknell athletics are forever preserved in the Hall of Fame.
CRAIG REYNOLDS arrived in Lewisburg in 1967 and would go on to spend 38 years as a coach and administrator at Bucknell. He coached the men's soccer, tennis and track and field teams, and he served as an assistant director of athletics for facilities and event management upon his retirement in 2005. Reynolds is one of only three coaches in Bucknell history to post 100 or more victories in two different sports (238 in soccer and 168 in tennis).
Reynolds is best-known for his 32-year stint as head men's soccer coach, where his 238-212-36 career record makes him the winningest coach in program history. His best stretch came from 1974-76, when his teams posted three straight 10-win seasons and went to the NCAA Tournament each year. In 1974, the Bison went 12-1-2, captured the East Coast Conference title, earned a national ranking and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Reynolds was named Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year in 1976, and he also led the Bison to a Middle Atlantic Conference title and a 10-1-2 record in 1969. He mentored six Hall of Fame soccer players during his career.
Reynolds also coached track and field from 1968-70, helping the Bison shatter eight program records. But when veteran tennis coach Hank Peters passed away in 1970, Reynolds vacated his track and field post - his replacement was future Hall-of-Famer Art Gulden -- and began a very successful 22-year tenure on the tennis courts. Reynolds compiled a career record of 168-116-1 in tennis and led the Bison to the 1991 Patriot League championship.
Reynolds retired as soccer coach in 1998 and transitioned into an administrative role. As assistant AD for facilities and events management, he helped facilitate the athletic department's transition into the new Kenneth Langone Athletics and Recreation Center, which opened in 2002.
DICK ROUSH '51 earned three varsity letters each in baseball and soccer, and he was considered one of Bucknell's best multi-sport athletes in his era. Roush was a pitcher on the baseball team and compiled an 11-5 career record. In 1950 he was 5-1 with a 2.49 earned run average, and he helped lead the Bison to conference titles in 1950 and 1951. He also played some right field at Bucknell and later played semipro ball in Nova Scotia.
Roush was a fullback in soccer and captained the team his senior year. In 1948 he helped lead the squad to a Middle Atlantic Conference title, and a year later Bucknell lost in double overtime in the conference final.
One of the top women sprinters in Bucknell history, YETUNDE DANIELS RUBINSTEIN '00 graduated from Bucknell with six school track and field records and 16 Patriot League gold medals. A member of the Patriot League All-Decade Team, Daniels was named the Athlete of the Meet at the 1997 Patriot League Indoor Championships. Outdoors, she won Patriot League championships in the 200-meter dash all four years, and she won the 400-meter dash twice. Indoors, she won three titles each in the 200 and 400 and captured three more championships in the 4x400-meter relay.
The co-winner of the 2000 Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class, Daniels still holds the Bucknell records in the indoor 200, 400 and 4x400 relay as well as the outdoor 200, 400 and sprint medley relay. As a senior, Daniels broke fellow Hall-of-Famer Tameka Hinton's school record in the indoor 200 by one-hundredth of a second, and to this day, those are the only two athletes in program history to break the 25-second barrier in that event. She also has the third-fastest time in school history in the indoor 55-meter dash and outdoor 100-meter dash.
TYLER PROUT '00 was a three-time All-Patriot League infielder for the Bison baseball team. He earned all-conference honors as a second baseman in 1999 and 2000, and as a third baseman in 1997. He was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America Team in 1997, his first year in a terrific career in which he compiled a .336 batting average.
Prout hit .409 as a senior to lead the team and rank 37th nationally. He graduated as the Bucknell record-holder in games played (190), games started (188), at bats (646), hits (217), extra-base hits (77), runs batted in (157), triples (20), home runs (21), total bases (355) and sacrifice flies (13). Today he still holds the marks for RBIs, triples and sac flies, and he ranks in the top five in all other categories.
KEVIN EIBEN '01 carved out a record-setting career in both baseball and football at Bucknell, and he has gone on to have a terrific professional career in the Canadian Football League. On the gridiron, Eiben was an All-America safety and one of the top punt returners in program history. As a senior he led the Patriot League and ranked seventh in the country with eight interceptions, which was a school record until Bryce Robertson picked off 13 passes this past season. Eiben tied a single-game mark with four interceptions against Duquesne.
As a punt returner, Eiben led the Patriot League and ranked 15th in the nation in return average of 12.2 yards per attempt in 2000. He broke the Bucknell punt return marks for a season (366) and career (626), and the single-season mark still stands today.
Following his senior season he was named Associated Press Second Team All-American, American Football Coaches Association All-American, First Team All-Patriot League, First Team All-ECAC and the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
On the baseball diamond, Eiben was an All-Patriot League selection in 1999 after ranking fifth in the conference in batting average at .378. He had a .313 career average over three seasons, scored over 100 runs and went 41-for-45 in stolen-base attempts.
A two-time academic all-district honoree, Eiben was selected 26th overall by the Toronto Argonauts in the 2001 CFL draft. A native of British Columbia, Eiben has been a three-time CFL All-Star, a five-time CFL East All-Star, he led the league in tackles twice and helped the Argos win the 2004 Grey Cup. He has twice been named the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian, and he is the only native Canadian ever to have three 100-tackle seasons. After 11 seasons in Toronto, he signed as a free agent with the Hamilton TigerCats during the offseason.
Like her former teammate Daniels, STEPHANIE BANGO '02 is one of the most decorated track and field athletes in program history. She graduated with a whopping 21 Patriot League Championships gold medals, which still stands as the school record, and in eight career indoor and outdoor conference championship meets, she led her team to seven titles and one runner-up finish.
Of Bango's 21 conference championships, 15 came while running the grueling distance of 800 meters. She won four straight league titles in the indoor 800 meters and went 3-for-4 in the outdoor 800. In addition she was a part of 4x800-meter relay teams that captured every league race, indoors and outdoors, in her career.
Bango also won a championship in the indoor 400 meters, as well as three more in the indoor 4x400 relay and one each in the distance medley relay and the outdoor 4x400.
While at Bucknell, Bango broke the six-year-old indoor record in the 800 meters by more than four seconds, and that time of 2:09.08 still stands as the school mark today. Her best outdoor 800 time of 2:09.33 was also a school record, and today it stands second all-time. Bango's name still appears at the top of the Bucknell record board in five different relays, including the indoor 4x400 relay in which she and Daniels were part of the same foursome.
A six-time All-East performer, Bango was named to the Patriot League All-Decade Team and was the recipient of the Christy Mathewson Award as the top Bison athlete in her class. She was also an academic all-district honoree.
