2017 USC Hall of Fame Induction

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Tommy Howell, Staff Writer

For the 17th time in Upper St. Clair history, Upper St. Clair held the Halls of Fame Induction on October 20th of 2017. These individuals are people who have distinguished themselves in one of three areas: academics, the arts, or athletics. Eleven individuals were To into this year’s halls of fame. Nine individuals were former alumni and two former staff members they were also recognized at the Homecoming Football game. This event was designed to recognize the great things that some of our very own alumni have accomplished.

Starting in the year 2000 Upper St. Clair began to recognize these individuals by creating an Upper St. Clair Halls of Fame. In similarity, organizations like the NFL or MLB have a Hall of Fame to recognize some of the best players that have played in the NFL or MLB. In this situation, it is some of the best students that were distinguished in athletics, the arts, or academics.

Danny Holzer, the student activities director, and head high school basketball coach at Upper St. Clair, as well as one of the people on the athletic committee, was able to break down the qualifications all the individuals had to have to be inducted into the Upper St. Clair Halls of Fame.

“People will nominate them, then the lists of people that were nominated come to the committee and from there, the committee will evaluate them and then they will vote on who they think deserves the nomination. Every year it is different, some years we have inducted 8 or 9 and sometimes it has only been 2 or 3 people. It is a pretty hard process, but over the years there has been an incredible amount of success stories at Upper St. Clair.”

Lastly, this event was mostly focused on the individual’s impacts and accomplishments at Upper St. Clair. Also, at the ceremony, many people were recognized for the great work at Upper St. Clair whether it was academics, arts, or athletics. One of the inductees, Mack McGuire, a former USC student-athlete. He was a four-time NCAA qualifier at Kent State for wrestling. He finished his career with 109 victories which is the 13th most wins in Kent State history. McGuire talked to us about what he thought about the Halls of Fame Induction.

“It’s an awesome experience, it is definitely for all your hard work to be put into a materialistic thing. I can hang this up or put it in my room somewhere and look at it every day, and appreciate what I’ve been given in life.”

McGuire also talked about his experiences at Upper St. Clair and what the District has done and how he benefitted from there.

“I had a good time at Upper St. Clair, there was a lot of good events going on while I was there. It’s an awesome school that had a lot of great things that were offered to me to help me get to where I am today. They were good times.”

The 2017 Upper St Clair Halls of Fame was a great experience for many of the people that went or were inducted into the USC Halls of Fame. All of the people that were inducted into the USC Halls of Fame are not just great students that performed well in academics, arts, or athletics but they set examples of what the students at Upper St. Clair now should strive to be like in the near future.