Victor Oladipo, Max Skirvin Among New Indiana Athletics Hall Of Famers
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – One of Indiana’s best men’s basketball players of the 21st Century and one of its most famous broadcasters are among the six-person Indiana Athletics Hall of Fame class announced on Friday.
Victor Oladipo, a key member of Tom Crean’s most successful men’s basketball teams in the early 2010s, became the first player to make the Athletics Hall of Fame from that era of Hoosiers basketball.
Max Skirvin, long-time play-by-play and color commentator on Indiana men’s basketball and football broadcasts, was also named to the Hall of Fame.
Other inductees include field hockey standout Kayla Bashore (2002-05), men’s swimming butterfly world-record holder Kevin Berry (1964-66), men’s soccer All-American Danny O’Rourke (2001-04) and women’s tennis star Jody Yin (1991-94).
All six will be officially inducted at the annual Hall of Fame dinner on Sept. 20. They will be recognized at halftime of the Indiana-Charlotte football game at Memorial Stadium the following day.
A look at the inductees:
1. Kayla Bashore
The most accomplished and decorated player in Indiana field hockey history, Bashore was the 2005 Big Ten Player of the Year, a three-time First-Team All-Big Ten honoree, and a two-time All-American (First Team in 2005, Second Team in 2003). During her senior season, she helped lead the program to a school-record 17 wins, a runner-up finish in the Big Ten, and to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
After graduation, Bashore spent eight years with Team USA and was a member of both the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams. Bashore returned to IU in 2019 as the program’s head coach and has led IU Field Hockey for the past five seasons.
2. Kevin Berry
During his three years at Indiana, Berry swam for legendary Coach James ‘Doc’ Counsilman and was a three-time All-American, highlighted by a runner-up finish in the 200 butterfly in 1966.
A native of Australia, Berry first qualified for the Olympics in 1960 as a 14-year-old and placed sixth in the 200 butterfly. He returned to the Olympics four years later and captured a gold medal in the same event as well as a bronze in the medley relay for Australia. His gold-medal winning 200 butterfly time of 2:06.6 established a new world record that stood for three years. That was one of 12 world records that Berry set in the various butterfly events between 1961-68.
He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1980.
3. Danny O'Rourke
O’Rourke won the 2004 MAC Hermann Trophy Award as the national player of the year after leading the Hoosiers to a second straight NCAA title.
O’Rourke served as the captain of Indiana’s 2003 and 2004 NCAA Championship teams and anchored an IU defense that recorded 22 shutouts during those championship seasons. During his Indiana career, he was a two-time First-Team All-American, a three-time First-Team All-Big Ten honoree, and was named the 2004 NSCAA Scholar Athlete of the Year.
The Hoosiers went 69-15-9 during his career, won six Big Ten team championships (four regular season, two postseason), and advanced to three College Cups to go along with the two national titles.
Following his college career, O’Rourke was the fourth overall pick in the 2005 Major League Super Draft and started 186 of 200 matches during an 11-year professional career. He returned to IU in 2018 and served as an assistant coach on the Men’s Soccer staff from 2018-21.
4. Victor Oladipo
Oladipo became Indiana men basketball’s first National Player of the Year in 20 years when he earned the honor from the Sporting News following a remarkable junior season in 2012-13.
Oladipo averaged 13.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 2.2 steals during that season while leading IU to its first Big Ten championship in 11 seasons and its first No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed in two decades.
Oladipo was also named co-National Defensive Player of the Year and was a consensus First-Team All-American.
After the 2013 season, Oladipo departed for the NBA, where he was the second overall pick by the Orlando Magic in the 2013 NBA Draft. He’s spent the last 11 years in the NBA with five different franchises, averaging 16.9 points/game during his career.
5. Max Skirvin
Best known to IU fans for the 28 years he spent alongside Don Fischer on the IU Radio Network from 1973-2000, Skirvin’s legacy at Indiana didn’t start with his famous pairing with Fischer.
He first served as the play-by-play voice of IU men’s basketball and football as an Indiana senior in 1950-51 on WTTS radio. He later returned to the radio booth and spent six years as the play-by-play voice of IU football and basketball from 1967-73. During those years in the 1950s and 1960s, he was instrumental in helping build the IU Radio Network through his role as the IU Alumni Association’s Alumni Club Director.
Skirvin spent 19 years at the IUAA and another 17 at the IU Foundation before retiring in 1994.
6. Jody Yin
Yin was a driving and dominant force during one of the most dominant eras for any IU men’s or women’s program in history. She was a four-time First-Team All-Big Ten honoree from 1991-94 for the IU Women’s Tennis team, helping lead Coach Lin Loring’s program to four consecutive Big Ten Championships and berths in the 20-team NCAA Tournament field each season.
Yin’s teams went a combined 77-21 during her four seasons, including a remarkable 48-3 against Big Ten foes. The Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 1991, Yin concluded her career in 1994 by earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors and advancing to the semifinals of the National All-America Championships in singles. She posted a 142-42 singles record during her four-year career and ranks second in program history in both singles victories and singles win percentage (77.1%).