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TOP 50


Northeast Indiana's Top 50 Athletes of the 20th Century


Some of the names you should recognize right away: Rod Woodson, Leslie Johnson, Colin Chin. If you have spent any time following local sports since 1990, the exploits of these hometown stars are probably as fresh in your memory as last night's highlight reel.

But there have been plenty of others, athletes such as Don Lash, Everett Scott and Herm Schaefer, whose accomplishments are just as noteworthy, but maybe not as well-known.

We have brought their stories to you in The News-Sentinel's Northeast Indiana's Top 50 Athletes of the 20th Century.

In order to be selected, an individual needed his or her athletic reputation to be tied to Fort Wayne and the surrounding area, either by growing up here or playing for one of the city's professional or collegiate teams.

Staff writer Blake Sebring spearheaded this project and, with help from columnist Reggie Hayes, spent a large portion of time researching and writing this series.

Our hope is that you get as much pleasure from reading these stories as our staff has gotten from putting it together.

No. 1: Rod Woodson
No. 2: Johnny Bright
No. 3: George Yardley
No. 4: Everett Scott
No. 5: Len Thornson
No. 6: Bobby McDermott
No. 7: Don Lash
No. 8: DeDee Nathan
No. 9: Lloy Ball
No. 10: Cathy Gerring
No. 11: Bill Kratzert
No. 12: Matt Vogel
No. 13: Sharon Wichman
No. 14: Emil Sitko
No. 15: Eugene Hargrave
No. 16: Dottie Collins
No. 17: Willie Long
No. 18: Bob Cowan
No. 19: Eddie Long
No. 20: Paul "Curly" Armstrong
No. 21: Bill Wambsganns
No. 22: MaChelle Joseph
No. 23: Steve Hargan
No. 24: Henry James
No. 25: Gene Hartley
No. 26: Bill West
No. 27: Bernie Kampschmidt
No. 28: Joanne Weaver
No. 29: Herm Schaefer
No. 30: Lionel Repka
No. 31: Vaughn Dunbar
No. 32: Walter Jordan
No. 33: Bruce Miller
No. 34: Lashanda Harper
No. 35: Nel Fettig
No. 36: Terry Pembroke
No. 37: Steve Platt
No. 38: Tom Beerman
No. 39: Cathey Tyree
No. 40: Jason Fabini
No. 41: Tiffany Gooden
No. 42: Lamar Smith
No. 43: Leslie Johnson
No. 44: Tom Bolyard
No. 45: Roosevelt Barnes
No. 46: Conan Myers
No. 47: Lee Ann Reed
No. 48: Tom Kelley
No. 49: Mike Augustyniak
No. 50: Colin Chin
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